Kumb Mela

 The world loves superlatives. The biggest or best of this or that object or experience. The Kumbh Mela satisfies that ‘Guinness Records’ kind of requirement. There are various estimates of attendance, two government experts have significantly different estimates, one says 4.5 million and another only 1.5 million on the day we are there. On the busier days the attendance is over 20 million. Over 110 million visit during the 55 day period of the festival. But on our ‘light’ day it does not feel so crowded in part because people come and go all day and it is spread over a large area. We walk for 6 hours and see maybe ¼ of the area of the festival and that was only walking past tents and compounds without much time for individual visits to particular guru’s tents. And the things we see are wonderful to behold: yogis, swamis, gurus, and pageants of chanting, plays, music, rituals and decorated compounds.

One of the many streets

One of the Gurus

He has kept his arm up for 35 years.

Instant Palace

Camels delivering firewood

Hare Krishna parade

There are large establishments from some of the larger gurus and many small tents for holy men called sadhus. Some live very simply, not owning anything and relying on donations to survive. But no one goes hungry at the Mela, each compound offers food to followers, pilgrims and guests. We are invited into the tents many times until we figure out how to politely refuse the generous offers.

I go for a dip in the Ganges and Susan takes another traditional approach of pouring river water over her head three times. We receive many blessings from the holy men (and one holy woman). We visit a few sites we recognize like the Yogananda camp and run into the Hare Krishnas, of course, singing as usual. We find two and three story elaborate edifices created out  of some framing and covered with cloth to make them look like castles and palaces. We go into some larger ones and watch spiritual plays like the Ramayana. In others groups chant ancient chants. The smaller tents of the sadhus are even more interesting as we get to interact with these extreme yoga aesthetics, one has held his arm up for over thirty years, another has stood on one leg for 5 years. Many have not cut their hair since childhood and their woven hair look like elaborate hats. There are remarkably few westerners here, can count them on our fingers, still with few exceptions we are warmly welcomed. If we had days we could camp, eat, sing and study as long as we want. We terribly want to spend more time to go deeper into some of the sites. We only visit a few places and talk to a tiny number of the holy men and walk past countless others and then see that we have barely seen a quarter of the visible grounds. But we make the best use of our time and we are again blessed to be there at dusk when the energy changes. Now there are more sounds of lectures and prayers and lights go on all over the places. Patterns on the structures look like geometric designs and symbols. As we leave the lights of the Mela brighten the sky.