Prayagraj: Every six years, the floodplains come alive - teeming with people – the site of one of the holiest pilgrimages that a Hindu can undertake. The tents are pitched and devotees are making their way to Sangam – the confluence of the Ganga, the Yamuna and the mythical Saraswati Rivers.
This year, an estimated 15 crore people are expected to visit the Kumbh Mela. Some will come to gain Moksha – liberation from the cycle of birth and death – others to find out what it means to be a Hindu - because as the Sadhus would say, without the Kumbh, Hinduism may not even have survived.
“If there was no kumbh, sanatan dharma would be extinct. Naga Sadhus had taken up arms against the Buddhist Empire of India. When young people come to Kumbh, they are told this history,” says Narendra Giri, president of the Akhara Parishad.
It is believed that when the alignment of the planets is just right, a holy dip at Sangam can wash away all sins. Sadhus from all over the country meet here for Kumbh for what is considered the largest religious congregation in the world.
At present, Hindutva has acquired centrestage as the nation heads to a general election. But how is the Hinduism of the sadhus and mendicants different from the political idea of Hindutva?
The diversity of Hinduism and the Hindu way of life is in sharp relief here. In the camps of the Naga sadhus — the ancient order of warrior monks — one finds a mosaic of personalities, each representing a different core value of the religion. Sangam Giri is a sadhu of the Juna Akhara, the largest and fiercest of the 13 akharas that makes up the Naga Army. His Hinduism is not rigid or based on any one form of worship. That syncreticism that has bound Hinduism and Islam over the last 12 centuries is very much alive in Sangam Giri’s faith.
“They (Muslims) worship nirakar (a formless God) and we worship aakar (idol worship). There may be three routes, but we are going to the same place. There are 25 different ways to get to Allahabad. Everyone takes a different route to the railway station. The people guarding those routes are profiting. Real dharma brings people together,” he says.
If the flexibility of faith is what works for Sangam Giri, for Digambar Shravan Giri, it is the ideas of personal freedom and liberty that makes him a Hindu. As a Naga sadhu, he says he will find liberation in this life and the next. “I didn’t decide anything. I just ran away from home and became a baba. My dad brought me back 7 times, but I kept running away. We became sadhus to get mukti (freedom). I now have mukti, I am free of everything. I live freely and eat what I can get. People treat me with respect. I am naked now, so I am completely free.”
When a man becomes a sadhu, he leaves his old life behind. All distinctions of caste, creed and colour are shed as they merge into this ancient brotherhood. Perhaps few would understand the value of acceptance more than Shravan Giri, an Australian by birth who has now renounced his old life to become an ascetic. He claims he doesn’t remember the name he was born with anymore. The Juna Akhara has been his home since 2003.
“The very first rule of yoga is yama and the first word of yama is ahimsa (no harm). That’s the starting point of Hindu thinking — no harm. So stirring people up to attack another group is completely wrong. Whatever you do, cause no harm. If you make a positive word out of ahimsa, it’s ‘love’. The starting point is universal love.”
But as a muscular Hindutva dominates politics and spills over into daily life, Hindus are being increasingly defined in opposition to other communities. Nearly 300 people have reportedly been killed by mobs since 2014. The fact that the overwhelming majority of the victims were Muslims has been attributed to the rise of a belligerent Hindu nationalism. But here at the Kumbh, the epicentre of the Hindu faith, Mohammed Mehmood an electrical contractor, called ‘Mullahji’ by the sadhus, never feels like ‘the other’. The liberal outlook of the Hindu religion practised by these sadhus is his lived experience.
“When I don't like something, I tell the Gurus straight away. If they had treated me differently, I would not have come. When I read the namaz, they give me all due respect. The day someone treats me badly, I will stop coming here. Even they (Babas) know all religions are the same,” Mehmood says.
The deep spiritualism of Kumbh doesn’t insulate these mendicants from 21st century realities. The politically motivated violence in the name of the holy cow, they say, goes against every tenet of their faith.
“No violence is justified. If we don’t feel ok about the death of an animal, how can we feel ok with the death of a human? Cow slaughter is not ok. But I don’t blame the cow killers, but I blame the cattle farmers for abandoning the cows,” says Vasudevanand Saraswati, the Shankaracharya of the Jyotishpeeth.
Ranjit Bharti, a sadhu who has pitched his tent on the sand, says, “Sanatan Dharma doesn’t teach us to discriminate. Our policy is to love everyone. Every living creature, even non-living thing has a piece of God in them.”
The politics of Uttar Pradesh, the state where the Kumbh is held, took a decisive rightward turn when Yogi Adityanath, the head priest of the Gorakhnath Math, was made the chief minister. His government’s focus on the Kumbh hasn’t gone unnoticed by the sadhus. Spread over 3,200 hectares, this is the largest Kumbh ever in terms of total area. With more toilets, better management and an emphasis on the Hindu heritage of the city with the recent name change to ‘Prayagraj’, the chief minister’s stock is high.
“Yogi is doing good work here. He has stopped illegal cow slaughter. Besides, I have never seen such good facilities in the mela before,” the Shankaracharya said.
They were hoping that Yogi’s appointment as CM would also pave the way for the early construction of the Ram Temple in Ayodhya. With the BJP’s central leadership waiting for the judiciary to decide the matter first, there is a sense of frustration among politicians who have built their entire careers on the back of this promise to Hindus. Narendra Giri, president of the Akhara Parishad, says hopes rocketed sky high after the BJP swept Uttar Pradesh in 2017.
An indignant Narendra Giri says, “Who is responsible? Those who promised the mandir and didn't do the job. We also canvassed for the BJP. We will need an iron man like Vallabhai Patel. We don't have a leader like him right now. If they don't give us the Ram Mandir after winning so many seats, then we will be disappointed. Our job is to chant the name of Ram. For some their job is to seek votes in the name of Ram. BJP is reaping the benefits of Ram. The 325 seats they got were not in the name of development. If vikas was an issue, Akhilesh Yadav would have won.
People thought after Godhra, Modi would make the mandir. There was a Hindutva wave. But there was no mandir.”
The Shankaracharya adds, “Ram Mandir is not a new issue. Lakhs have been killed since Babur’s time. The Constitution is a barrier in this. The court agreed that it was the land of Ram Lalla, but still divided the land. No government can go against the Constitution. This government has come in the name of Hindutva, so Hindus hope their religion will be protected under this government.”
If the leaders of the sadhus are careful in wording their anger, the lower-rung mendicants who live on the sands in Kumbh find no reason to hide their annoyance. “Politicians divide people on the basis of religion. Ram Mandir issue is embroiled in politics now. They (politicians) don’t actually want to build the temple,” says Ranjit Bharti.
Meanwhile, worshippers continue to throng the Kumbh to unburden themselves of their sins and seek Moksha or liberation.
For thousands of years, people have gathered at the confluence of these rivers. Even as Hindutva seeks to rigidly define identities, each person at Kumbh brings with them their own unique idea of what it means to be a Hindu. Perhaps this diversity is why Kumbh, much like Hinduism itself, has stood the test of time.
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