The greatest Religious gathering in the world is just beginning.

While I write sitting with a hot water bottle on my lap Indians are gathering for one of the greatest religious festivals. The Khumb  Mela is a three month festival beginning yesterday where pilgrims bathe in the cold but purifying waters of the Ganges.

It signifies the end of the winter months, and the beginning of the harvest festival. I will personally celebrate putting my hot water bottle away.Kumbha means pot and Mela means fair. This Khumb mela is the biggest religious festival in the world and the numbers of pilgrims, holy men and curious foreigners who go to this mela is staggering, more than the population of Switzerland for example. The figures are often put at 10 million people.

The historical side of this grand gathering talks about the battle between the devtas (Gods) and the assuras (Demons ) over a pot of nectar. The four drops that fell is where the festival is held every three years in a twelve year cycle. This year it is in Haridwar. The other places it is held are Nasik, Allahabad and Ujjian.

Haridwar is considered very holy, due to the fact that this is where the Ganga enters the plains from the Himalayas so it is possibly at its purest. The festival is visited by the most amazing holy men from all across India. The Naga Sadhus never wear any clothes and are smeared in ash. They have long matted hairs and are not at all affected by the extremes of heat and cold.

Bathing in the river Ganges helps to cleanse you of sins and leads you to “Moksha” which is described in a recent book I read “Indians, portrait of the People” as the attainment of salvation, the goal of human life and the ultimate reality.

While I would love to experience this festival from close, I will need the thermometer to climb significantly before I could even contemplate being away from my hot water bottle, let alone bathing in the Ganges but perhaps it is a goal I need to strive for while here.