Varkari pilgrimage to Pandharpur

1. Introduction

Version followed: the Ashadhi Wari (आषाढी वारी), the annual walking pilgrimage of the Varkari (वारकरी) tradition of Maharashtra to the Vitthal–Rukmini temple at Pandharpur, as described by Sahapedia (Khetarpal), K.R.K. Murthy (Bhavan's Journal, 2021) and Marathi public-broadcaster reports of the 2025 palkhis; the psychotherapist's work alongside it follows the DSM-5 Cultural Formulation Interview (CFI) and its supplementary modules, the IOCDF faith-and-OCD guidance and the APA Ethics Code.

What it is. The Varkari panth takes its name from the vari (वारी, pilgrimage): a Varkari is one who goes on the vari. Its patron deity is Vitthal (Vithoba), held by the tradition to be a form of Vishnu–Krishna, who in the tradition's account stands on a brick (vit) at the request of his devotee Pundalik. Its core text is Dnyaneshwar's 13th-century Marathi commentary on the Bhagavad Gita, the Dnyaneshwari; Tukaram's (17th-century) abhangas (devotional poems) and the songs of sant-kavis including Namdev, Chokhamela, Janabai and Muktabai are sung on the road. [source: Sahapedia, Khetarpal; Murthy 2021]

The main event is Ashadhi Ekadashi, the eleventh day of the bright fortnight of the month of Ashadh (June–July). Processions (palkhi, पालखी) carry the paduka (sacred footprints or sandals) of a sant-kavi from his samadhi (memorial shrine), most prominently Dnyaneshwar's from Alandi and Tukaram's from Dehu, to Pandharpur on the Chandrabhaga river. Pilgrims walk in dindis (दिंडी), groups of roughly ten to several hundred people who eat, sing and camp together. Smaller varis occur through the year, including at Kartiki (Kartik) Ekadashi. [source: Sahapedia; Murthy 2021; AIR Marathi 18 and 27 June 2025]

How change happens, in the tradition's terms. The tradition frames the vari as bhakti (devotion) expressed in shared singing (bhajan, kirtan), walking together and meeting the deity at Pandharpur; Sahapedia notes the emphasis on inner experience of devotion over ritual, and pilgrims address one another as Mauli (माऊली, "mother", a title of Dnyaneshwar), which the tradition links to equality and community. These are the tradition's own understandings and are reported as such. [source: Sahapedia]

What this guide covers. The pilgrimage is an observance, not a therapy. The therapist does not lead, prescribe or adapt it. The guide covers the therapist's own work alongside it: understanding what it means in the client's life, cultural assessment, scheduling, routing physical-health questions to the doctor, scrupulosity and moral distress, grief and community, and working with dindi leaders, kirtankars or temple figures when the client wishes. [synthesis]

2. Framework

Who leads and authorises the observance. The Varkari panth has no centralised institutional authority, and there is no restriction on who can become a Varkari. [source: Sahapedia] Each palkhi carries a saint's paduka from his shrine; the processions are organised around those shrines, and the largest and oldest palkhis are Dnyaneshwar's and Tukaram's. [source: Sahapedia] The departure (prasthan, प्रस्थान) is marked by paduka pujan (worship of the sandals); in 2025 about 500 dindis joined Tukaram's palkhi at Dehu, and other palkhis (Nivruttinath from Trimbakeshwar, Namdev from Narsi in Hingoli district) converge on Pandharpur. [source: AIR Marathi 18 June 2025] The specific shrine trusts (sansthans) that manage each palkhi, and the body that manages the Pandharpur temple, are [uncertain: not verified]. In practice, the client's dindi leader, the kirtankar (preacher-singer) or family elders are the people whose word on the observance carries weight for that client. [synthesis]

Shape of the observance (as sources report it).

