The First Royal Bath of Ujjain Kumbha Mela 2004

[Guest guest]

The First Royal Bath of Ujjain Kumbha Mela 2004

 

By Panca-pandava dasa, 5th April 2004

 

We left our camp this morning just before 6.00am to join up with the

Niravani Akhara in the procession of Akharas. There were many different

Akharas with their respective Mahants sitting on top of jeeps and Sumos,

etc. There were a few on elephants and a few on tractors, but the preferred

vehicles seemed to be Qualis' and Sumos.

 

Many of the Mahants were going past us to line up in the pre arranged order,

there seemed to be a lot of jostling for position going on however. Mostly

the other sadhus seemed to be Rama Bhaktas, as they were all chanting "Jai

Sri Rama! Jai Sri Rama!"

 

We eventually started to move off in our respective place in the procession.

The route went into the town of Ujjain, past the Gopal Mandir and ended up

at Rama Ghat. The route was lined with thousands of people all paying their

respects to the sadhus and saintly persons. Sarvabhauma Prabhu was sitting

in the front of our jeep with Gaura Nitai from the Padayatra rath. Many

people recognised Sarvabhauma Prabhu from the "Atma" TV programme, and aere

paying their respects to him along with the many other sadhus. Many people

also came to pay their respects to Gaura Nitai despite the fact They were a

little difficult to see as They were sitting on the front seat of the jeep.

 

The devotees were chanting nice kirtan, but it was difficult to hear as just

behind us there was a big band, which was chanting "Jai Sri Rama" most of

the time. After some time though one of our devotees went back and asked for

the microphone, which a little surprisingly they gave him so we then had a

better kirtan chanting the Mahamantra, with the backing of the band. The

devotees took it in turn to lead the kirtan, including one Russian mataji,

until we drew close to Rama Ghat.

 

As we approached Rama Ghat everyone changed into gumchas ready for taking

bath. The route took the vehicles right down beside the Ghat, so the

vehicles would just stop and everyone would get off, go and take bath and

then get back on their vehicle and carry on, in procession out of the town

and back to their respective camps.Taking bath was a quick affair, there

were many police speeding things along, so one did not get long to take

bath.

 

It was reported that one million people took bath today, this however is an

unconfirmed figure and we will have better information when we see the

newspaper in the morning.

 

If you would like to see some photos of todays event please visit:

 

www.virtualtemple.net/kumbhamela