Magh Mela 2014

Winter was milder than last year and cold arrived only after January 6th. This mitigated its effects that in the worst years can be tragic. The new year began well and on January 13th we commemorated Shri Maitreyni Yogini, Shri Aghoreshwar’s mother, on her Nirvana Diwas day.

The first nation’s anniversary is the Republic Day, on January 26th. Children prepared chants and dances for the occasion with the usual enthusiasm and the great fun that characterizes them. For them this is a reason for doing their best and being involved and, even though for a short while, it helps them forget the heaviness of their daily life that is waiting for them when they go home. These children must grow up fast, they have few childhood amusements, and when there is an anniversary like this one, getting the school show ready is the playtime they often are denied.

In the morning of January 26th the schoolchildren marched through the village roads, singing slogans and chants and waving Indian flags. When they went back, teachers addressed the children with words of encouragement; then the kids performed their chants and dances. Prashad was given to all the people.

In the following days we started preparations for the Magh Mela in Allahabad. Baba Aghoreshwar had asked us to keep this annual tradition He himself followed, and our camp will be present at every future edition.

This Kumbha Mela is less important than Maha Kumbha Mela that falls every twelve years but it attracts millions of visitors, though. As we were very busy at the centre, this year we decided to go there on the main date, Mouni Amavasya, on January 30th. With a few old sadhus, devotees and friends we left and we went to this meeting, the most important of Indian tradition. Our camp was close to the main entrance, and everyone who reached the Mela for the religious rituals could see it. On this occasion, dedicated to the commemoration and the celebration of the ancestors, entire families come to pray and making offerings at the confluence of the holy rivers. Practitioners, on the other hand, commemorate the generations of Masters and Saints of their lineage.

Obviously such a crowd attracts religious celebrants, merchants, boasters, scoundrels, beggars and the ones who can take advantage of the generosity or ingenuousness of people.

The planning of the event wasn’t very accurate and the office in charge was criticized a lot. Moreover in the beginning hard rainy days damaged many camps and made the stay difficult for the ones who wanted to spend the entire period at the camp but on Mouni Amavasya the weather was calm and so our stay was pleasant and peaceful.

In this period with the doctors of our hospital we organized medical camps in a few country areas in Uttar Pradesh and in Bihar, where hundreds of people who have no access to healthcare were seen by our doctors and been given medicines, treatments, glasses for free, and the ones who needed to be operated have been invited to our centre.

This mild winter – that has kept us company while we were there – lasted until the end of February when the hot weather has made the temperature rise up to 40° in mid-March, predicting a very hot summer.