India, January 2025
- Past journey
New Delhi, Varanasi and the Maha Kumbh Mela
Seventeen days through Delhi and Varanasi to the Maha Kumbh Mela, the largest gathering on earth, with a ten-day option for those who could not come for the whole journey.
Dates
24 January – 9 February 2025
16 days, or a 10-day part
Places
Varanasi, Prayagraj, Chitrakoot, Ayodhya
With
Pintu
Our guide, teacher and friend
Where we went
The first part of this yatra was four days in Varanasi, the city on the banks of the Ganga. Thousands of years old and known as the city of Shiva, Kashi is one of the holiest cities in the Hindu tradition. Even walking barefoot on the ground at Varanasi is extremely powerful. We visited beautiful temples there and the spots where saints spent time, and went out on the water for the aarti (fire) ceremony, which is an incredible experience.
After that we went to the Kumbh Mela at Allahabad (Prayagraj). The Kumbh Mela, the festival of the sacred pitcher, is the largest peaceful congregation of pilgrims on earth, during which participants bathe in a sacred river. Devotees believe that by bathing in the Ganges one is freed from sins, liberating them from the cycle of birth and death. It happens only once every twelve years. Millions of spiritual seekers come, including many sects of yogis, ascetics and wanderers that one would rarely meet on any other occasion. It is a rare opportunity, and very auspicious to attend.
After the Kumbh Mela, those of us going on left for Chitrakoot and Ayodhya — two holy places where Lord Rama, one of the principal Gods in India, spent time. Ram's story is told in the Ramayana, essentially a Bible to many Hindus, and is the same story Hanuman the monkey comes from, the perfect servant of Ram. Ram lived in India in a past age (Treta Yuga) and his kingdom was in Ayodhya; he spent time in the forest at Chitrakoot while in exile.
Ram represents God, the formless, the ultimate reality, while his beloved wife Sita is the mother, the Shakti or energy of the universe, the varied forms of the world. Ram is an incarnation of Vishnu, the soul of the universe, and Sita, born daughter of the earth, is an incarnation of Lakshmi. Many of the powerful chants and mantras in India — the Hanuman Chalisa, Shri Ram Jai Ram, repeating Ram's name for liberation of the soul — come from this story.
What it was like
In India it is best to surrender and let go of all expectations, but to give you an idea: throughout the stays we had space where I offered practices — meditation, pranayama, chanting, kundalini yoga, and readings of sacred texts. We also had kirtan wallahs to chant with.
If you think of Christians visiting Israel and the places Christ went, or Muslims going on pilgrimage to Mecca, you get the idea. A spiritual yatra, by going outward, brings you inward. We go in the spirit of Bhakti Yoga, the yoga of love, to the ancient and sacred lands of India, about which my guru says: "India is a golden bird, it is a land of saints and sages."
Although the accommodation is good, a trip like this is still challenging, and being in that container of love and purification brings things up. When we enter India in this space together, the spiritual guides in a sense arrange a pressure cooker for us to grow in. We go to deepen our practice, to study, learn, grow, and ultimately connect to the deepest space of the heart.
We went with Pintu, our beloved teacher, guide and friend. Pintu regularly guides trips for well-known bhakti musicians such as Krishna Das, Trevor Hall and Nina Rao, and many members of the Ram Dass community. He has been guiding spiritual tours exclusively for over a decade and working in the field for twenty years. Pintu truly makes the trip.
This journey has been
Would you like one like it?
This yatra ran in January 2025 and is over. The Kumbh Mela itself comes round only once every twelve years, but the rest of it — Varanasi, Chitrakoot, Ayodhya, the practice, Pintu — can be arranged again. If you would have come, write and tell me, and I will let you know when the next one is going.
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