http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SUDPwzfdE78feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uRp_Ealqu6w
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e9sTLavgqB8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GVUX0OG9tF0feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?NR=1v=qF_CTs01sfY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qw3bAbwmoB8feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1hdL7bHAEmsfeature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XCjrm1OMWCkfeature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A9Ln5yEp6M0feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YYcMcY7sDl8feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/verify_age?next_url=http%3A//www.youtube.com/watch%3Fv%3DUcqmyb_s6Q4%26feature%3D
related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YYcMcY7sDl8feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/verify_age?next_url=http%3A//www.youtube.com/watch%3Fv%3DUcqmyb_s6Q4%26feature%3Drelated
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NBzjcOu_mCAfeature=related
Kumbh Mela is the most sacred of all the pilgrimages. Thousands of holy men and
women attend, and the auspiciousness of the festival is in part attributable to
this
In the eight century, Shankara, a prominent Indian saint, popularized the
Kumbha Mela among the common people, and soon the attendance began to grow to
enormous proportions. Shankara placed special importance to the opportunity of
associating with saintly persons while at Kumbha Mela. Both hearing from sadhus
(holy men) and sacred bathing are still the two main focus at Kumbha Mela.
The major event of the festival is ritual bathing at the banks of the river in
whichever town it is being held. Nasik has registered maximum visitors amounted
nearly to 75 million. Other activities include religious discussions,
devotional singing, mass feeding of holy men and women and the poor, and
religious assemblies where doctrines are debated and standardized.
Wave after wave, they formed a veritable river of humanity that flowed onto the
banks of the Ganges at Allahabad to celebrate the greatest spiritual festival
ever held in the history of the world, the Kumbha Mela.
At the head of the procession were the nagas, India's famed naked holy men.
These holy men engage themselves in renunciation of the world in search of
equilibrium. They hope to escape the world's concomitant reactions and
suffering by their austere practices such as complete celibacy and
non-accumulation of material possessions. Thus they are known as
liberationists. With matted locks of hair, their bodies covered in ashes, and
their tridents ( the symbol of a follower of Shiva) raised high, they descended
upon the bathing area. Entering the water in a tumult, blowing conchshells and
singing Shiva ki jai, Ganga ki jai, they splashed the sacred waters upon
each other and played just like children. Indeed, they are said to be the very
children of the Ganges.
Next came the Vaisnava vairagis, the wandering mendicants who dedicate
everything to Visnu, the Sustainer. These saints live a life of service and
complete dedication.Then came the innumerable other sects of ascetics dressed
in saffron colored cloth and carrying their staffs of renunciation. All the
centuries gone by of India's spiritual evolution were simultaneously there
together in the procession. Each in turn bathed in the sangam.
Kumbha Mela has gained international fame as the world's most massive act of
faith. Pilgrims come to this holy event with such tremendous faith and in such
overwhelming numbers that it boggles the mind. Faith is the most important
thing for the pilgrims at Kumbha Mela, they have an unflinching trust in
something sublime.
To understand the significance of the Kumbha Mela and the important role that
it plays in the spirituality of India, it is helpful to know something about
the background of the sacred Ganges River. The devout believe that simply by
bathing in the Ganges one is freed from their past sins (karma), and thus one
becomes eligible for liberation from the cycle of birth and death. Of course it
is said that a pure lifestyle is also required after taking bath, otherwise one
will again be burdened by karmic reactions .The pilgrims come from all walks of
life, traveling long distances and tolerating many physical discomforts, such
as sleeping in the open air in near freezing weather. They undergo these
difficulties just to receive the benefit of taking a bath in the sacred river
at Kumbha Mela.
The ancient origin of the Kumbha Mela is described in the time honored Vedic
literatures of India as having evolved from bygone days of the universe when
the demigods and the demons produced the nectar of immortality.
This confluence of India's three most sacred rivers at Allahabad is called the
sangam. The combined sanctity of the three holy rivers, coupled with the
spiritual powers obtained from the pot of nectar of immortality, has earned
Allahabad the rank of tirtharaja, the king of holy places.
The main highlight for most pilgrims during a Kumbha Mela is the observance of
a
