Millions gather to ‘purify souls’ in Hindu bathing ritual

Ag AFP

ALLAHABAD, INDIA: Millions of Hindu devotees are gathering in northern India for the Magh Mela — one of the world´s biggest religious festivals involving ritual bathing in the holy waters of the Ganges river.

An estimated 10 million Hindus descend on the city of Allahabad every January for the festival staged at the sacred meeting point of the Ganges, Yamuna and mythical Saraswati rivers. The 45-day Mela is currently underway, with pilgrims camping across Allahabad and joining the colourful throngs for dips in the venerated waters. Among them is Shiv Yogi Moni Swami, a holy man smeared in sandalwood paste, carrying a trident and clad in nothing more than beads and a leopard-print wrap around his waist. Swami demonstrates his devotion not by walking to the confluence of the rivers known as the Sangam but by rolling the roughly one-kilometre distance from his tent to the waters. It is not an easy task, with his body collecting dust and grime before he arrives at the confluence where he submerges himself fully. The act “purifies the soul and washes away all sins”, he told AFP, after scattering rose petals to the rising sun and performing his ablutions.