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Nineteen Buddhist monks and a dog called Aloka have kept America enthralled on the sidewalks watching the unique spectacle of a marathon parade unfold on its streets, carrying nought but the message: What the world needs now is peace: inner peace.

Their silent prayer for inner peace, whispered in every step of their 2300-mile-long walk, has kept Americans spellbound as they followed, from county to county across eight states, the pilgrims’ progress to Capitol Hill in Washington DC.

THE FINAL POST: Thousand throng the Lincoln’s Memorial Column to witness the successful end of the Monks’ Walk for Inner Peace

These Buddhist monks from Thailand, Laos, and Vietnam, faithfully accompanied by an Indian slum dog, Aloka – meaning ‘light’ in Sanskrit – had, ever since they left their home base in Fort Worth, Texas, walked under hot sunshine, seen through pouring rain, and trudged through thick snow in the bitterest winter the United States had seen in two decades.

Along the way, the peace parade had gathered momentum and gone from strength to strength, cutting across social divides and conveying, not by word or sign, the inner peace lying within that transcends inner turmoil.

As they entered the outskirts of Washington DC on Monday and began the last lap of their journey, the number of those following the silent caravan of peace had swelled, and the intensity of their faith to seek beneath the storm-tossed angry sea a soothing inner serenity, an inner calmness, an inner peace, found in the stillness lying at its depths below, had deepened to release their common human spirit from the mundane to higher profound realms.

This was the amazing phenomenon that was unfolding with grace like a ballerina’s twirl on stage, across the landscape of eight states, namely, Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina and Virginia, to head to Washington DC, its final destination, attracting en masse while it moved along counties and states all those on whom it touched a spiritual cord.

The US media reported, ‘Geraldo Garcia, 43, a Houston native who now lives in Alexandria, Virginia, was among those gathered. He said peace is always an option, no matter the circumstances. ‘Always find it,’ Garcia said. ‘You can find resilience. You can find strength in it, and that can illuminate and infect others.’

Millions watching the caravan of peace roll by felt inspired by the calming message delivered by nineteen Buddhist monks in dignified silence. This was no cacophonous protest walk with placards held high in rage at the rotten state of the world; rather, it was a tacit appeal to seek equanimous inner peace that can only be found within oneself.

This was the unspoken message that the monks intended to bring to the heart of the superpower’s capital, and at the end of their 2300-mile-long marathon walk for inner peace, it lay at Lincoln’s Memorial, even for Trump to pick it up, if he were so inclined.

After leaving Fort Worth, Texas, it had taken a gruelling 108 days for the Buddhist monks and their dog, Aloka, to finally arrive in Washington DC. Thousands packed American University’s Bender to catch a passing glimpse of the inspiring monks.

FACING CAPITOL HILL: A short step for Man, a long journey for Mankind

Certainly, their fame and popularity had increased by leaps and bounds during the three and a half months they had spent walking on asphalt-paved highways and country roads in the states throughout a 2300-mile-long journey to keep their tryst with the nation’s capital.

The monk leading the walk, Bhikkhu Paññākāra, and two others bravely chose to walk barefoot on abrasive asphalt-paved highways and roads. They stoically endured the painful harshness of jagged gravel gashing their unprotected soles and bore the rising heat emitted from sun-scorched asphalt highways. Perhaps, it was to send an inspiring silent message of the infinite power of the mind to bear the pangs of pain with equanimity.

No doubt, the nineteen Buddhist monks and Aloka’s walk for inner peace had captured the imagination of the people. Already their walk had amassed 3 million followers on Facebook. On TikTok it had gained over 1.3 million followers. But it was Aloka who had stolen the limelight and become the indisputable star of the inner-peace roadshow by his own right; and the figures prove it. Over a million people follow his pilgrim progress on his own page on Facebook.

Not bad for Aloka, the Indian stray dog from the slums of Kolkata’s infamous blackhole that voluntarily joined the Indian walk for peace some three years ago and, despite a road accident, never left the Buddhist monks’ side, as related in the SUNDAY PUNCH of the 25th last month, and has astonishingly risen to the dizzy heights of international fame.

A Washington-based Lankan monk, Venerable Santha Thera, described Aloka as a Boddhisatva in past births, reborn in animal form to live his earthly existence in this life. He said, ‘It is in the nature of a Boddhisatva to appear in some form or another to help complete a worthy spiritual mission. I see Aloka as a Boddhisatva born. When you embark on a mission you cannot plan how it will end. It can go awry by the quirks of fate.’

‘A lot of Lankans plan the end,’ he said, ‘without even taking the first few steps. The Dhamma places great emphasis on fortifying inner confidence through practice, perseverance and diligence. Now we, Lankans, cannot walk like Pannakara Thera. We have not been groomed to play that role.’

PRAYER FOR INNER PEACE: Capital crowds on Capitol Hill

As the peace entourage arrived in Washington DC on Tuesday morn this week, they were invited to spend the night at the National United Methodist Church during their time in the capital. At an interfaith discussion held at Washington National Cathedral, thousands thronged to hear Pannakara Thera speaks on the need for inner peace to survive in a world of swirling conflicts. He said, ‘This is not a protest. This is not a demonstration. This is meditation in motion, one step at a time.’

The message, delivered with taciturnity, also evoked strong emotions. One middle-aged American woman spoke through her choking tears to say, ‘Look at this society. Look at this country. You’ll see why we need peace.’

Their arrival in the capital came at a moment of deep political and racial divisions existing in the United States, with each nation, suspended in mid-air, walking the tightrope of global discord.

The monks’ message of peace – driven home to the core of the American heart – became more than a symbolic sign. It became the crucible moment to test the trials of adversity and to reflect on how the strength or weakness extant in one character responds to the challenge.

When dawn broke on Wednesday, with the Lincoln Memorial just a hoot away from where they stood, the final lap of the Walk for Peace that had begun 2300 miles and 8 states away in Fort Worth, Texas, where the first step had been taken, started in earnest.

If they felt any fatigue in mind or in body, they felt no exhaustion, nor showed that they did. If they felt any pain in their soles after walking barefoot or in socks, they did not feel any, nor show, by any gesture or grimace, that they did. They maintained the same steady pace, the same strident walk and they did not slacken or slow their pace.

They stayed steadfast to the fourth Sublime Truth in Buddhism: Equanimity, to remain imperturbed to transient joy or pain.

The final lap, a 6-mile walk – a trifle to monks who had walked thirty miles on asphalt highways per day every day for 108 days non-stop – from where they were staying to the Lincoln Memorial proceeded, flanked by thousands of Washington dwellers who, leaving the warmth of their homes, braved the cold to embrace in the flesh what they had already experienced in spirit by watching the walk live on TV.

ONE MONK AND HIS DOG: A monk walking with Aloka, the dog who stole the limelight of the peace road show

At the Lincoln Memorial, where the ‘Walk for Peace’ finally came to an end, a quiet, sombre atmosphere hung in the air, leaving many spectators in tears. Thousands had followed the pilgrims’ progress – in flesh or in spirit or both – as fellow pilgrims on the harsh, abrasive gravelled path of life.

As one monk of the silent peace brigade said during the simple ceremony held to thank America for being host: ‘Peace is nothing new. It has always been there within us. It is just that we have forgotten it being there.’