World's largest spiritual event underway (video)

Seven, Ashley Wells, Harichandra Kumar, Wisdom Quarterly

India's most recognizable landmark: Islam's magnificent Taj Mahal (sjpaderborn)

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ALLAHABAD, India - What event brings together more people than ANY other event in the history of the world? It is a spiritual festival currently underway in India. It repeats every four years at various locations, but every 12 years it becomes a mega-event of staggering proportions, the Maha Kumbh Mela. Millions of India's largely rural population heads toward the Himalayas to the confluence of two visible rivers and an invisible river or spiritual channel. These are the semi-mythical Saraswati, Yamuna, and Ganges as they converge in an Indian Himalayan foothill town known as Haridwar. Nearby Rishikesh will also see a flood of pilgrims who come to bath in the holy (Ganga) confluence to wash away "bad" karma. (This is the foundation of the popular Christian belief that the holy Jordan river could do the same, as evidenced by John the Baptist and later space-angels who "troubled the waters or effectively made ordinary water a healing agent). 

The "Spring Festival," or Chinese New Year (Feb. 10, 2013), is the auspicious day for bathing. It is not simply spiritual seekers and curious onlookers. The height of the celebrations are due to the presence of the country's yogis, sages, prophets, wandering ascetics, and priests. Many of them fierce, independent, smoking bhangra, and in possession of supernormal powers (samadhi  and siddhis), they are a spectacle showcasing India's incredible spiritual diversity and tolerance, the fertile ground that made the spread of Buddhism possible. Unfortunately, the popularity of the Buddha-Dharma was such that it had to be co-opted and subsumed in the dominant Brahminical Vedic philosophy of the day. The resulting amalgamation of brahmana (temple priest) and shramana (shaman, hermit, recluse, wandering ascetic) dharmas (teachings) gave birth to Mahayana Buddhism. As hard as this may be to believe, a study of modern Hinduism will shed great light on strange "Buddhist" devotional practices, deities, magic, rites, rituals, and beliefs. Many were rejected by the historical Buddha, but that did not stop Mahayanists from simply inventing new buddhas, sutras, gods, avatars, bodhisattvas, and figures such as the Taras and an odd, expectant messianic complex obsessed with the future-Buddha Maitreya rather than the current one and his extant message and teachings.

Tens of thousands of pilgrims converge on platforms along the Ganges in Haridwar (wiki)

• What does Kumbh Mela mean?
• Kumbha Mela 2013 (Himalayan Institute) 
• Lost in a Sea of People and Languages
  (Patrick Cox) What happens to those who get lost at the world’s largest religious gathering? Not only are there millions of people, but among them they speak hundreds of mutually incomprehensible languages.

  Lost and Found at India’s Kumbh Mela
  (David Leveille) This year’s Kumbh Mela is expected to attract millions of people. Imagine how easy it is to get lost in the crowds. On the biggest day of the festival, it’s estimated that as many as 20,000 people will get lost along countless rows of tents. Separated from their families and friends, they will seek assistance at the lost and found desk.