• Daily discipline that many Varkaris keep all year: wearing the tulsi mala (basil-bead necklace), daily chanting of Hari's name and bhajan, avoiding alcohol and tobacco, a sattvic diet that avoids onion and garlic, and fasting on Ekadashi days, which fall twice a month. [source: Murthy 2021] Who confers the mala, and with what words, is [uncertain: not verified].
• The walk: processions can take up to about 50 days; most pilgrims walk for several weeks. [source: Sahapedia] One 2024 medical-college programme followed the route from Trimbakeshwar to Pandharpur, about 350 km over 28 days. [source: Dr Vasantrao Pawar Medical College report 2024] A 2026 report notes pilgrims reaching Wakhri after more than 20 days of walking. [source: Free Press Journal, 5 July 2026]
• Rites on the road: ringan (रिंगण, a ceremony in which horses, or people, run in a circle on an open ground), bathing of the paduka in rivers (for example the Nira), group singing, women's phugdi (folk game) and chants of "Mauli". [source: AIR Marathi 27 June 2025]
• Arrival: pilgrims bathe in the Chandrabhaga before visiting the shrine, and the Mahapuja is performed on Ashadhi Ekadashi. [source: Murthy 2021]

Phases of the therapist's work. Sources give no session counts or durations for this work; the phases below are a working structure. [synthesis]

3. Guiding principles

• The tradition defines the observance; the client defines its meaning. Ask, do not assume: two Varkaris may hold the vari very differently. [synthesis; CFI guidance to use the person's own words for the tradition, source: CFI Supplementary Modules]
• Attribute, neither endorse nor dismiss. Say "in your tradition, Vitthal…" rather than stating or denying religious claims. [synthesis]
• Competence includes religion. Where understanding a client's religion is essential to effective work, get training, consultation or supervision, or refer. In practice: read about the Varkari tradition before relying on the client to teach you everything. [source: APA Ethics Code, Standard 2.01(b)]
• No bias by religion, caste or class. Principle E names religion among differences psychologists respect. In practice: notice reactions to rural, devotional or low-literacy clients and to caste dynamics. [source: APA Ethics Code, Principle E and Standard 3.01]
• You are not the client's guru, kirtankar or dindi leader. Avoid roles that would impair objectivity; do not join the client's dindi or give religious rulings. [source: APA Ethics Code, Standard 3.05; synthesis]
• Health questions go to the doctor. Exertion, monsoon weather, Ekadashi fasting with chronic illness, and medicines are for the client's physician; your job is to prompt and coordinate. [synthesis]
• No observance is presented as treatment for physical disease. Any healing account is the tradition's own; no source cited here gives evidence of health benefit from the pilgrimage itself. [synthesis]
• Informed consent in plain, understandable language, including for any contact with clergy, kirtankars or family. [source: APA Ethics Code, Standard 3.10]
• Share only what consultation requires. When you consult a religious figure, protect identity unless the client has consented. [source: APA Ethics Code, Standard 4.06]
• Separate faith from OCD, not faith from the client. Scrupulosity treatment never asks a client to oppose their faith. [source: IOCDF, Living with OCD & Religious Traditions]
• Spiritual and religious competencies are part of basic practice. Vieten et al. (2013) propose 16 basic attitude, knowledge and skill competencies for all licensed psychologists. [source: IONS page on Vieten et al. 2013; individual competencies [uncertain: not verified]]
• Community is a resource and can also be a pressure. The dindi can carry a client; it can also make it hard to stop or to disclose illness. [synthesis]

4. Intervention inventory

All items below are the therapist's own work alongside the observance. None of them instructs the client in the pilgrimage itself. Unless a source is tagged, steps are [synthesis].

