INDIAN TRADITION OF KUMBH MELA

INDIAN TRADITION OF KUMBH MELA

Dear Friends,

India is a land of mystery & mystics indeed!

Here in this land of old traditions, the most famous Kumbh Mela 2013 festival is going on starting from the middle of January till March 2013, the biggest ever human gathering at one place on earth; this time, expecting 100 million [10 crores] people to take part in this once in every 12 years grand festival of India. By the end of January, at least tens of millions of people already visited the festival!

The main attraction of this festival is that if anybody takes a dip in the Ganges River during this festival especially on some specific holy days, all the sins committed by any person will be cleansed away and get salvation/Nirvana!

Is this claim really true or not, nobody can verify because it is just a belief/faith of people, especially the people of India have, mainly based on the Puranic stories of the Vedas!

Kumbh Mela is based on the story of the ‘Samudra Manthana’ or the churning of the ocean found in the Vishnu Purana that while churning the ocean, a  Kumbh [pot of the nectar of immortality] emerged from the ocean and some drops of the nectar fell on the four places in India viz Allahabad, Haridwar, Nasik and Ujjain. So, Kumbh Mela is held at each of these four places every 3 years in rotation and Ardha Kumbha Mela is Held at Allahabad  and Haridwar every 6 years while Purna Kumbha Mela is held every 12 years and Maha Kumbh Mela is held every 144 years only at Allahabad [Prayaga]. This current Kumbh Mela is the Purna Kumbha Mela held here at Allahabad after 12 years.

The story may be interesting as a mythology or a legendary/folk tale as many countries in the world big or small do have their own such old mythical stories but trusting fully on such stories as if it were all true is nothing but superstition?

May be some positive psychological effect to the people after attending this festival that they feel better or cleansed physically & mentally!

But, the long term negative impact is that because of this short cut system of cleansing the sins or the instant Salvation/Nirvana fix; it will surely encourage bad people to continue indulging in their bad doings believing that there is a short cut to cleanse all their bad Karma L

For a spiritual/rational person like me, believing in the infallible law of Karma i.e. one gets for what one does; no amount of rituals, chanting of mantras, idolatry, temple worship, dipping in the Ganges, confessing in the Church or praying five times a day or rotating prayer wheels can never annul the wrong doings of a person! 

So, the instant salvation theory/faith just by dipping in the Ganges River is out of question for a rational person! Wrong doings can be neutralised or cleansed only by right doings.

During Kumbh Mela, by running around naked as the Naga Sadhus do in the freezing cold winter morning and dipping in the cold water in the river that too contaminated by many diseased people sharing the dip for the cleansing of their sins; won’t be a healthy practice from the scientific/hygienic point of view at all.

Another attraction of this 3 months long Kumbh Mela festival is the free distribution of food & free accommodation offered by many individuals & organizations to serve the so called holy pilgrims, sadhus, saints, sanyasis, devotees, spiritual people etc. but here again the habit of living life as homeless pilgrims on alms, free food, free shelter like beggars is not a respectable & dignified lifestyle of a decent human being. This culture only encourages people to live as parasites in the society that means society is burdened by them to feed them & shelter them without any tangible contributions back from such people to the societyL

It’s time for all these physically/mentally healthy people, instead of roaming around begging & living in charity in the name of God; they all should start working in their possible capacities & start contributing to the society thus living a useful life for themselves and for the society. It is wrong for the society to encourage people living like beggars.

Work is worship!

There is no higher worship than performing one’s duty in the best way one can.

Let us do our best and live our best happy life.

Happiness for all!

Regards,

Goodman

for HAPPY WORLD SOCIETY

PS: this post was originally written by Goodman on 8 February 2013