Kundalini Yoga is the key concept behind a lot of Hindu (on a side note, Hindu is quite an eclectic term as there is no one Hindu religion, culture etc., its an umbrella term) practices. For example, pilgrimage is a popular religious practice in India. And pilgrimage spots are generally chosen based on:
(a) Natural Places of Power
(b) Enhanced by the energy of one or more sages or Siddhas (accomplished beings) who consecrated these shrines and made them more powerful. A lot of times, they continue to stay there and guide seekers on astral realms
(c) A natural manifestation of a deity’s energy (where the energy of the deity is willingly manifested and to a large scale as manifestations can vary in power)
(d) Faith and penance of millions across time grow the power of these shrines.
These concepts are tied together based on the concept of Kundalini Yoga. For example, the Southern tip of India is marked by a famous shrine called Kanyakumari (the virgin Goddess), where the energy is that of newly awakened Kundalini. Then comes Kanchipuram, the center of Navel - where the Kundalini is fully awakened, refined, and past the stage of “returning to slumber”. This is the seat of Lalita or Tripurasundari, the highest archetype of Goddess (in our school, we completely skip direct work on Root and Sacral chakras and start at the Navel as Shaktipat during initiation takes care of the lower two chakras giving a solid jumpstart).
Kashi (or Benares), one of the most ancient, surviving cities in the world, is the seat of Shiva and is the heart center. Kedarnath is the Ajna Chakra and Tunganath, which is just below it, represents what we call Indra Nadi (upper palate), a psychic center that is used in a specific form of Yogic Practice called Lambika Yoga that uses the full-blown form of Khechari Mudra which is used to attain physical immortality. Its main energetic effect is the complete cessation of thoughts and the karmic effect created non-stop due to these unending thoughts.
The Crown is Kailash, where Shiva and Shakti harmoniously unite - i.e., the final abode of an ascendent and refined Kundalini, where non-dual consciousness manifests as bliss. At this stage, the individual is said to have attained Shivahood. Cold weather preserves things - and here, the metaphor is of stable, sustained, unending non-dual consciousness which is not a state (as states are temporary by definition, even if some of them last a long time).
So, each of these shrines also has an energetic correspondence in the microcosm as well.
So the pilgrimage from Kanyakumari the seat of the Great Goddess to Kailash, the peak of Shiva, is essentially the ascent of Kundalini to merge with Shiva, aka the blooming of individual consciousness to Divine, Universal Consciousness. If you see the map of India, the Northern tip is an upward facing triangle at the top (which represents Shiva in Sriyantra) and the Southern tip is a downward-facing triangle (which represents the Goddess in Sriyantra). A coming together of these triangles represents the process of creation. The collapsing of these to form a Bindu (dot, point) is the state of dissolution aka non-dual consciousness.
It must be noted that external pilgrimage is prescribed for beginners. The advanced spiritual aspirant is instructed to internalize the pilgrimage and the worship as the saying goes, “Self is Shiva, Shiva is Self, that being the case, who worships whom - when all there is but One?”.
Note: Apologies for the typos, typed on my phone.
:max_bytes(150000):strip_icc()/GettyImages-685980588-5b05334d1d640400377ff8bf.jpg){kind=link}
