The traditional and perennial symbolism of the Kumbh Mela

From the point of view of the spiritual quest it is obvious: When one undertakes the quest, the higher and lower tendencies within us, the Devas and Asuras tug either way at one’s ego, rotating it back and forth and churning up the subconscious.

The divine nature of flowing water has been a theme recognised by all traditions since the beginning of time and found at the heart of all of the religious traditions. It speaks most directly to the universal and uncoloured bursting forth of Life underlying them all. In the Hindu tradition, the perennial river is the goddess Ganga (River Ganges)—coming down from the heavens through the penance of a renunciate king to the Great Lord Shiva. It sustains the subcontinent where most of the world today live. At Prayag, at the confluence of the Ganga, Yamuna and the subterranean Saraswati, the great and holy Maha Kumbh Mela this year is poised to draw millions.

The Kumbh Mela, the largest religious gathering in the world (over 120 million pilgrims), is held in four locations along the Ganges. The mela has a tradition traced back to time itself. The dates of celebrations are calculated according to the astral positions of the Sun, the Moon and Jupiter in the firmament. The belief is that at these spots the Lord Maha Vishnu, who sustains the universe, in his form of the enticing Mohini, spilt the Holy Grail containing the nectar of immortality.

The Maha Kumbh Mela this year is especially significant as it last took place 144 years ago and as the Puranic texts state: “Those who bathe in the bright waters of the Ganga where they meet the dark waters of the Yamuna and the transcendent flow of Saraswati under the watch of Sun, Moon and Jupiter during the month of Magha [around January/February of the Gregorian Calendar] will not be reborn, even in thousands of years”—the fulfilment of the objective that is considered to be life’s purpose by most in the Dharmic religions.

Historically, Adi Sankara (c. 8th century BC), “the great acharya” is credited with reviving the tradition of Sanatan Dharma (lit. the perennial tradition) bringing together the various tribes scattered around Southern Asia during his time around this confluence. His philosophy describes the One Godhead as perceived from many sides, based on one’s vantage point, all being equally true descriptions.

In Jewish tradition, ritual immersion is still present as a rite of passage for converts and the Christian world is familiar with the story of St John the Baptist baptising Jesus of Nazareth in the River Jordan. Early Christians were baptised by total immersion in rivers in this memory of the first baptism performed by St John the Baptist. The Bible does not describe Jesus, but describes St John the Baptist to a T: It would be easier to point to the Naga sadhus at the Kumbh Mela than look at a Caravaggio portrait! As they perfectly fit the Biblical description, many scholars believe that St John must have come from India to help reaffirm the eternal religion to those who had lost the way.

Jesus Christ’s missing years were likely spent in India as Christian teachings share concepts with Vedanta and Buddhism and its sacraments are rife with aspects of Yoga and Tantra. The Hindus still worship the same One god in many forms, of which only One is worshipped at a time.

This “polymorphous” monotheism still surprises modern western monotheists, who have, since the fall of the Knights Templar, moved so far away from the heart of their tradition into modernity that they fail to grasp some fundamentals in their own tradition, which of course hinders any deep mutual understanding. It would be easier for devout Muslims to understand the symbolism of the Kumbh Mela as they have not fallen for the false hopes of modernity. Islam remains almost the same since the days when the prophet was instructed to ritually cleanse over wudu ablutions for the five daily prayers corresponding with the five sandhyas that only a few Hindus remember to keep today. The miraculously generated waters of the Zam Zam at once both sacred and mystical continue to nourish the pilgrims of the Hajj.

The heart of the story is also very much the same: the inner jihad—good and evil energies of nature (devas and asuras) wanted to acquire the holy grail of immortality which was sunk in the primordial waters. Wishing to partake in the elixir of life, they started churning the ocean of milk by rotating in it the Mount Meru (the “axis mundi” for Dharmic religions), one party pulling it one way and the other in the other direction—centrifugally and the other centripetally. The synthesis of these forces resulted in the emergence of poison so terrible that the whole world might have perished of it, had the Great Lord Shiva not stepped in and swallowed it. It penetrated only as far as his throat, which turned blue from it, whence he is represented in iconography as Neelakanta (lit. the blue-throated) also being the colour of the healing aspect of Lord Buddha. Further fruits emerged from their labours and went to those that deserved them.

