Yatra: India and the Sacred - Multimedia Presentation

India’s coherence as a civilization depends in part on its commitment to Yatra – pilgrimage to sacred sites spread throughout the far reaches of the subcontinent. From Śaktī pīthas that sprung up when Satī’s body fragments fell to earth as the inconsolate Śiva carried her corpse through the skies, to Adī Śaṇkara’s māthas established in the far corners of Bharat, these places embody the sacred.

This past year’s Kumbḥ Mela – an event occurring every 12 years - represents the largest migration of any people at any time, and countless millions gathered at the confluence of two rivers because of spiritual longing.

Sacred geography continues to draw the peoples of India, as it did their ancestors for thousands of years, to visit the rivers and the mountains prominent in the stories that remain alive and compelling. Stories of the birth and career of Devatas and enlightened beings, epic and historical, are mapped onto the Indian landscape.

One makes a Yatra to a sacred space to remember a story about what happened a long time ago, but this also connects to the spiritual process of the Yatri, in the present. In reaching the destination one has entered the inner sanctum, where vows may be made, a recognition may occur, or a healing. This way, the world left behind may change, because of the Seer.