4.1 Exploring what the vari means in the client's life

• Purpose / when: early in therapy with any client who mentions the vari, Vitthal, the tulsi mala or Ekadashi; again before each Ashadhi season. It tells you whether the observance is a resource, a strain, or both, and how it links to the presenting problem.
• Steps:
  1. Ask how the client came to the vari: family tradition, a vow, a turning point, a dindi from the village.
  2. Ask what it gives them (belonging, singing, closeness to Vitthal, being called Mauli by strangers, a break from farm or city pressures) and what it costs (time off work, money, physical strain, family duties). [the Mauli form of address: source: Sahapedia]
  3. Ask which saint, palkhi and dindi they walk with, and who leads the dindi.
  4. Ask what keeping (or breaking) Varkari discipline means to them: the mala, abstaining from alcohol and tobacco, the diet, Ekadashi fasting. [practices: source: Murthy 2021]
  5. Reflect back in their words and note links to the problem (for example: the vari as the one time of year mood lifts; or as a source of guilt when they cannot go).
• Example language (illustrative): "When you say you have walked with Dnyaneshwar Mauli's palkhi for twelve years, what does that walk give you that nothing else does?" / "What would it mean for you, and for your family, if you could not go this year?"
• Watch for: answers framed only in duty or fear (possible scrupulosity or family coercion); idealising the vari as the only thing that keeps them well (plan for the return); shame about caste or rural background. Working when: the client explains the observance in their own idiom without checking whether you approve, and you can name its role in the formulation.

4.2 Cultural Formulation Interview with the spirituality, religion and moral traditions module

• Purpose / when: structured cultural assessment at intake, or when the vari, Varkari discipline or caste/community issues seem tied to the problem. [source: CFI Supplementary Modules]
• Steps:
  1. Use the CFI core interview for the cultural definition of the problem, its causes, supports and help-seeking.
  2. Add Module 5 (Spirituality, Religion and Moral Traditions). It covers four areas: the client's spiritual identity and community affiliations; the role of the tradition in daily, family, home and outside-home life, including how often and how important practices are; how the tradition relates to the problem (coping, talking to community leaders, texts or media, practices); and stresses and conflicts, including whether the tradition contributed to the problem, distress about identity or practice, discrimination and conflict with others. [source: CFI Supplementary Modules]
  3. Insert the client's own term (for example "the Varkari way", "Vitthal's bhakti", "the vari") in place of the generic placeholder, as the module directs. [source: CFI Supplementary Modules]
  4. Add Module 10 (Older Adults) for older pilgrims, Module 3 (Social Network) to map the dindi and village ties, and Module 11 (Immigrants and Refugees) for diaspora clients for whom the vari is a link to home. [module list: source: CFI Supplementary Modules; selection: synthesis]
  5. Use an interpreter fluent in Marathi when language is a barrier; the modules stress accurate translation. [source: CFI Supplementary Modules]
  6. Write a short cultural formulation and share it with the client to check accuracy.
• Note: the APA permits clinicians to reproduce the CFI for use with their patients; do not copy the items into handouts for other uses, and do not use the CFI alone for diagnosis. [source: CFI Supplementary Modules]
• Example language (illustrative): "Some people find their tradition helps with problems like this one, and some find it adds pressure. How has it been for you as a Varkari?"
• Watch for: the client hearing questions about caste or discrimination as an accusation against the tradition; brief, guarded answers when a family member is present. Working when: the formulation includes both supports and stresses from the tradition in the client's own words.

4.3 Scheduling and treatment accommodation

• Purpose / when: whenever the client plans to walk; also for Ekadashi days, Kartiki vari and festival days through the year. The walk lasts weeks (up to about 50 days for some processions). [source: Sahapedia]
• Steps:
  1. In spring, ask whether the client plans to walk, from where, and for how long; mark departure and return dates.
  2. Agree how therapy pauses: a planned break, or brief phone check-ins at times the client chooses (for example at a halt, mukkam). Respect a client who wants no contact during the walk.
  3. Hold the client's slot or agree a return date; avoid discharging them for non-attendance.
  4. Schedule exposure tasks, intensive work or medication reviews (by the prescriber) away from departure and the first week back.
  5. Adjust homework so it fits the road: nothing that needs privacy, writing or a phone signal unless the client says it works.
  6. Ask whether they prefer not to be booked on Ekadashi or other observance days.
• Example language (illustrative): "Let's put the vari dates in the calendar now, so we can plan around them rather than lose momentum." / "Would you like any contact while you walk, or would you rather keep that time free?"
• Watch for: the therapist treating the absence as avoidance; the client hiding a plan to go because they expect disapproval. Working when: breaks are planned, not missed, and the client returns on the agreed date.