Finally, the kumbh of Amrita (lit. ambrosia)—“the holy grail” of this tradition was brought forth. The Devas wanted it all for themselves but the Asuras naturally refused. Thereupon the Lord Maha Vishnu assumed the form of a beautiful damsel Mohini and the Asuras were so infatuated that they forgot all about the Amrita.

This tale has both a macrocosmic and a microcosmic symbolism which can be used to decode the meaning. The more perceptive schools of modern psychologists would recognise it straightaway. From the point of view of the spiritual quest it is obvious: When one undertakes the quest, the higher and lower tendencies within us, the Devas and Asuras tug either way at one’s ego, rotating it back and forth and churning up the subconscious. The first result is to bring to the surface lower energies, of which perhaps one’s conscious mind had hitherto been unaware. These, when actualised, threaten to destroy one, but in the Dharmic tradition, the spiritual preceptor or “the Guru” takes them on himself.

Individually this depicts the sustaining power of the Guru; cosmically, it is the doctrine which the Christians call atonement: “He that taketh upon himself the sins of the world.”

When finally Amrita is obtained it has to immortalise only the good, not the evil energies. This is the attainment of a beatific state by the individual aspirant; cosmically it can refer to the perpetuation of the achievements of this cycle of human development in the heavenly realm—the promised land, which inaugurates the next Satya Yuga (Golden Age—the first in the cyclical view of Time), while the lower tendencies and those who manifest them are swept away. It is in fact the same as Christ’s parable of the division into the sheep and goats. But in order to be destroyed they must first be deluded; they must not want the Amrita in the first place.

Therefore, the Lord Maha Vishnu, the God of Preservation, the God who holds the universe afloat despite its persistent downward tug to materialism, who bears the aspirant through all the dangers and hardships of the quest, takes a form of illusion, the illusion of worldly values, and they are so infatuated by this that they forget about spiritual life, leaving it to the Devas alone to pursue.

Such puranic stories widely known in India passed on in strong families through mothers and grandmothers are now dismissed as mere fairy-tales in Europe, and most people attach little if any importance to them. Those with understanding can expound them as modern individuals lack the traditional key to understanding them.

The Graeco-Roman and Germanic religions have been much closer. Scattered through ancient literature are references to metempsychosis, vegetarianism and harmony of the spheres. A study of Pythagoreanism leaves no doubt that there was once a tradition in Europe involving initiation and spiritual training, some strands of which involved silence and seclusion. It is also clear from their writings that Socrates, Plato, the neo-Platonists and even the Victorians revivalists of these ancient divines were, at the least, serious seekers with considerable theoretical understanding, even if there was not the flowering of spiritual enlightenment as in the golden age of the ancient world and early middle Ages that produced not just these sublime and illuminating thoughts which are still alive today but also the most sophisticated and enduring in art and music. Moreover, the myths themselves show signs of having incorporated into life, a wisdom, which must once have been articulate, as that of the Hindu still is today.

The fundamental demand of every religion is that one should renounce worldly values in pursuit of the spiritual; material obsession is opposed to the very spirit of religion, seeking as they do to placate or control material forces in order to attain worldly values. This is no less true if the purpose is to obtain anything below beatitude, clairvoyance of psychic powers or control over others or stockpiling resources, since there is nothing spiritual in all this. These lower tendencies may be rampant in India today as in the West, but it is certainly not Hinduism, any more than this materialism and technocracy of the modern West is Christianity!

Initiation through apostolic succession and sacraments passed down the ages may seem little more than platitudes in the post-Scholastic philosophising, post-Renaissance humanistic, post-Enlightenment dualistic and post-modern nihilistic age that is heading fast to life under a faceless technocratic world government.

On the other hand, one will witness at the Kumbh Mela a remarkable survival of the ancient oral tradition with its many strands, all of whom despite being divided into sects, still pray for the maintenance of Dharma or Rita—the cosmic rhythm of the universe at large, not just supplicate for their own votaries.

For the millions who will congregate at Prayag for the Maha Kumbh Mela this year, the leviathan bureaucratic apparatus of government normally sclerotic has remarkably sprung into action and come together to ensure full use of the latest in green tech, eco jets and the modern marvels of AI as tools to serve the higher purpose.
When humanity gets to mingle with some of the oldest orders of renunciates in the world belonging to the most diverse major religious tradition, it brings a great opportunity for the moderns who have lost their way to reacquaint with our lost common heritage, to ponder on and re-affirm the purpose of Life.

Ravi Kandamath has an abiding interest in perennial wisdom and wellbeing, the mystical aspect of world religions and inter-religious dialogue.