Life at Kumbha Mela

April 11, 2004

Life at Kumbha Mela

By Panca-pandava dasa, 11th April 2004

Life at the ISKCON Kumbha Mela camp is going on steadily, Mangala Arati

first thing followed by a full morning program. Prasadam follows this, and

then devotees go about their different services, the sankirtan devotees from

Vrindavan are going out to different parts of Ujjain, and a few stay at the

camp to man the book table, which has a very good range of books and

devotional items.

It is very hot during the middle of the day; so many devotees take some rest

in the early afternoon. Then after prasadam at about 5.00pm in the afternoon

we take the Padayatra cart out on Harinam until about 8.00pm. The Harinam is

ecstatic; we either go in towards the centre of Ujjain or head towards other

parts of the tent city. Whichever way we go there are throngs of sadhus and

pilgrims getting the benefit of the chanting of the Holy Name, some join in

with us in the chanting and dancing. We have also been distributing halava

prasadam from the Padayatra cart, so the pilgrims and sadhus are getting

benefit from this also. There are some photos in the Picture Gallery on the

This morning I went to Rama Ghat and then over the river to some of the

other camps, there is one camp of Raman Reti Maharaja, they have a huge hall

for classes during the day and rasa lila in the evening, the whole hall is

air conditioned for which they have a huge generator at the back of their

camp. They are also feeding thousands every day with prasadam, using steel

plates and cups (photo on today's Photo Gallery page)

We then went to the Nagas area of the campsite, there were many naga babas

sitting in their camps, together with other sadhus drinking Coca-cola and

smoking chillums (see Photo Gallery). There is a whole spectrum of

personalities here at Kumbha Mela.

Having white skin everyone asks me where I am from, so I tell them I am from

the Spiritual World, the same place they are from, this gives any easy way

into preaching about us being spirit souls and not these bodies. The

preaching opportunities here are endless, you meet people at our camp, on

the streets, at the bathing ghats, everywhere.

It is a very enlivening experience being here, so I would like to invite you

to come and experience Kumbha Mela at Ujjain. The next major bathing date is

the 22nd April, so if you are coming try to make it here before then.

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