This was the description of the Kumbh Mela put forward by Professor Chakravarti Ram-Prasad, of Lancaster University. I just love this kind of grand narrative, this birds-eye viewpoint of our tiny universe. It reminds me of the opening of the first chapter of the Vimalakirti Nirdesa Sutra on the ‘Purification of the Buddha-Field’:
‘Reverence to all Buddhas, Bodhisattvas, Aryasravakas, and Pratyekabuddhas, in the past, the present and the future.
Thus have I heard at one time. The Lord Buddha was in residence in the garden of Amrapali, in the city of Vaisali, attended by a great gathering. Of bhiksus there were eight thousand, all saints. They were free from impurities and afflictions, and all had attained self-mastery. Their minds were entirely liberated by perfect knowledge. They were calm and dignified like royal elephants. They had accomplished their work, done what they had to do, cast off their burdens, attained their goals, and totally destroyed the bonds of existence. They all had attained the utmost perfection of every form of mind control.’ (1)
Fabulous stuff. And the reason why the Kumbh Mela is celebrated – again from Professor Chakravarti Ram-Prasad:
‘The nectar of immortality was found and fought over by the gods and demons. Some drops of it fell to earth and the places where it fell are the places where the Kumbh Mela is now celebrated’.
The drops fell to earth in Allahabad in February of this year, and the BBC was there to witness it. Over 100 million people were expected, over the course of 55 days to gather, worship the gods and purify themselves in the water of the Ganges. Apparently this year was a ‘Maha Kumbh’ – a ‘Great Kumbh’ which only happens every 144 years and always at Allahabad. Just as a comparison, the numbers at the annual Hajj in Mecca – the pilgrimage site of Muslims – average around the 2.5 – 3 million mark.
The BBC followed 4 British men and women attending the Kumbh Mela this year. There was Helen O’Hagan, an erstwhile business development manager at a London law firm, turned spiritual seeker in India, having spent the last 3 months at a yoga centre in India. At the age of 34 years, when her peers were getting married and starting families, she yearned for something more, for the spiritual – and made what she referred to as a ‘choiceless decision’ to pursue this yearning. You couldn’t help wondering if she had just read ‘Eat, Pray, Love’ – but nevertheless you had to have some sympathy with her quest. I think life in a City law firm would make me turn to God (or whatever) after a few years. And at least she was sincere, having found a guru and spent the previous 2 months on a silent retreat.
Then there was Shivali Bhammer – an economics graduate, former City trader – turned devotional Hindu singer, daughter of wealthy Indian business parents and brought up in Kensington. She was impeccably made up and even in India seemed to wear beautiful, designer clothes as she danced and searched for inspiration from the devotional singers present. ‘It looks like an extremely colourful refugee camp’ she remarked from her car, driving through the crowds. Then, bravely approaching a stark naked, ash covered sadhu, she said, ‘I think you are very beautiful’ – being very careful to look him directly in the face. ‘I don’t care about being beautiful – it’s got nothing to do with me’, he replied.
Kanan Thakerar was a business woman attending with Riya, her niece – also studying economics. Just to pause here for an aside: why does everyone seem to be studying economics now, or is an economics graduate, or working in finance or law? What happened to medicine or dentistry as the tried and tested route to financial stability and professional status in the UK? Even the hours for junior doctors are a bit more reasonable than they were – but maybe the lure of City salaries and bonuses beckon too much for the 2nd or 3rd generation immigrants from South Asia. Anyway, Kanan was in the process of setting up a consultancy advising businesses on setting up in an Indian market – but wanted to explore her Hindu roots further.
Finally there was Dr Manish Pankhania – known as ‘Roshan’, attending with his guru Swami Vishwananda.
For me though, the 2 most interesting people interviewed were an American-born sadhu called Baba Rampuri and Shaunaka Rishi Das – a Hindu, originally born an Irish Catholic.
Baba Rampuri, with the long beard and orange robes of an Indian sadhu, was from Beverley Hills, California. He left the US in 1969 at the age of 18, looking for ‘magic and mystery’ in India – found it, and stayed. It was 20 years, though, before he understood anything – as it was astoundingly complicated and sophisticated. He found the relationships among the ‘sadhu family’ in India as intricate as within any other family. Good on him, I thought, for going to India searching and staying the course. It would have been so easy to give up when the going (spiritually or materially) got tough and go back to consumer complacency back in the US like so many other people.
As with Shaunaka Rishi Das – now the Director of the Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies. He joined a Hare Krishna ashram in Dublin in 1979, though his original desire was to be a Christian. Instead, he found Hindus ‘practising Christianity, but not calling it that’ (2) – and had to struggle with the fact of Christianity being practised to the highest standard, but by non-Christians. If only all of us followed through with our youthful idealism, instead of getting bogged down along the way with careers, families, consumer goods and frivolous wants and desires. ‘The meaning of the sadhu life is of sacrifice – it’s not a consumer thing,’ said Baba Rampuri. How true this is, but also how rare to find sacrifice and self discipline being upheld as a virtue in this post-modern, instant gratification society we have created.
My thoughts turn to Shivali’s devotional singing and You Tube videos. I find myself slightly troubled by Hindu devotional songs being packaged and promoted in this way. The perfection of Shivali’s make up and clothes, the carefully chosen settings for her songs and electronic modification of her voice – all sit uncomfortably for me with the true ascetics, the sadhus who leave behind family, belongings, clothes and status to venture into the spiritual unknown, with no guarantee of any results. The spiritual quest does not package up quite so easily for a capitalist market. Perhaps I am being a little harsh though, as she has indeed made the effort to travel to the Kumbh, and has had the courage to pursue something different – something that many millions of others wouldn’t even try to explore.
And so to the high point – 10 February and the main bathing day where an estimated 30 million people bathed in the Ganges to wash away their sins. Led by a huge procession of naked sadhus, it made an extraordinary sight. Roshan was pleased to be able to join the sadhu procession for the first time, as Hindus from the wider diaspora were recognised equally. There was another first as well – not touched on in the documentary. For the first time, Dalits (‘Untouchables’) were also allowed to bathe in the Ganges alongside Brahmins – which apparently ‘dissolved’ their ‘Untouchable’ status. Swami Vishwananda has commented, ‘….there are lots of profound changes taking place. Nobody knows why they are happening now. It is a Divine arrangement’. (3) Or perhaps it has nothing to do with the Divine but a growing realisation in India and Hinduism – and criticism from human rights campaigners outside - that defining millions of fellow human beings as somehow sub-human, destined to live on the margins of society, has absolutely no place in today’s world.
India really is such a country of contrasts – where conservative traditions still govern relationships between the sexes – especially outside the major urban centres – yet here thousands of completely naked men parade to bathe in the Ganges, alongside women. I did wonder where all the holy women were (sadhvis) and why they were not joining in (perhaps not naked) – it would have been good to see renunciate and ascetic women instead.
Meanwhile, Shivali takes a trip out in her own boat on the river, away from all the crowds. Her intention is to take a ritual dip too, but even away from all the others, she can’t bring herself to do it. Worried about pollution in the river, she just dips her hands in the water instead.
1. Robert A.F.Thurman (translator), ‘The Holy Teaching of Vimalakirti’. The Pennsylvania State University Press 1990 edition.
2. "Memories of a life less ordinary". Wexford People. April 8, 2009.
3. Bhakti Marga press release 18 March 2013.
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