4.4 Health issues: exertion, weather, fasting and chronic illness, routed to the doctor

• Purpose / when: before departure for any client who is older, has a chronic condition, takes regular medicines, is pregnant, or has an eating disorder; and for clients who fast on Ekadashi.
• What sources report: medical teams on the route report respiratory infections, exhaustion, food-borne illness and injuries, with monsoon weather and terrain as added risks; many pilgrims are over 50 and some are in their eighties. [source: Free Press Journal, 5 July 2026] The Maharashtra Health Department runs 24/7 health posts along the route, mobile units, ambulances, intensive-care beds for serious cases, gynaecological services and rooms for women at major halts. [source: Free Press Journal, 19 June 2025] Volunteer "Doctor Dindi" teams and medical colleges run camps along the route. [source: Free Press Journal 2026; Dr Vasantrao Pawar Medical College report 2024]
• Steps:
  1. Ask whether the client has spoken with their doctor about the walk and about Ekadashi fasting. If not, encourage a check-up before departure.
  2. With consent, write to or call the doctor: state the plan (multi-week walk, monsoon season, communal food, fasting days) and ask the doctor to advise on fitness, medicines and fasting. Do not advise on medicines yourself.
  3. Help the client plan how to carry medicines, prescriptions and a written list of conditions in Marathi, and to find the health posts on the route. [health posts: source: Free Press Journal 2025]
  4. Agree warning signs that mean stopping or seeking care, as the doctor states them.
  5. For clients with eating disorders, treat Ekadashi fasting as a topic for the treating team and, if the client wishes, for a respected Varkari figure who can speak to what the tradition expects of someone who is unwell; exemptions in this tradition are [uncertain: not verified].
• Example language (illustrative): "I'm not the right person to say whether the walk or the fasting is safe with your diabetes. Can we ask your doctor before you go?"
• Watch for: the client minimising symptoms for fear of being told not to go; pride or vow pressure overriding pain; carers of elderly parents carrying hidden strain. Working when: the doctor has been consulted, the client knows where help is on the route, and stopping early is framed as allowed.

4.5 Mental-health safety planning for the walk

• Purpose / when: for clients with bipolar disorder, psychosis, recurrent depression, panic, PTSD, substance-use history or suicide risk, because the walk involves sleep disruption, crowds, heat or rain, and separation from usual care. [synthesis]
• Steps:
  1. Review early warning signs with the client (for example reduced sleep with rising energy, intense certainty or voices, panic in crowds).
  2. Identify one trusted person in the dindi who knows the plan, with the client's consent.
  3. List crisis contacts and the nearest health posts; ask the prescriber about medicine continuity.
  4. For suicide risk, follow your service's current risk-assessment and safety-planning standard; agree whether the client is safe to travel.
  5. Agree what the client will do if signs appear: rest at a halt, contact the trusted person, attend a health post, return home.
• Example language (illustrative): "You know your early signs better than anyone. Who in your dindi could you tell if you started sleeping less and feeling unusually charged?"
• Watch for: intense religious experience being read as illness, or illness being read as devotion (see 5.6). Working when: the plan is written, the client owns it, and a trusted person knows.

4.6 Drawing on the dindi and Varkari community as support

• Purpose / when: for isolated, bereaved or depressed clients who already belong to the tradition; for rebuilding routine after the walk.
• Steps:
  1. Map the client's network (CFI Module 3): dindi members, village bhajan group, kirtan gatherings, family who walk. [source: CFI Supplementary Modules]
  2. Ask which contacts feel supportive and which feel pressuring.
  3. Help the client choose one or two year-round ties to strengthen (for example attending local bhajan, walking with the same dindi again). The client decides; you do not prescribe religious activity.
  4. Link these to behavioural goals already in the plan (activity scheduling, social contact).
• Example language (illustrative): "You said singing abhangs with your group is when you feel most like yourself. Would you like to build more of that into the weeks between varis?"
• Watch for: the therapist steering a reluctant client toward religion; a community that shames illness. Working when: the client reports more contact that they value, chosen by them.

