Word: kumbh
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...TIME: If you're going to do something different, this is the cast for it. Khan: (Laughs.) They're saying it's the World Cup of acting. It's the Kumbh Mela [India's biggest religious festival] with a sadhu [wise man] in every tent...
...Number of people trampled to death by pilgrims at a Hindu Kumbh festival in Nasik, India...
This is the Kumbh Mela (Jar Festival), by far the largest religious pilgrimage in the world. At the high point of the observance last week, an estimated 10 million people dipped themselves in the waters. By the time the five sacred weeks end on Feb. 5, about 50 million pilgrims will have participated, most of them humble villagers who travel from all regions of India...
Wash Sins. Devout Hindus bathe in the Ganges all year long to wash away their sins, but the spiritual effect of the ablutions is considered most potent during the festivals that are held at twelve-year intervals on one of four sites. The Kumbh Mela at Allahabad is the most blessed, for here the Ganges meets not only the Yamuna but the Saraswati, a legendary underground river. This spot is known as the Sangam (sacred confluence). Some holy men, moreover, deem the current configuration of the sun, moon and stars to be exactly the same as at the creation...
Though any dip in the Ganges washes away all previous sins, the Kumbh Mela offers an incomparably greater benefit. As the ancient poet Kalidas said, "Purified by a bath at the confluence of the Ganges and the Yamuna, a person attains salvation after death even without acquiring true knowledge." For last week's pilgrims, this means that at death they will at last escape the endless cycle of birth and rebirth, and enter the bliss of union with the absolute...