Kumbh: the Spirit and the Spectacle

Source: www.hindustantimes.com
HARIDWAR, INDIA, January 20, 2010: Ram Prasad slowly walks up the steps of Har-ki-pauri, one of the holiest Hindu sites on the banks of the Ganga in Haridwar, Uttarakhand. It’s the 37-year-old Mauritius citizen’s third trip to the Kumbh Mela.

“I feel quite at home here and am experiencing the kind of spiritual bliss I’ve never felt before,” says Prasad. “I’m also carrying Ganga jal (holy water) back to my home country.”

For this young professional, a visit to the Kumbh Mela is not just a trip to the land of his ancestors, it also gives him an opportunity to “connect with the people, places and culture that are our very own and that we greatly miss back home”. The sea of devotees also fascinates Prasad’s Vietnamese girlfriend, Loc, 32.

“I enjoy it (the Kumbh) more as a great sight, a grand colorful spectacle rather than feeling connected with it spiritually,” she says. David Drassalto, a 35-year-old Swiss journalist, sits on the bank, silently watching the swift currents of the Ganga — and people. The sheer scale of the festival made him come to Haridwar. “Such a unique and huge fair doesn’t happen every day,” the agnostic says with a smile.

Ketut, 35, an Indonesian Hindu homemaker, has come here with her husband to “take a holy dip in the Ganga in the hope that we attain nirvana”.
Ravindra, a Nepalese theatre artiste, draped in saffron-colored woolens and stick in hand, is here to attain nirvana too. “I’ve come here in search of a guru who can show me the path to attain nirvana,” says the 27-year-old.