Kumbh Mela 2019: Yogi Govt’s ‘Gimmicks’ Are Harming Hinduism

Why has Yogi govt chosen to re-imagine the Kumbh? Does it even know the true meaning of Kumbh?

Yogi Adityanath with Swami Hanshdevacharya inspects the Kumbh Mela area from Shri Aadi Shanker Viman Mandpam temple at Sangam in Allahabad, Sunday, Dec 2, 2018. Image used for representation.

(Photo: PTI)

The rise of Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Ajay Singh Bisht aka Yogi Adityanath, has posed an unprecedented threat to the innate culture and intrinsic nature of Hinduism.

Furthering the Yogi government’s hobby of changing the names of everything that doesn't align with their vichar-dhara, the ‘Ardha’ from ‘Ardha-Kumbh’ has been dropped, and is now being incongruously called just the ‘Kumbh’, which is different.

The Origin of the Kumbh

Adi Shankara, the true symbol of the revival and continuance of the Hindu dharma in the 8th-century, instituted the ‘Kumbh’ as a regular gathering of learned monastics for discussion and debate.

But today, contrary to that philosophy, a lot of effort is being put in to make it one of the most extravagant of events, to give the ruling government at the Centre the much-needed impetus, by pandering to the Hindu vote bank, ahead of the 2019 general elections.

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In order to appreciate the Kumbh as a celebration of our culture and tradition, it is important for us to understand its concept and origin better. The term ‘Kumbh’ stands for an ‘earthen pot’. The Puranokta myth of the Kumbh Mela, upon which the concept has founded itself, recounts how the gods and demons fought over the pot (kumbha) of Amrit (the elixir of immortality), produced by their combined effort in churning the milky ocean, referred to as the Samudra Manthan.

The Meaning of the Kumbh

During the struggle, drops of Amrit fell on the Kumbh Mela’s four sites, namely Prayagraj, Haridwar, Triyambakeshwar Nasik, and Ujjain, and the rivers are believed to be blessed with that elixir at the turn of the celestial arrangement every twelve years, giving pilgrims the chance to bathe in the ‘holy nectar’. The term Kumbh comes from this mythic pot of elixir.

The planetary positions believed to be suitable for the Amrit to reappear at Prayagraj are as follows. These are:

1. When Jupiter enters the Aries constellation and the Sun and the Moon are in the Capricorn constellation, the Kumbh festival is held at Prayagraj on the new moon day
2. When the Sun is in Capricorn and Jupiter moves in to Taurus, the Kumbh festival is held at Prayagraj

Jupiter is close to neither Aries nor Taurus at present. The planet is residing in Scorpio (vrischik raashi) since 11 October 2018, and will move into Sagittarius (dhanu raashi) on 30 March 2019.

Hence, we should cherish our religion in the essence of its philosophy and traditions; and not use it to polarise.

What About the ‘Actual’ Kumbh?

Since time immemorial, overcoming the rigorous challenges of everyday lives, millions of pilgrims are drawn to the Kumbh every time the Amrit resurfaces, as per their beliefs. Government policies and planning, exclusive designer tag lines, well articulated advertisements are not the driving force which gets the mahotsav going. It is their innate belief in the tradition and their quest to bathe in the essence of purity, auspiciousness, and immortality that propels millions of visitors since the commutation was tough and communication, even tougher.

The wrongful glorification of an event that isn’t the actual Kumbh, is a blow to our cardinal relationship with our religion and its traditions.

To make it worse, unabashedly the invitations to this dubiously-named event have been sent out to the who’s who of the country. With all the traditions linked to the festival, one important part of its spirit is built on the fact that nobody is invited to the actual Kumbh.

Yogi Govt’s ‘Reimagining’ Of the Kumbh

The Kumbh Mela is thought of as orchestrated via divine intervention, one with its own magnetic field, that has attracted pilgrims since forever. You can’t really host a Kumbh. You can’t invite someone to a Kumbh, and you can’t be a guest at a Kumbh.

It’s an organic process that has stood tall for centuries and has sadly been hampered in a desperate move by the present government to get votes.

Our Constitution tells us that the State has no religion. But does it have a right to leave a religion crestfallen? Today, the State has let down my religion, and that of several others in its shameful pursuit of power.

(Ishanee Sharma is Partner, V&K Law & a practicing lawyer at the Delhi High Court. This is an opinion piece. The views expressed are the author’s own. The Quint neither endorses nor is responsible for them.)