4.7 Recognising and treating scrupulosity around Varkari discipline

• Purpose / when: when keeping the mala, diet, Ekadashi fasts, daily chanting or the vari itself becomes fear-driven, time-consuming or impairing. IOCDF describes scrupulosity as OCD that latches onto what matters most to a person, with compulsions that resemble religious acts (such as excessive prayer) and can interfere with both religious practice and daily life. [source: IOCDF]
• How it may present here (illustrative examples, not from clinical sources): repeating chants until they feel "right"; fear that an accidental trace of a forbidden food has broken the mala; checking the mala repeatedly; dread that missing a vari or a fast will bring harm to family; reassurance-seeking from kirtankars or elders. [synthesis]
• Steps:
  1. Assess for OCD in the usual way; use the IOCDF distinction: healthy practice is in line with the person's values (ego-syntonic) and arises from them, while OCD is driven by fear and feels at odds with the person's beliefs (ego-dystonic). [source: IOCDF]
  2. Offer standard first-line treatment: exposure and response prevention (ERP), with medication assessed by a prescriber. [source: IOCDF]
  3. Frame treatment as separating OCD from the client's genuine faith, not as opposing faith. Never set exposures that ask the client to break a rule they hold as a genuine commitment (for example, eating forbidden food or drinking alcohol). [source: IOCDF on not asking patients to oppose their faith; examples: synthesis]
  4. With consent, consult a Varkari figure the client trusts (dindi leader, kirtankar, family elder) to learn what the tradition actually requires, for example whether a single completed recitation is enough. IOCDF notes some providers consult clergy to understand specific traditions. [source: IOCDF; Varkari roles: synthesis]
  5. Build an exposure hierarchy around the OCD rules, not the tradition's rules: doing one recitation and stopping; leaving uncertainty about contamination unresolved; not seeking reassurance. Get consent for each exposure, agree stop rules, and avoid exposures that conflict with the doctor's advice on fasting. [synthesis]
  6. Work on tolerance of uncertainty, which IOCDF describes as a normal part of faith. [source: IOCDF]
• Example language (illustrative): "Your faith asks you to remember Vitthal. OCD is asking for something else: a perfect feeling before you can stop. We are going to work on the OCD part, not on your bhakti."
• Watch for: the therapist making theological rulings; reassurance from religious figures turning into a new compulsion; distress that is in fact guilt about a real lapse (see 4.8). Working when: time spent on rituals falls, the client reports practising with less fear, and religious life returns to what they value.

4.8 Guilt, vow-related distress and moral injury

• Purpose / when: when a client feels they have betrayed a commitment: breaking the mala discipline (for example by drinking), being unable to walk because of illness, leaving a dindi, or failing an elderly parent who wished to go. Distinct from scrupulosity because the guilt follows a real act or omission. [synthesis]
• Steps:
  1. Separate facts from appraisal: what happened, what the client believes it means about them, what they believe Vitthal or the community thinks.
  2. Use CFI Module 5's stresses-and-conflicts area to explore distress about practice and conflict with others. [source: CFI Supplementary Modules]
  3. Ask what the tradition offers for repair or return, in the client's understanding; with consent, involve a trusted Varkari figure to speak to this. Do not supply religious answers yourself.
  4. Address any linked condition (alcohol use, depression) with standard treatment, framed so that it supports the client's chosen values.
• Example language (illustrative): "You've said you feel unworthy to wear the mala again. Who in your tradition would you trust to talk with about coming back, if you wanted to?"
• Watch for: suicidal thinking under intense shame (assess per your service's current standard); a community response that excludes rather than restores. Working when: the client can hold the lapse without global self-condemnation and has a path forward they accept.

