7 ज्ञान from a day at Simhastha

Source- simhasthabooking.com

Ujjain sounded fascinating from the time I read the Oath of Vayuputras. Amish Tripathi’s sensory description of one of the oldest cities of the world made it a must visit and Simhastha, the Maha Kumbh, looked like the ideal reason to be there.

I read it somewhere that a whooping amount of approx Rs 3000 crores was spent in the carnival held from April 22 to May 21. The grandeur of the setup completely justified the amount. From the colossal Greece-style columns adoring the entrance of Ujjain to the spick and span streets, the arrangements for the ‘sadhus’ at the ghats to the huge number of police deployment, the amount invested was pertinent everywhere.

Source-patrika.com

When you live in the state where such a mega event is underway, it is needless to mention that the Maha Kumbh becomes the only fodder for the state media and the national ones to an extent. From the meaning of Simhastha to its purpose (for more details refer to http://www.mptourism.com/pdf-html/simhastha/index-su.html), from the Narmada-Kshipra Sihastha Link Pariyogna to the controversies enveloping the religious gala, the ‘shahi snan’ (royal bath) to ‘vichar mahakumbh’, the appreciable management to the fiasco leading to deaths owing to inclement and erratic weather, there is hardly a thing that did not find substantial space in some corner of the newspapers or a slot on news channels.

It was challenging to write about something that was not yet written or speak about something yet to be spoken. Thus, I thought of adding a personal touch to it as that was the best an apolitical person could do.

A travelogue I once read about things needed to be done once in a lifetime found mention of visiting a Kumbh. It said being at a Kumbh could be an epiphany. I wasn’t a witness to the ‘Vichar Mahakumh’ and life-changing of not, the journey and experience of a day in the ‘land of Kshipra’ did have its share of lessons for me.

Source-The Quint

1. Nirvana comes by taking a dip in holy water rather than helping the poor and needy with alms

While the mass assemblage was busy washing off their sins at the banks of Kshipra, only a few paid heeds to the needy sitting outside the venue, hungry. Of course, taking a dip in the river was a more plausible way of ‘moksh prapti’!

2. Never trust someone else’s source

Unlike my plan of being at the Simhastha during the inauguration, I finally managed to be there on the concluding day after bouts of persuasion here and there. As journalists, we know the importance of ‘a source’. While it is importance in showing confidence in your source, trusting somebody else’s could land you in a soup.

3. Good planning is one that comes with a backup plan

When you want something, it is always judicious to have a backup plan for it. Why bank on plan A alone when there are so many more alphabets?

 4. In life there could be a time when things are beyond your control and you can hardly do anything about it

Well, this has a small story to it. We were a mix-age group of seven; three in their 50s, one in her early 30s while three of us in our 20s. The walk of around 6kms sounded difficult to the elderly and thus it was decided that we would hire a hand-pulled cart that had started operating to manage the crowd deftly. I was vehemently opposed to the idea of being manoeuvred to the Ram Ghat (the main venue) by a middle-aged cart puller who pushed it from the back while a little kid and a youngster pulled it ahead and made way for the vehicle through the humongous traffic. It crushed my heart to see a kid bear the brunt of our cumulative weight, en route to our journey towards ‘nirvana’. However, there was nothing I could do as I did not want to sound obstinate.

A realization dawned upon me that certain things in life can go out of control and there is little you can do about it.

On a lighter note…

5. Growing in a place like Guwahati can come to your rescue in ways more than that you could imagine

All who has seen been a part of Durga Puja in Kolkata and Guwahati, Ambubashi in Kamakhya Temple, managed to walk through the first local at Howrah station or for that matter even survived through a walk in Sadar Bazaar, Old Delhi, just ahead of Diwali can remain unfrazzled  even in the largest conglomeration ever.

Source-plus.google.com

6. You can survive an event even without announcing it on the social media

This isn’t intended at taking a jibe at anyone, but I realised it wasn’t so difficult to survive an event without posting a ‘paap dhoying’ waala selfie or enlightening the world with Facebook check-ins, live and loud from Ujjain.

7. Duniya mein ‘paapiyon’ ki kami nahin hain

It is not only Nawazuddin Siddique in the trailers of Te3N who is in pursuit of absolute redemption. I don’t know if they were in lakhs or in crores, but all that Ujjain saw on the last day of the ‘Shahi Snan’ were people; here, there, everywhere. The large confluence of devotees, that also included myself was a testament to how each one of us is driven by the desire of redemption and can brave even a sweltering summer and unruly crowd to seek it!

 

Source- patrika.com