In January of 2013, this little piggie will be attending the Kumbh Mela in Allahabad, India. The Kumbh takes place once every 12 years and is a mass Hindu pilgrimage in which Hindus (and many others) gather at the Ganges and River Godavari to bathe for purification from sin. They estimate that as many as
75 million people will visit this area over a two month period of time. The spiritual energy that surrounds this confluence becomes a very moving experience for all that come with open hearts and minds.
Many will tell you that this event is a "short cut to Nirvana" -- let's hope so!
After visiting the Kumbh Mela of 1895, Mark Twin wrote:
"It is wonderful, the power of faith like that, that can make multitudes upon multitudes of the old and weak and the young and frail enter without hesitation or complaint upon such incredible journeys and endure the resultant miseries without repining.
It is done in love, or it is done in fear; I do not know which it is. No matter what the impulse is, the act born of it is beyond imagination, marvelous to our kind of people, the stark whites."
Over the next few months I will be writing about the path I am following that will bring me to the Kumbh Mela. The more I can learn about the Kumbh -- its meaning, purpose and significance -- the more I too can "marvel at the act that is born of it."
