No god in sight

The Kumbh mela, which is the biggest religious festival on earth is a crush of crowds where hustlers make hay. Yet, it is a metaphor for life

Good Hindus believe a dip in the right river at the right place on the right day will immediately reset their sin counter to zero. The Kumbh Mela has grown over thousands of years around this belief. Kumbh bathers believe they emerge from the river with freshly washed souls and clean consciences, having booked their seats in heaven.
This year the Mahakumbh was in Haridwar, Uttarakhand till April 28. The river is, of course, the holy Ganga, which is severely polluted like all our major rivers. The perfect spot is a stretch of about 100 m at a place called Har ki Pauri. The right days are 11 holy days, which come once in 12 years. However, even among the holy days there is a hierarchy. April 14 was Mesh Sankranti, the day of the final Shahi Snan, holiest of holies.
Since there are about 850 million Hindus in India, and a few million in Nepal, all desirous of clear consciences and heaven, the crowds of bathers on holy days can get a bit overpowering.
So it was with some trepidation that I set out for the Kumbh mela. We were going two days ahead of the big day because we had been told the traffic jams would extend for many kilometres beyond Haridwar the next day. In fact, it extended a fair way even on that day.
Delhi to Haridwar is 208 km. The drive took nine hours. At the end of it, we were deposited in the middle of a jam somewhere on the outskirts of the Kumbh town. Crowds milled around everywhere, carrying bags and bundles on their heads, jostling to unknown destinations. We picked our burdens and joined the procession of souls.
It took us another two-and-a-half hours of walking to get to the media centre near Har ki Pauri. It was past midnight when we reached. The officials had left. We had been told there were tents reserved for us, but couldn't get any. We were homeless.
The HT photographer with whom I was travelling had bumped into a friend on the way. This gentleman, also a photographer, suggested we try our luck in hotels.
It seemed unlikely we would find a room; the roadsides were jammed with people sleeping wherever they could find space to sleep. But Mr Tyagi knew a hotelier, so we went.
The room
It was a shabby little hotel near the Ganga called Suryoday. There was one last 3-bed room available. The tariff on a board at the reception said Rs 1,200. The hotelier said he would give it to us because of his great friendship with Mr Tyagi, but it would cost Rs 10,000 a night. He wasn't inclined to budge from this price; hotel rooms in the area were being taken for Rs 60,000 for four nights, he said.
Mr Tyagi called other hotels, and found this to be true. So, after some deliberation, we took the room. Both photographers had cameras and laptops. We were all carrying things we were afraid we'd lose. We couldn't sleep on the pavement.
Over the next days, the crowds increased even more. On April 14, an estimated 14 million people took the Ganga dip in Haridwar, according to the Uttarakhand police. Haridwar town and district together have a population of 1.4 million. With more than 10 times its population in visitors, the entire town looked like Howrah railway station or Mumbai Central at rush hour.
The Mela
Outside, crowds milled day and night, on their way for the holy dip. No one seemed to know the way. Everyone just walked where the flow took them. It was fine; all roads led to the holy dip. Occasionally, someone would stop, exhausted from the walk, and get shoved along by a waiting policeman blowing his whistle. Stopping was not allowed.
The only places one could stop for a brief bit were the roadside shops. There is an entire industry of spiritual supplements out there, with temporary stalls selling everything from rudraksha beads for physical and spiritual health to tridents for, well, effect. It is a flourishing industry worth crores, that exists largely free from the clutches of taxmen.
Apart from these objects, Babas and Matajis of all hues also peddle their own brands of spirituality at the mela. They stare out of hoardings, selling a rainbow of options. There's Soham Baba, whose hoardings call for an end to global warming. And the sants of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad, who predictably warn that Hinduism is under threat. And even Yogmata Keila Devi, who is a Japanese woman named Keiko Aikawa. Her cause is world peace.
They all have thousands of followers who crowd into their camps. It's a bit like Pragati Maidan during the Auto Expo, with big tents instead of permanent structures, and brands of Hinduism instead of car brands.
I could discern no spirituality in the surroundings. Not in the greedy hoteliers ripping off all comers for as much as they can. Not in the cycle rickshaw pullers, who demanded Rs 1,200 for a 6 km ride. Not in the priests on the ghats, promising pujas at heightened rates to help the souls of dead ancestors. Certainly not in the politicians on their VIP visits, trying to wash off countless sins. Not even in the Naga sadhus who raced into the waters of the Ganga at Har ki Pauri for the Shahi Snan on April 14. It had been reduced to a media spectacle. On one ghat, there were only the sadhus, hemmed in by rows of police. And facing them, a tower with the media confined to it like animals in a pen, over an empty ghat from which the teeming masses of pilgrims had been forcibly evicted.
No, there is nothing holy about the Kumbh mela. And yet it's a great pilgrimage.
In our journey, we had become part of the flow of humanity, solitary souls lost in the great river as it coursed to its inevitable destination. Our possessions had become burdens we were forced to carry. Our companions had been chosen largely by fate. Some fellow travellers we lost in the melee, and could not meet again for the rest of the journey. We encountered much corruption and greed, but also witnessed the good, simple faith of the millions who undertook this great and terrible journey.
The Kumbh is a great pilgrimage because it is a metaphor for human life.
Samrat is Deputy Editor at Hindustan Times, Delhi.

Getting there
Haridwar is well connected via rail to quite a few major cities across India such as Mumbai, Howrah, Lucknow, Varanasi, Amritsar and Allahabad.
Alternately, you could also drive down from Delhi. The 208-km journey takes approximately 5 hours during the non-rush hour. Har ki Pauri is the most popular spot for a holy dip.

HT Image