Picture: Pilgrim making an offering at the Allahabad Prayag
Pilgrimage spots are wonderful for traveling to and becoming immersed in the uplifting vibrations to be found there; such as where sacred rivers join together. However, in truth everything we need to have the highest God-experience is to be found within.
The mountain of uplifted consciousness can be known through mystical experience; the ocean of expansive, unending Spirit you may have in deepened meditation; the purity of the clean desert vibration already exists for those who have eyes to see and ears to hear; and the prayag of two rivers becoming one happens right within you.
Allahabad India is where there is a confluence of two rivers, the Ganga and the Yamuna, along with the mythical river Saraswati. This confluence (Sangam), since ancient times has been called Prayag (a place of offerings). There is an exact correspondence of these physical features found right within your subtle body which reveals the inner kingdom of heaven.
Yoga tradition posits that on either side of the spinal column there are two intertwining currents of life-energy. These currents start at the base of the spinal column, the tail bone area, and travels up to the base of the skull, from there it runs through the brain and ends at the point between your eyebrows, at the ajna or third eye point.
The two channels of energy represents the pairs of opposites, heat and cool, positive and negative, etc. A third current is singular and runs up the middle of the spinal column and is called the sushumna. In Kriya Yoga we work with these two energies to bring them into total balance and raise the kundalini or vital spiritual power through the central channel from the base of the spine to the third eye point.
These three currents, the ida, pingala and the sushumna correspond to their physical counterparts as the Ganga, Yamuna and the Sarasvati rivers. When these three currents merge at the third eye point your full attention is riveted to the ajna, just then you see a brilliant shining Light. The power of this confluence makes one sail through the triumvirate colors of the third eye and individual consciousness merges with the Infinite.
Prayag means place of offering, it is the place at the ajna where you offer yourself and all that you call your own at the feet of God. In this complete surrender you qualify to become one with pure Divinity. It is here that your entire spiritual practice and pilgrimage in life finds fulfillment, by repeatedly subsuming all that you are into the oceanic bliss of God you are purified of every limitation. It is God Himself who takes you by the hand and makes you a fit offering for this rite of total transformation.
Your life is no longer your own as God expresses Himself through you. For the true devotee there is nothing else he or she wants in life but to be God’s, and God’s alone. Every moment of your life you feel His power, bliss and intelligence flowing through every part of your Being. The river of individual consciousness originates from the Source of everything that is, and is ever running to the sea of All-consciousness! Such is the mystery when man is in God, and God is in man. Achieving this Goal of goals is the result of the confluence and the merging prayag within you.