Kumbh Mela
I often wondered about those Aghoris who draped the Ganges around themselves at Haridwar. Tied the Godavari in their matted hair. Drank from the Shirpa at Ujjain. Shared their ineligible musings with Prayag. Now, why would I think of them on certain dark nights, on certain busy mornings, on austere afternoons as abundant as time that is not inclusive of this alternate world? I am a woman who mingles freely with Gods and fads. I am a woman who can savour Apple toddy and earthly trappings. I am a woman who drapes, ties, drinks, muses and acquires trappings, amassing - like contiguous lives lived one after the other of all the women who lied their way through seasons. I have often wondered if in some life I was an Aghori when the habitual discontentment of life overwhelms me. I think of trees and birds. I think of an ascetic and the sailor of a commissioned ship. I reason better with things I hold and I covet. Rivers long to overflow into a sea that presumes at the end of the journey it meets the sky. Standing amidst the confluence of roles I play of a wife, mother, daughter - I think of them, standing amidst the Ganga, Jamuna and Sarasvati. And their lust that drives them in hordes leaving behind the intoxication of isolation to dip in the elixir for purity, for auspiciousness, for moksha through rivers and time that turn or turns into elixir. That well guarded secret known to men, of desires and detachment. Aghoris and an Aquarian woman meet. One assumed supreme bliss through dips into the silvery flow. The other has reduced herself into a pitcher, a pond, a river, a sea that can hold a million Aghoris aspiring for salvation. The woman who reasoned triumphs! I have often wondered about those.
A sadhu is solely dedicated to achieving moksa (librtation; i.e. nirvana). The Aghori worship Bhairava, a fierce manifestation of Shiva associated with annihilation, and often dwell in charnel grounds, smear cremation ashes on their bodies, consume feces and urine, and use human bones to make jewelry and skullcaps (kapalas). When the goddess Kali demands sexual satisfaction, they have to have sexual intercourse with a corpse. They believe that everyone's soul is Shiva but is covered by 8 great nooses or bonds (especially sensual pleasure, shame, anger, greed, obsession, fear, and hatred). The practices of the Aghoris are centered around the removal of these bonds. Although they are associated in particular with the city Varanasi, many of the Aghori reside in Hardiwar (“Gateway to Lord Shiva, where the Ganga [Ganges] river first enters the plains of north India and from where pilgrims may begin their journey to Shiva’s eternal abode, Mt. Kailash), Ujjain (another major Shaivite pilgrimage site, on the Shipra [Kshipra], a river which originated from the heart of Varaha, Vishnu’s incarnation as a boar, or, alternatively, from Vishnu’s fingers when they were cut by an enraged Shiva), and Prayag (Place of offerings,” modern Allahabad, the 2nd-oldest city in India, at the confluence of the Ganga, Jamuna, and Sarasvati rivers). The Ganges is the nation’s holiest river, which flows in heaven, on earth, and in the netherworld, and so is the crossing point of all beings, the living as well as the dead. The sage Kapila turned the 60,000 sons of king Sagara into ashes for disturbing his meditation and consigned them to the underworld. King Bhagiratha, anxious to restore his ancestors, after performing rigorous penance, was granted the prize of Ganga's descent from heaven, but Bhagiratha persuaded Shiva to receive Ganga in the coils of his tangled hair and break its fall to prevent its turbulent force from shattering the earth. Tamed by Shiva’s locks, Ganga arrived in the Himalayas and then led by Bhagiratha into the plains at Haridwar, across the plains first to the confluence with the Yamuna at Prayag and then to Varanasi, and eventually to Ganga Sagar, where it met the Bay of Bengal, sank into the netherworld, and saved the sons of Sagara. Since Ganga descended from heaven to earth, it is also the vehicle of ascent from earth to heaven. The Godavari is India’ 2nd longest river, the largest in peninsular India, and is referred to as the “Dakshina Ganga” the Ganges of the south. The sage Gautama cultivated rice and other crops to give away to the needy, but the maaya-dhenu, a miraculous cow, spoiled his rice while he was meditating; Gautama accidentally killed the beast; he went to Nashik, near the source of the Godavari, and asked for atonement from Tryambakeshwara (another avatar of Shiva), who in response diverted the Ganges to wash away the cow’s corpse and gave rise to the Godavari. (As an aside, “shirpa” is a form of sexual intercourse in which a male thrusts his penis in the folds of an obese person.) A toddy is a mixed drink made from whiskey (or rum or brandy), hot water or tea, and honey or sugar, and sometimes with other ingredients such as lemon, ginger ale, cloves, or cinnamon; the term comes from the Indian word for fermented palm sap. The Age of Aquarius is the current astrological age, each of which lasts 2,160 years, the time it takes for the vernal equinox to move from one constellation of the zodiac into the next; it succeeded the Piscean Age, dominated by religion and superstition, and is characterized by the time when humanity takes control of the Earth and its own destiny as its rightful heritage -- the revelation of truth and the expansion of consciousness.
ReplyDeleteKumbh Mela is a mass pilgrimage of faith in which Hindus gather to bathe in a holy river in order to cleanse themselves of sin. There are four of these: the Haridwar Kumbh Mela, the Allahabad Kumbh Mela, the Nashik-Trimbakeshwar Simhastha, and the Ujjain Simhastha. These are the places where Vishnu spilled drops of amrita (the drink of immortality) while he was transporting it in a kumbha (pot) to prevent the asuiras (demons) from obtaining it. The practice probably began at Hardiwar, since it is held according to the Aquarius ("Kumbha") astrological sign, perhaps dating to the 17th century. The dates are determined by the Vikram Samvat calendar (the official Hindu calendar of Nepal since 1901) and the principles of Jyotisha (tracking and predicting astronomical movements). A Kumbh Mela is held at each place every 12 years and is the world's largest gathering of pilgrims; in 2013 some 120 million attended the ceremonies in Allahabad over a 2-month period, 30 million on a single day (the day of the new moon in February). However, their early history was much more violent, since they were managed by the militarized akharas (sects) of sadhus, which collected taxes, carried out policing and judicial duties, and sometimes engaged in trade; in Hardiwar in 1760 the Shaivite (Shiva worshipping) Gosains killed hundreds of Vaishnavite (Vishnu worshipping) bairgis; in Nashik in 1789 a dispute between the Shaivites and Vaishnavites over the bathing order (which indicated the status of the akharas) led to the deaths of 12,000; in Hardiwar again, in 1796, the Shaivites attacked the Sikh Udasis for erecting a camp without their permission, and the Khalsa ("the pure" sect of Sikh warriors) retaliated by killing 500 Gosains. The British East India Company reacted to the carnage by reducing the power of the akharas, thus increasingly limiting the sadhus to beggary.
ReplyDeleteThank you Duane Vorhees and Dr Koshy :)
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