Empowering Thoughts: An Open Letter for all the Indians before the magic of Maha Kumbh Mela begins in Allahabad

I have seen many wonders but none so astonishing as the Maha Kumbh Mela. India is a land of spectacles, it is a land of teeming millions and a land of an ancient culture and civilisation. The Mahakumbha. This is your chance to attain moksha. It's now or never, because only once in 144 years do you get to see this unique combination of the spiritual energies. According to astrologers, the kumbha melatakes place when the planet Jupiter enters the sign of Aquarius and the Sun enters into Aries. Ritual bath at the confluence where the cloudy waters of the river Ganges meet the blue waters of the river Yamuna. Other activities include religious discussions, yajnas or sacrificial fire ceremony, devotional singing, mass feeding of holy men and women and the poor, and religious assemblies where doctrines are debated. Anyone who wants to enjoy the Kumbh Mela to the full must appreciate its many different aspects.

It is of course a great religious festival, the world's largest, but there is much more to it than just the great bathing day, spectacular though that is. Then there are the sadhus to be seen on any day performing amazing acts of asceticism. One sadhu I saw yesterday had held his arm up so long that it was withered and his nails curved round like talons, another was standing on one leg, and a third lying on a bed of thorns. At Kumbh Melas there is much religious teaching also, and a multitude of discourses. They demonstrate the wide variety of Hindu traditions, and Hinduism's tolerance too. Some of the discourses seemed to me obscurantist, some profound, and some surprising. Hindu pluralism is also shown by the different creation myths the Mela commemorates.

The word Kumbh means an urn, and one of the several myths is the story of an urn filled with the nectar of immortality which emerged from the primeval waters when they were being churned by gods and demons. The urn was snatched by demons but the son of the ruler of heaven, the god Indira, recovered it. Drops from the urn fell at the Sangam and other places in India where Kumbh Melas are held. In India, politics enter into all walks of life and the Kumbh Mela is no exception. Mela means a fair, and as with all fairs plenty of business is done at Kumbh Melas. There are stalls selling everything a pilgrim might need including of course the accoutrements required for pujas, or worship. Barbers shaving heads do a roaring trade. The traditional priests who keep family records set up their stalls and do good business updating genealogies and performing ceremonies for the souls of the dead.

Maha Kumbh Melas are remarkable feats of organisation, occasions when the much-maligned Indian civil servants covered themselves with glory. They constructed a vast tented city, laying down miles of steel plates for roads and constructing pontoon bridges. The administration also insured there was food for the pilgrims, and water too - sanitation, as well as electricity. The police, not usually renowned for their gentleness, were politeness personified as they shepherded millions of pilgrims down to the river banks, keeping them in orderly queues, and insured their safety while bathing. But in this they were helped by Indians remarkable ability to organize themselves in situations which in most other countries would degenerate into chaos.

As writer Dhananjai Chopra wrote in his book about Maha Kumbh Mela 2001 –“ I had never been in such a peaceful crowd. There was no frenzy, just the calm certainty of faith; the knowledge that what had to be done had been done. Faith is the key to the Kumbh Mela. It is a wonderful spectacle, a great demonstration of the variety and vigour of Hinduism, an occasion to preach politics and conduct business, but there would be no Kumbh Mela were it not for the faith that draws millions of pilgrims to the Sangam in Allahabad.” In this one national event the nectar of love, satsang, knowledge and grace is distributed to all without any discrimination. Even Mahatma Gandhi, in his autobiography, wrote: "…and then the kumbha mela arrived. It was a great moment for me. I have never tried to seek holiness or divinity as a pilgrim, but 1.7 million people cannot be hypocrites."