4.9 Grief, ritual and the vari

• Purpose / when: bereaved clients for whom the vari was shared with the person who died, who walk in their memory, or for whom the first vari after a death is an anniversary reaction; older clients facing the end of their walking years.
• Steps:
  1. Ask whether and how the vari connects to the loss (a parent's dindi, a spouse who walked).
  2. Invite the client to describe the memories and the songs or places linked to the person.
  3. Plan for the season: what the client wants to do (walk, join for part of the route, join local bhajan, stay home) and how to mark it; the client chooses.
  4. For those no longer able to walk, explore other ways they see as keeping their place in the tradition, in their own understanding. [synthesis]
• Example language (illustrative): "This will be the first Ashadhi without your father in the dindi. How would you like to spend those weeks?"
• Watch for: prolonged grief tied to guilt about not going; physically unsafe plans to walk "for him" (route to doctor, 4.4). Working when: the season is approached with planning rather than dread.

4.10 Caste, gender and belonging

• Purpose / when: when experiences of caste, gender or class shape how the client lives the tradition. The tradition reveres sant-kavis from many backgrounds, including Chokhamela, a Mahar whose poetry criticises caste discrimination, and the women saints Janabai and Muktabai; Murthy describes teachings against discrimination by caste, gender or religion as the movement's aspiration. [source: Sahapedia; Murthy 2021]
• Steps:
  1. Use CFI Module 5's question area on discrimination and conflict and Module 6 (Cultural Identity). [source: CFI Supplementary Modules]
  2. Ask about both the ideal and the lived experience, without assuming either.
  3. Validate experiences of exclusion while leaving the client's relationship to the tradition theirs to define.
• Example language (illustrative): "The saints you sing were from many castes. How has it been for you on the road and in your village?"
• Watch for: your own assumptions about caste or rural life (APA Principle E); a client who fears that naming discrimination is disloyal. Working when: the client names experiences openly and links them to the formulation where relevant.

4.11 Collaboration with dindi leaders, kirtankars and temple or shrine figures

• Purpose / when: only when the client wishes: to clarify what the tradition requires (scrupulosity, illness, fasting), to support return to the community, or to coordinate support during the walk. The tradition has no centralised authority, so the right person is whoever the client trusts. [source: Sahapedia on authority; rest: synthesis]
• Steps:
  1. Ask the client who, if anyone, they would want involved and why.
  2. Obtain written informed consent in understandable language, stating exactly what will be shared. [source: APA Ethics Code, Standard 3.10]
  3. Share only what the purpose requires; protect identity if consulting generally. [source: APA Ethics Code, Standard 4.06]
  4. Prepare questions with the client (for example: "What does the tradition expect of someone who is ill on Ekadashi?").
  5. Debrief with the client; record what was agreed.
• Example language (illustrative): "If you'd like, I could speak with your dindi leader, with you present, about what the tradition asks of someone recovering. You decide what I may say."
• Watch for: the religious figure taking over clinical decisions, or the therapist giving religious rulings; family pressure to involve someone the client does not trust. Working when: the client feels supported by both relationships and roles stay clear.

4.12 Therapist self-awareness, role boundaries and self-disclosure

• Purpose / when: throughout; especially if you are yourself a Varkari, of a different tradition, or non-religious.
• Steps:
  1. Note your own beliefs and reactions about devotion, pilgrimage, caste and rural life; take them to supervision. [source: Vieten et al. 2013, as summarised by IONS; APA Principle E]
  2. If you share the tradition, avoid multiple relationships that could impair objectivity, such as walking in the client's dindi or attending the same kirtan group in a way that blurs roles. [source: APA Ethics Code, Standard 3.05]
  3. Self-disclose your own faith only if it clearly serves the client, briefly, and return focus to them. [synthesis]
  4. Where you lack knowledge, seek training or consultation, or refer. [source: APA Ethics Code, Standard 2.01(b)]
• Example language (illustrative): "I'm not a Varkari myself, so I'd like you to teach me what matters here, and I'll also do my own reading."
• Watch for: over-identification, or quiet scepticism leaking into questions. Working when: the client speaks freely about devotion and doubt alike.

