Beltangady: A 70-year-old man from Tamil Nadu went on a pilgrimage on a bicycle and on Friday he visited Sri Manjunatha Swamy at Dharamsthala, from there he went to Kanyadi Sri Rama Mandir and traveled to Chitradurga via Ujire and Charmadi.
Gopalakrishna Iyer of the Brahmin community of Thiruvanveli started his pilgrimage from Tamilnadu and after visiting temples like Kanyakumari, Palani, Rameshwar, Madurai etc., he reached Dharamsthala on Friday after visiting the temples of Male Mahadeshwara, Mysore, Srirangapatna, Madikeri, Bhagamandal, Talakaveri in Karnataka.
From here, he will reach Chitradurga via Chikkamagalur, then cycle through 11 states of the country via Bijapur, Pandarapur, Mumbai, Uttarkashi, Delhi, Agra and then undertake the Amarnath Yatra via Ladakh.
He intends to achieve his goal by undertaking a cycle journey for 14 months..
He said that he will visit temples and rivers along the way, including Karnataka, to get more information about their sanctity.
They cycle 15 to 20 km per day depending on the climate of the respective area. He said that he would arrange night shelters in school and temple halls after taking the permission of the local panchayat.
Own cooking.
If there is food in the temples, they take it and move on. If there is no meal arrangement, they cook on their own without resorting to hotels. They have built the required rice, sambar powder, stove and other arrangements on their own bicycle. He said that he has four dhoti and four sets of clothes and blankets for the night. He has resorted to coffee, tea, biscuits etc.
“15 days ago, I have voluntarily started a pilgrimage to 11 states of India on an old bicycle. I have already covered more than 220 km. I will not travel at night for any reason. The locals have been very cooperative in the towns I have visited so far.”
