Every morning at sunrise, while most 61-year-old sip tea at home, Dhananjay Trimbak Naik from Pune sets out on foot for his 25-km walk, with Trishul in hand and a wheeled trolley bag behind him, carrying a poster that reads 12 Jyotirlings evam 4 Dham Padyatra. After retiring as General Manager from Tata Motors, after 32 years, Naik is on a 4,000-km foot pilgrimage, the aim covering 12 Jyotirlings and 4 Dhams on foot. His daily budget is of Rs 250 and mission is to bring youth in 18 to 25 age bracket back to their roots, instill Sanskars in them. They have energy and grasping power, but ostensibly lack culture. They won’t come to me, I need to reach upto them,” he asserts. The Hitavada caught-up with him on his way to Gruhneshwar in Sambhaji Nagar. Early Life: Naik’s early life was full of struggle. His father died when he was in his mother’s womb.

 

“I never saw his face,” he says. Mother Geeta Devi worked as a maid and sold vegetables. He was raised by uncle Udaykant Bharat Singh Naik. Naik said he turned to spirituality due to Guru Pratibha Chitale, and friends Sudhir Chitale plus Sridhar Gaikwad, owner of Rs 150-crore Sridhar Fabrication and Chairman of Pune People’s Co-operative Bank. Since 2013-14, Naik said, he has completed 5 Narmada Parikramas and in 2015 started ‘Narmada Premi Pune’ with 3 Seva Kendras in 8 villages - Rampura, Brahmanghat, Satadhara, Kathora, Denyot, Tedrisangam, Chandan Ghat. serving free food and daily essentials with 500 volunteers. A complete parikrama: Naik started from Girnar Parvat, Junagadh, Gujarat, where Guru Dattatreya meditated about 12,000 years back,” he says. After serving 14 days there from 28th January, he reached Somnath on February 21.

 

“Somnath is my first Jyotirlinga. On February 22, I took Sankalp there to start the yatra. “Since then he covered Dwarka on March 7, Nageshwar on March 13, Kedarnath and Panch Kedar on May 21, Badrinath Dham on June 8, Kashi Vishwanath on July 24, Baba Baidyanath on August 21 and Jagannath Puri Dham from September 22 to 26 at Govardhan Math during the year. His last destination will be Mahakaleshwar, Ujjain. “After Mahakaleshwar, then Naik said he intended to go back to Somnath Jyotirlinga again to complete the parikrama, like Narmada Parikrama. Remaining are Grishneshwar, Mallikarjun, Rameswaram, Bhimashankar, Trimbakeshwar, Omkareshwar, and Mahakaleshwar.