Faith, madness, magic mix at sacred Hindu festival

ALLAHABAD, India (AP) -- Millions of Hindu pilgrims scrambled toward the Ganges on Tuesday to fulfill lifelong ambitions of bathing in the holy river at the blessed time, drawn by an auspicious planetary arrangement their priests say occurs only once in 144 years.

About 10 million people were at the river banks on Monday, and the numbers swelled as pilgrims poured onto the sandy shore Tuesday for the sacred bathing day of the 43-day Kumbh Mela festival, which takes place every 12 years and gathers one of the world's largest congregations.

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Eager to pray and wash their sins in the river Hindus consider their holiest site, worshippers dipped themselves in the water, which they scooped with hands and poured over their heads. They believe the ritual will wash away sins and answer prayers if performed at the auspicious time.

The "Royal Bathing Day" began at 3:20 p.m. Tuesday and was to extend until Wednesday, according to Hindu priests.

Festival organizer Jeevesh Nandan said 7 million people had already bathed Tuesday, even before the auspicious moment had drawn, and he expected more than 10 million to wade into the waters through the night.

Bathers included mendicants with ash-smeared bodies, robed Hindu gurus and hymn-chanting women in yellow, red, and purple saris that many Indian women wear. Among them were also millions of poor villagers, astrologers, faith healers, philanthropists, foreign tourists, rich Indian expatriates and hippies.

The sinners want salvation, and liberty from reincarnation, in which Hindus believe. The poor ask for riches, failed businessmen want a return of their fortunes and the childless seek children from the river they call Mother Ganga.

Believers gather at the Sangam -- the confluence of the dark blue waters of the Yamuna, the gray sandy currents of the Ganga and the mythical Saraswati.

The festival also draws the merely curious.

"Every day something new stuns me here. I discover something new all the while," said John Arnett, a school teacher from Cleveland who was drawn to the city 360 miles east of New Delhi, after reading about the Kumbh Mela on the Internet.

"This is an experience I am going to tell my grandchildren about," he said as he posed for a photograph with a smiling Hindu nun in a saffron-colored robe.

American author Mark Twain, who visited the Kumbh festival in the 1890s, wrote in a memoir: "It is wonderful. The power of faith like that can make multitudes of the old and the weak and the young and the frail to enter without hesitation or complaint."

Jim Clarke of Los Angeles first heard about the Kumbh six months ago in Malaysia, where he teaches English.

"I had been a hippie for a long time, but nothing could give me peace of mind, until I witnessed the Mahakumbh," he said, using the Hindi words that mean "Great Kumbh," as the gathering is also called.

"Now, I am planning to settle in India to feed my hunger for peace and spiritualism," Clarke said.

According to Hindu mythology, the festival celebrates the victory of gods over demons in a battle over a nectar of immortality. Millions gather during the festival on the river banks where, according to myth, the nectar spilled as one of the gods fled with it across the skies.

Along the riverbanks, thousands of poor sleep under the open skies each night, clutching thin, dew-soaked quilts, as dogs sniff for scraps from meals.

Each day, pilgrims consume 12 million gallons of water and 9,250 gallons of milk. More than 15,000 street lights dot the 50 miles of new roads. Thirty-five temporary power stations and 20,000 toilets were built for the festival.

Bishambhar Bhushan, poor and blind, traveled two days in a cramped train from his village of Dhanvani in central Madhya Pradesh state. Bhushan, 80, scooped up the cold river with his hands, and offered it to the heavens in a centuries-old gesture.

"I told Mother Ganga, take me across life, mother," he said, his eyelids twitching with excitement. "My life's ambition is fulfilled."

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