4.13 Return and integration after the vari

• Purpose / when: first sessions after the client returns.
• Steps:
  1. Ask about the experience in the client's words: high points, hardship, what changed.
  2. Review physical recovery and mood; ask whether any illness or injury on the route has been followed up with the doctor. [health risks: source: Free Press Journal 2026]
  3. Watch for a mood dip after the intensity and togetherness of the walk; plan activity and contact for the weeks after.
  4. Link what the client valued (singing, companionship, simplicity) to goals in the treatment plan, if the client wishes.
• Example language (illustrative): "You've just come back from weeks of walking and singing with your dindi. What are you bringing back with you, and what has been hard about coming home?"
• Watch for: post-event low mood, exhaustion, unresolved injury, persistent unusual experiences (see 5.6). Working when: the client re-engages with treatment goals and the experience is woven into them.

4.14 Supporting year-round practice the client already keeps

• Purpose / when: when a client says daily chanting, abhang singing or reading the Dnyaneshwari helps them cope. [practices: source: Murthy 2021; Sahapedia]
• Steps:
  1. Ask how, when and why the practice helps.
  2. If the client wishes, include it in the coping plan as their own resource, in their own words. Do not prescribe, alter or teach religious practice.
  3. Check that the practice is not functioning as avoidance or compulsion (see 4.7).
• Example language (illustrative): "You said singing an abhang settles you when the worry starts. Would you like to put that on your coping plan, alongside the breathing we practised?"
• Watch for: practice used to suppress symptoms that need treatment. Working when: the client uses it flexibly and by choice.

5. Handling problems

The sources used here do not address therapy problems specific to the vari; everything in this section is [synthesis] unless a source is tagged.

5.1 The client plans to walk against the doctor's advice. Do not forbid or bargain. Explore what walking means and what not walking would mean (4.1). Ask whether partial participation (one stage, joining near Pandharpur, local bhajan) would carry meaning in the client's view, and whether a respected Varkari figure could speak to what the tradition asks of someone who is unwell (4.11). Make sure the client knows where the route's health posts are [source: Free Press Journal 2025] and has a stop plan. Document the discussion. If capacity is in doubt, follow your service's capacity procedures.

5.2 Therapy stalls around the vari season. Expect it: plan the break (4.3), set one small goal to hold during the walk if the client wants, and book the return session before departure. A stall after return may be post-event low mood (4.13) rather than disengagement.

5.3 Non-adherence to homework or medicines on the road. Review whether homework fitted the setting; redesign it. Medicine problems go to the prescriber; do not advise on medicines. Ask, without blame, whether the client felt pressure in the group to stop medicines, and plan a response with them.

5.4 Ruptures over religion. Signs: the client goes quiet after a question about caste, scrupulosity or health risk; says "you would not understand"; misses the session after you raised the doctor. Name the possible rupture, own any misstep, and restate respect for the tradition and the client's authority over its meaning (APA Principle E). Consider whether a Marathi-speaking or culturally matched colleague would serve the client better, and offer referral if so. [source for Principle E: APA Ethics Code]

5.5 Overwhelm in crowds or during intense collective singing. For clients with panic or PTSD, plan before the walk: walk at the edge of the dindi, agree a rest signal with a trusted companion, carry grounding objects, and know the nearest health post. On return, process what happened without framing the setting as the cause.

5.6 Unusual or intense experiences: devotion or illness? Ecstatic feeling, visions of Vitthal or strong conviction may be valued religious experience within the tradition. Assess carefully and without pathologising: check sleep, duration, function, risk, and whether the client and fellow Varkaris see the experience as within the tradition's normal range (CFI Module 5). Signs that suggest illness to assess include sustained sleep loss with rising energy, disorganisation, command hallucinations, risk to self or others, or experiences the client finds alien and distressing. DSM-5-TR includes a category for a religious or spiritual problem that is the focus of attention without implying disorder; its code is Z65.8. Involve the prescriber or crisis team where risk or psychosis is likely. With consent, ask a trusted Varkari figure how the community sees the experience.

5.7 Family or community pressure. A client may feel unable to stop walking, to disclose illness or to step back from a dindi. Use CFI Module 5's conflict area [source: CFI Supplementary Modules]; help the client decide what they want and plan conversations; consider a family session if the client wishes. Teacher misconduct or coercive-control investigations concerning the Varkari tradition: none found in the sources consulted; none should be assumed. If the client describes coercion, exploitation or abuse by anyone, respond as you would in any setting: assess safety and follow reporting duties.

