· host a walk ·
A temple walks wherever hands are willing.
The Walking Temple does not need permission or infrastructure to exist in your city. It needs an evening and a small group willing to walk it.
Hostingmeans beginning a locality. A host chooses a place, a meeting point, the people they will call. They commit to the form, not to a schedule. They may or may not stay on as the locality’s anchor. Hosting asks little, and gives back more than it asks.
i. What you need to begin
Three things. None of them have to be bought.
- A murti someone in your group has a real relationship with. A small palkhi or wooden platform is enough; nothing grand. The form does not specify whose. A locality in Karnataka walks with Hanuman. A locality in Bengal walks with Gauranga. A locality in Chennai walks with Murugan. The ishta devatais the walkers’ own.
- A small group. Ten companions is plenty. Friends, family, neighbours, an existing bhajan circle or temple sangha. You do not need a big crowd. The first Bangalore walk was twelve.
- One street and one evening. A route you know well enough to hold it with care. Slow enough to walk for an hour. Safe enough at the chosen hour. Ending at a small local temple that you can ask to receive the murti at the end.
ii. What a host actually does
- Walk the route once, alone, the week before. Notice the cars at the bus-stop, the dog that lives by the bakery, the temple’s evening pujari. The route teaches you.
- You choose a date, a route, and a time. Evenings are gentler on everyone. Mornings work too.
- You make a small group. A WhatsApp group is the simplest. The walk is called in that group, and so is the one after it.
- You carry the murti, or ask a devotee to carry it. You sing the Name, in whatever tradition is yours.
- You walk quietly. You do not collect money. You do not sell anything. You do not advertise.
- Afterwards, if you wish, you write a few lines and gather a few photographs, and send them along, to be added to the Journal as a Folio. This is how the record of the walk grows.
iii. What hosting is not
- Not a franchise. There is no fee, no application, no permission to grant. You do not need our blessing. You also do not get one.
- Not a recruitment drive. The strangers who pause as the walk passes are not asked to follow, join, or give anything. They are not on a list afterwards.
- Not a performance. No microphones, no stage, no camera crews (phone footage from walkers is enough). If the walk becomes a performance, it has stopped being a walking temple.
- Not a competing brand. The Walking Temple name is held as Commons. You may use it, modify it, or call your walk something else entirely. We do not register trademarks and we will not enforce one against you.
iv. Write to us first, but only if you want to
If you are thinking of hosting a walk in your city, especially the first one in your locality, you may write to us before you plan it. We will not send you a rulebook. We will not send you a starter kit. We will simply listen, and ask a few questions, and share what we have learned so far about keeping this humble.
You are also free to begin without writing to us. The form is yours. We will hear about it from the photographs that surface later, and we will add a locality to the list when one is walking.
“You do not need our permission. You only need an evening.”