Gurucharanam Saranam
Sirah Paadankitam Kritvaa, Yatha the chaakshayovatah:
Teertha Raajah Prayaago-asau, Gurumuurtyai Namo Namah
Prayag is considered the most holy of all holy waters and it is here the akshayavata - the everlasting banyan tree--stands. Devotion to the form of that Guru by prostrating at whose feet one earns the immortality (of the akshayavata) and the merit of taking a dip in the holiest of all holy waters.
Prayag, the confluence of three sacred rivers – Ganga, Yamuna and Saraswati, which we may (arbitrarily though) attribute to three sects of Hinduism, namely, Saiva, Vaishnava and Sakteya, because of their symbolic connections with Siva (to Ganga), Yamuna (to Krishna- associated with the myths of Vishnu) and a phonetic connection with goddess Saraswati, which we may associate with female deity worship). There stands an immortal tree on the banks of Prayag - the Jnana Vriksha, the fourth path of the transcendent Rishis who meditate under it. Without this tree of knowledge, the holy waters of Ganga and Yamuna, like the pale sun affected by an eclipse, might be just cold and colorless streams.
The all knowing Guru is the Jnana Vriksha on the banks of holy waters and it is by prostrations at the feet of Guru one earns immortality. Hindus seem to have neglected this jnana vriksha, this sage living on the banks of the holy rivers and teerthas. This is about the fourth face of the Vedas, the Jnana Kanda, about which people generally know very little or have they chosen to remain satisfied with the appeasement of celestial gods for ever? Like mirthful children, they swish, swim and splash in the river of ritualism, each immersed in their own world. When will Hindus graduate to the immortal spiritual wisdom of the Rishis?
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