by teddy33 » Sun May 30, 2010 3:44 pm
The Maha Kumbh Mela has a very huge religious importance in not only Hindus but world wide.
The festival is religiously most important for the Hindus. At every Kumbh occassion, millions of Hindus take part in the celebrations. During 2001 Kumbh at Allahabad, more than 35 million devoteed gathered at the site. Saints, priests, and yogis from all corners of India, gather to participate in Kumbh. Of all the places, Allahabad is the most sacred place and is the site for the Maha Kumbh Mela (The Grand Kumbh Fair).
The festival is visited by the most amazing saints from all across India. The Naga Sadhus are one such, who never any cloth and are smeared in ash. They have long matted hairs and are not at all affected by the extremes of heat and cold. Then there are the Urdhwavahurs, who believe in putting the body through severe austerities. There are the Parivajakas, who have taken a vow of silence and go about tinkling little bells to get people out of their way. The Shirshasins stand all 24 hours and meditate for hours standing on their heads. Spending the entire month of Kumbh on the banks of Ganga, meditating, performing rituals and bathing thrice a day, are the Kalpvasis.
It is believed that bathing during Kumbh cures the bather of all sins and evils and grants the bather, salvation. It is also believed that at the time of Kumbh Yog, the water of Sangam (confluence of rivers at Allahabad) is charged with positive healing effects and that water at the time of Kumbh is charged positively by enhanced electromagnetic radiations of the Sun, Moon and the Jupiter, the flux of which also varies in accordance to positions and the phases of the moon, and also by the + and - signs of the sun spots. As per Puranas (Hindu Scripts) properties of river water at Allahabad has been referred to as Amrit or elexir.