5.8 Children on the vari. Children take part; a 2025 report describes a dindi competition for child varkaris at Ambajogai. [source: AIR Marathi 27 June 2025] If a parent client plans to take a child, ask about the child's health, rest and supervision on the road, and route medical questions to the child's doctor. Seek the child's assent where the child is in your care. Follow local safeguarding procedures if you have concerns about neglect, harm or harsh fasting. No safeguarding guidance specific to the vari is cited here [uncertain: not verified].

5.9 Scrupulosity that recruits the therapist. The client asks you whether a lapse "counts". Do not answer; name reassurance-seeking, return to the ERP plan, and, if the client wishes, route the factual question once to a trusted religious figure (4.7). [source: IOCDF on separating OCD from faith values]

5.10 Doubt, leaving or reduced practice. A client may lose faith, stop wearing the mala or step away from the vari. Explore with the same neutrality as practice: grief for lost belonging, family reactions, identity. Do not encourage either staying or leaving.

5.11 The therapist disagrees with the client's choice. Take it to supervision. Distinguish clinical concerns (health risk, OCD) from personal views about religion. Raise clinical concerns plainly and once, then respect the client's decision within the limits of capacity and safety. [source for competence and consultation: APA Ethics Code, Standard 2.01(b)]

5.12 The client asks the therapist to join the vari or a kirtan. Decline kindly, explaining role boundaries, and show interest in hearing about it. [source: APA Ethics Code, Standard 3.05]

Evidence note on health claims. Any physical or spiritual healing attributed to the vari is the tradition's own understanding; no source cited here gives evidence on health outcomes of the pilgrimage. [synthesis]

Sources

Web sources

• The Practice of Pilgrimage: The Pandharpur Wari and Marathi Sant Kavis (Kartikay Khetarpal, Sahapedia)
• Ashada Ekadashi and Varkari Movement (K.R.K. Murthy, eSamskriti; first published in Bhavan's Journal, 31 July 2021)
• आषाढी वारीसाठी संत श्री तुकाराम महाराजांच्या पालखीचं देहूमधून प्रस्थान (All India Radio News, Marathi, 18 June 2025)
• संत ज्ञानेश्वर महाराजांच्या पालखीचं ठिकठिकाणी उत्साहात स्वागत (All India Radio News, Marathi, 27 June 2025)
• From ICU To Free Health Camps: Lakhs Of Warkaris Get 24/7 Medical Care (Free Press Journal, 19 June 2025)
• Ashadi Wari 2026: 430 Doctors Join 'Doctor Dindi' To Provide Medical Care To Warkaris En Route To Pandharpur (Free Press Journal, 5 July 2026)
• Pandharpur Wari Program report 2024 (Dr Vasantrao Pawar Medical College, Department of Community Medicine)
• DSM-5 Cultural Formulation Interview Supplementary Modules (American Psychiatric Association, 2013)
• Living with OCD & Religious Traditions (International OCD Foundation)
• Ethical Principles of Psychologists and Code of Conduct (American Psychological Association)
• Spiritual and Religious Competencies for Psychologists (Institute of Noetic Sciences publication page)
• ICD-10-CM Z65.8, Other specified problems related to psychosocial circumstances (includes 'Religious or spiritual problem'), https://www.unboundmedicine.com/icd/view/ICD-10-CM/945432/all/Z65_8___Other_specified_problems_related_to_psychosocial_circumstances

Works cited

• Vieten, C., Scammell, S., Pilato, R., Ammondson, I., Pargament, K. I., & Lukoff, D. (2013). Spiritual and religious competencies for psychologists. Psychology of Religion and Spirituality, 5(3), 129–144. (Individual competencies [uncertain: not verified].)
• American Psychiatric Association. DSM-5-TR (2022), Cultural Formulation and "Religious or spiritual problem" category [uncertain: not verified].