Dawn came almost unnoticed to the sacred river Shipra. Even the waking sun seemed overwhelmed by the scene unfolding at the water's edge.
Hours before, drum-led processions of Hindu monks and mystics had arrived in the sweltering darkness, zealously guarding their right to lead throngs of pilgrims to the river for a “holy dip” during Kumbh Mela (pronounced KOOM MAY-luh)-Hinduism's biggest, grandest festival.
Naga sadhus (holy men)-their wild hair matted and dreadlocked, their naked bodies smeared with ash to show their abandonment of all things worldly-rushed in first, waving swords and tridents. Then came white-bearded saints and swamis from far-flung ashrams and monasteries, followed by their head-shaven novice disciples.
As first light approached, thousands of nervous riot police-incessantly blowing whistles, wielding truncheons and shields to prevent deadly stampedes-finally allowed the masses of common pilgrims awaiting their turn to descend the long steps of Ram Ghat to the river, where Hindus have sought spiritual cleansing for millennia.
They came in waves-families, solitary pilgrims, the young, the old, the middle-aged, the poor, the rich-all mingled together in temporary suspension of caste, class and social differences.
Some offered floating candles and armfuls of flowers to the sacred river. Others filled small metal containers to take home a portion of liquid mercy. The holy water will never smell or lose its purity, the faithful believe.
“This is my first time,” said G.L. Agarwal, looking out over the river with a beatific smile. He came by train from faraway Madras with his wife, who was on her fourth Kumbh Mela pilgrimage. “When I take a dip in the Shipra, I have become the holiest man in my village.”
As the sun rose higher, the police whistles, the worshipers' mantras, the ranting loudspeakers mounted to a hypnotic crescendo that floated back and forth across the river.
The anticipated crowd for this day alone, one of the “royal” bathing dates of the festival held earlier this year, was 1.5 million. Four million had come a few days before. Up to 30 million pilgrims were expected to flood the holy city of Ujjain, in central India, over the course of the month-long event.
That total fell short of the 60 million people who were claimed to have attended the Kumbh Mela in Allahabad in 2001, the first of the new millennium. But the masses this year were more than enough to overwhelm ancient Ujjain (normal population: about 1.3 million).
Like everything else in the advertising age, the Kumbh Mela has fallen victim to hype. It's now the “World Cup of religion,” scoffed India Today magazine in an article headlined “Quick Dip in Spirituality.”
That may be so. But millions of pilgrims who came to Ujjain were utterly sincere in their spiritual search-for cleansing from sins, enlightenment, release from the cycle of death and rebirth, union with the divine.
IMB News