Peace pilgrim

Peace pilgrim

September 2014

Peace between India and Pakistan is a much-cherished dream for both countries. Fired by this ideal, Yogesh  Mathuria, founder of the Mumbai-based  World School of Happiness, is flagging off a padayatra to Pakistan.  Mathuria is a healer and crusader out to promote his succinct credo: from wellness to oneness. Mathuria is convinced that cleansing the body and mind not only restores us to health, but also to the oneness that is the ultimate truth of our existence. Once that truth is grasped, all animosity between the two countries will melt, he affirms.

Mathuria will begin his padayatra on Oct 2nd from the Gandhi ashram in Ahmedabad. He will journey through seven Indian states and also Islamabad, Rawalpindi and Lahore in Pakistan, alone and without any money.  Everyday, he hopes to dialogue with various communities and get them to sign a memorandum which he will present to Nawaz Sharif. Similarly, on his return, he will hand over to Modi the memorandum signed by the people of Pakistan.

“A pilgrimage is a way for inner transformation,” says the 50-something dapper looking gentleman, dressed in a khadi shirt and trouser. “Ever since I started these padayatras, I have become much calmer, I can go for a full day without food, and I can drink all sorts of water.”

Mathuria recounts that on a padyatra to Ahmedabad without money, his brother-in-law warned him that there was a stretch that was prone to robberies. As Mathuria walked into the lonely stretch, a farmer joined him and asked him searching questions about his walk. Suddenly he said, peremptorily, “Stop!” Startled and remembering his brother-in-law’s warning, he stopped. The farmer bent down and touched his feet. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a hundred rupee note, all that he had with him. Telling him that he would like to support his cause, the farmer gave it to him. “Who has robbed who?“ wonders Mathuria.

Mathuria was once an IT whiz leading the good life in the US. Somewhere in the ‘90s, he and his family relocated to India. Almost immediately after, his wife was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and passed away in six months, despite his frantic search for a cure all over the world, Disillusioned with allopathy, he began to avidly study the cases of all those who healed from cancer. Today he has created his own system of healing. And so one step at a time, Mathuria the computer king became Mathuria the peacenik.