Universe: Significance of Kumbh Mela
In India, rivers are revered as goddesses and have their significance in the life of every Indian. Being an integral part of Indian culture and religion, no Hindu ritual is complete without their presence, physical or virtual. People prefer to perform the most important rituals of the Hindu religion on the banks of a river. An eternal life free of sins is the promise of the magnificent event of Kumbh.
Described as the ‘greatest show on earth’, Kumbh is a symbol of integration, a vessel or pot, in which quintessential wisdom, spiritual thoughts and human philosophy, as contemplated by saints and seers, are accumulated.
Based on the movement of planets, the Purna (complete) Kumbh Mela is organised on the banks of a river once every 12 years, at four places — Prayag (Allahabad), Haridwar, Ujjain and Nasik. The Ardh (half) Kumbh Mela is held every six years at Haridwar and Allahabad (Prayag). Maha Kumbh is held after 12 Purna Kumbh Melas, which is once every 144 years, at the confluence of rivers Ganga, Yamuna and the mythological Saraswati.
Kumbh is held at these places based on the specific zodiacal position of the Sun, the Moon, and the planet Jupiter. Astrologers calculate the exact date of the start of Kumbh after calculating the planetary motions with the help of Vedic astrology. The Sun moves in 12 zodiac signs in a year. Similarly, Jupiter also enters the zodiac once in 12 years. It is believed that during this period, drops of amrit (nectar) give mystical power to these places. Bathing at the river during Kumbh, at this moment, is believed to generate the greatest religious merit.
The origin of Kumbh, like any other tradition in India, is shrouded in a strange yet fascinating mix of myths, scientific reasoning, and historical and astrological theories.
Mark Twain, the celebrated American author, wrote after visiting the Kumbh Mela in 1895:
“It is wonderful, the power of a faith like that, that can make multitudes upon multitudes of the old and weak and the young and frail enter without hesitation or complaint upon such incredible journeys and endure the resultant miseries without repining. It is done in love, or it is done in fear; I do not know which it is. No matter what the impulse is, the act born of it is beyond imagination, marvellous to our kind of people, the cold whites.”
In so many ways, the Kumbh Mela facilitates the coexistence of diverse traditions which have partially sacrificed their theological, ideological, cultural and social differences, in order to engage with one another and to seek understanding and even harmony.
Religious teachers from heterogeneous traditions converge in this multi-cultural, multi-faith event with their own perspectives, purposes, and prejudices. While they share the same space with each other, many of them also share sentiments of mutual acceptance and assimilation and thereby impart the spirit of pluralism through their discourses at the Kumbh Mela.
— Excerpted from ‘The Divine Kumbh’, published by Niyogi Books