Kumbh Mela or Kumbha Mela is a major pilgrimage and festival in Hinduism where devotees take ritual dip in river. It is celebrated in a cycle of approximately 12 years, to celebrate every revolution Brihaspati completes, at four river-bank pilgrimage sites:
1. The Prayagraj (Gange-Yamuna-Sarasvati river sangam),
2. The Haridwar (Gange),
3. The Nashik (Godavari), and
4. The Ujjain (Shipra).
In this festival many various sadhus all over world come together to have rutial dip which is also called as “Shahi Snan“, various people of different community, education, religious saint, mass feeding of monks, rich, poor etc. come for this holly event.
Purpose is very simple: Its to seek bath in these rivers and have prayascitta for past mistake and cleansing of the their sins.
Haridwar kumbh mela 2021 was indeed a special one for me, it was my third Kumbh but first in Haridwar. It was going to be difficult, COVID-19 pandemic was at its peak in Mumbai, Pune and rest of the Maharashtra.
Finally we decided and flew from Mumbai to Dehradun from 9’th April to 15’th April to attends 12’th April Shahi Snan.
Day 1: Start of Journey
Gagangiri Maharaj ashram – Khopoli
Reached Dehradun airport and found huge hording to welcome all devotees for Maha Kumbh
Jangamas: These were the people typically dressed and singing, dancing in a unique way, with lot of expressions, their spirit was really very high… Dharam badega.. Dingding.. ringing bells
Kal Bhairav temple: During Mughal time, all the temples were destroyed and no sadhus were allowed to do Bhakti. If anyone was found doing Bhakti they we killed. So, all the Sadhus came together and requested lord to save the dharma, as per request, Kal Bhairav came in avta and protected the sadhus. It is believed, Naga sadhus were trained for self and protection of Dharam, hence we find there sadhus worshiping and using weapons for protection of Dharam.
Vijendra Babar, Shivandandgiri, Ganeshgiri, Naik Kaka, Ganesh Kadne, Satesh Chavan, Sandesh Narkar
Watching and Listening Maa Ganga Aarti is so soothing, you really feel the purity in the air, this is something which one should just experience. Watch videos or photo will not have that effect…
Ram Setu: It was hard to believe that a stone was floating in water, initially it appear to be an gimmicks but when I tried lifting to with my hand, it was way heavy to lift it, around 21 kg.
Unbelievable 🙏🙏
Complete top view of Kumbh mela in night, amazing to see entire city.
Day 3: Towards Avdashanand Giri Ashram – this is the place where I first saw Rudraksha tree, it was simply amazing. We all started making pradiskshina to tree and all of sudden, wind blew due to which Rudraksha seed felt in front of us. We felt like Lord Shiva is blessing us from top. Har Har Mahadev …
Barfani Dham: Last year Dec 2020, Barfani maharaj took samadhi, we missed them a lot. In last kumbh mela of Prayagraj, we were very fortunate to get charan seva of Barfani maharaj. Officially their age is 300-350+ years on government records. Despite his physical presence was not there, we felt like he was around us during darshana 🙏
Day 3: Lord Daksha temple – this is the place where Maa Saati jumped in Havan kundh because King Daksha (father of Maa Sati) didn’t invited Lord Shiva for Maha Yadnya. Its amazing to see the temple and Havan kund.
Day 4: Big Day, Shahi Snan – 12 April 2021
Anand Giri: We were blessed to have shvas and charan seva of Anand Giri, they also enjoyed our presence and showered each of us with their blessings 🙏🙏🙏
Nilkhant Mahadev temple: This is the place where Lord Mahadev had done prashan of poison which came out of Amruth manthan 🙏🙏🙏
Blessing from Sadhu on last day
End of the most awaited Bhavya Divya Kumbh, Haridwar 2021.
I’m thankful to my Guru Gagangiri Maharaj, because of their blessing only we were able to reach here in Kumbh mela.
Also special thanks to Ganeshgiri and Shivanandgiri Mahraj, since they make it look so easy, we got chance to do charan seva, enjoy the Shahi snan, Bhasma snan, all those walks around Haridwar and Hrishikesh 🙏🙏🙏
With having such a jolly group of people, I could have never every enjoyed it.. thanks Sandy, Satesh, Naik Saheb and Ganesh…
I also like to thanks my Parents, Wife, Son and Loved once for all their blessing and well wishes – without it this journey won’t have been done.
Har Har Mahadev 🙏🙏🙏
Vijendra Babar 