In sheer numbers, mankind has not seen a sight such as this ever. Over the next six weeks, some 40 crores – 400 million for those who count in the decimal system – would have bathed in the holy waters of the Ganges at a place where the mighty Yamuna that flows past national Capital New Delhi merges its identity into the mightier sister born like it in the everlasting snows of the Himalayas.
Even the comparatively smaller Maha Kumbh of twelve years ago, documented in hundreds of documentaries and untold numbers of photographs on social media, was overwhelming in its colour and sights, and the waves upon waves of men and women swarming to the banks of the river, taking a dip with the index finger and thumb tightly keeping the nostrils closed, and retreating to the sandy banks to make way for the next row of the devout. Wavelets in the sea of humanity, rivaling the waters of the river itself.
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It is really a unique event, for such a constellation of planets is being seen after 144 years. That itself is a rare event, exalting the months of January and February 2025 with a halo not to be seen in the lifetime of the current generations.
Most of our national leaders cutting, across political lines will, one day or another, take a dip in the blessed waters, hoping it would wash away their sins. Perhaps it well may, but they can be quite expected to go back to sin some more. It is just a day gone, and spokespersons are flinging barbs each other as if it is just another day at the office.
Captains of industry, and the rich, new money and old will also make their way to the banks, for once without too many fawning associates at a place where bare bodied sadhus with matted locks have a higher priority. Film stars and sports icons too will shed some of their VVIP-ness and humble themselves before the goddess Ganga.
The social media and some of the heritage press however will be fawning over people it thinks stand out amongst the nearly half a billion others. Among them is the wife of Apple inventor Job, one of the richest women on earth who has taken ‘diksha’ at an ashram in Rishikesh-Haridwar and now has a new name.
Another is thirty-year-old woman who became a nun, Sadhvi, two years ago to seek inner peace and is now quite at home in the congregation, or akhara, which has accepted her.
More established is the senior Sadhvi Yogmata Keiko Aikawa of Japan, the first foreign woman to be bestowed with the title of Mahamandaleshwar. Yogmata Aikawa, a distinguished spiritual leader, has been a frequent visitor to the Kumbh Mela. She is a renowned speaker on international platforms. She is enthusiastic speaking of the energy surrounding the Kumbh.
As are film stars and sportspersons, and leaders in the social domain.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his Mann Ki Baat recently said “The speciality of the Maha Kumbh is not only in its vastness. The speciality of the Kumbh is also in its diversity. Crores of people congregate for this event. Lakhs of saints, thousands of traditions, hundreds of sects, many akharas, everyone becomes a part of this event. There is no discrimination anywhere, no one is big, no one is small. Such a scene of unity in diversity will not be seen anywhere else in the world.”
The central and state government of Uttar Pradesh have spared no expense to justify his projection. The figures about the cost to the exchequer make no sense for the Rs 1500 crores one estimate tells us, do not take into account the layout on infrastructure, travel, ravel, security and the thousands of individual activities that go into supporting such a massive conglomeration of people. Just the fire and police force will be big enough to suit one of the smaller metropolitan cities.
How I wish I could have been able to see and experience this out of the world experience by myself. Alas, it may not be possible. I am told by many friends that as a practicing Christian, it may not be possible for me to come to the Sangam, the holy merging of the three iconic rivers of India, real or virtual.
I have no official word that Christians are banned from the Sangam for the duration. There has been no notification, nor a press statement. It is just presumed this will be so.
Some voices coming out of the state, and elsewhere, are a little disquieting. Akhil Bhartiya Akhara Parishad chief Mahant Ravindra Puri has said non-Hindus should not be allowed to set up shops at the Maha Kumbh.
Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath who is both a religious savant and the political head of the state government, has also said those who don’t believe in ‘Sanatan traditions’ should stay away.
As a concession that “those who considered themselves Indian and who had converted to other faiths under some pressure but still felt proud of their traditions and used the ‘gotras’ with their names and took part in the Hindu festivals were welcome at the Mahakumbh.”
This is a rather difficult yardstick for entry to the Maha Kumbh. Every Indian born citizen of India, including the Non-Resident Indians, will admit that every person in India is a covert to some religion or the other. Christiana, for instance will happily trace their family’s conversion all the way back, in some cases, to two millennia, or five hundred years, or two centuries ago.
But there will be only a handful, if that many, who will fill in a form saying they and their families converted under duress or succumbed to fraud. The 77 years since Independence in 1947 was time enough to convert to another faith of their choice, this time without duress.
“Anyone who has respect for India and Sanatan traditions can come to Kumbh….people with bad mentality should not go there….they may face problems,’’ the Yogi said in an interview with a private TV channel in Prayagraj.
If security is a threat, the central and state police forces and intelligence machinery is capable enough to take care of any troublemaker.
But any other reason to keep a fifth of the national population away at least seeing the huge and happy festival, if they want to, is punishing for no reason.
I will, however, not be true to myself if I do not congratulate every person in India, and wish specially the lucky 400 million who will bathe in the Holy Ganges, my most sincere greetings on this auspicious Maha Kumbh.
(John Dayal is an author, Editor, occasional
documentary film maker and activist)
