Let me first tell you the gist of a fictional mythological tale. According to the legend, the gods and demons churned the ocean to obtain Amrit. The drops of Amrit that came out of the churning fell at four places, Haridwar, Nashik, Allahabad and Ujjain. So, Bhante, these four places were considered holy and endowed with divine power. Out of these, Allahabad is where three rivers meet, so it is considered the most holy. Kumbh takes place once every six years and Maha Kumbh every twelve years. If we believe the Puranas, then every 12 years the same dates and stars are found in which the ocean was churned and Amrit was obtained. And according to the scriptures, by taking a dip in the Kumbh, your sins are washed away and you attain salvation. Apart from this, there are spiritual benefits.
If you are fed up with the legends written above, then let us talk with some scientific consciousness. It is clear from the above mentioned things that all this is nonsense and neither the Samudra Manthan (churning of the ocean) was ever done nor Amrit (nectar) was produced. Neither do your sins get washed away by bathing in Sangam, nor do you get salvation. In fact, washing away sins and getting salvation is a mere fantasy in itself.
Yes, it is true that rivers have contributed a lot in the development of human civilization, or rather, human civilization developed around rivers, because the water necessary for life was available from rivers only. Wells and stepwells came into existence much later. Therefore, rivers were considered life-giving, and our ancestors started worshipping rivers. Not only rivers, every element of nature worship depends on this, whether it is the worship of fire or the sun, the moon or the wind. Rain is required for a good crop, so a god who brings rain was imagined. You will find the deities of your clan in every village and town. But the real question is that all these beliefs were developed when we did not understand nature, we did not have any explanation for the events happening in it, so we considered it divine and started worshipping it. But now we have enough knowledge of nature due to science. From the origin of rivers to fire, air, water, sun, moon, there is a scientific explanation for everything. Even today man is engaged in research by sending his spacecraft to the moon and Mars. Then believing in such things is nothing but foolishness.
An atmosphere was created from the very beginning about Kumbh and it was publicised in such a way that more and more people reached Kumbh. A lie was also spread that this Maha Kumbh has come after 144 years. The way the fascist governments of the center and the state are fooling people in the name of religion, its effect is also clearly visible on the public. People are rushing towards Kumbh in such a large number, the government also presents exaggerated figures every day, that so many crore people took bath in Kumbh. News channels are busy glamorizing this thing every day. After so much publicity, everyone has started having FOMO that if they do not go to Kumbh, what they will miss. Nobody knows how many people died in the stampede in Kumbh, no one knows at how many places stampede took place. The government very easily covered up its mismanagement, news channels stuffed money in their mouths.
There was a traffic jam for hours in Allahabad and the surrounding areas, the entire city is still a victim of chaos. In such a situation, where the government should have stopped people from coming to Kumbh, on the contrary, the government is busy making records of gathering more crowd. And even after all these incidents, the height of people's stupidity is that still lakhs of people are rushing to go to Kumbh. In this chaos, 18 people died in the stampede at Delhi station (government figures). Videos are coming from so many railway stations that people are running towards Kumbh, stuffed in trains like sheep and goats. In how many trains, people have been seen breaking the glass and entering. They have been seen pouring water on fellow passengers. Is this really religion? Are these people really running in the hope of spiritual knowledge and salvation? Or is this Kumbh proving to be just a herd mentality, where people just want to take a dip without any logic. And the government? The government is only interested in its own praise and publicity. The government is secretly happy with your stupidity and is thinking how easy it is to fool people. They can be pushed anywhere in the name of religion, their lives can be taken in the name of attaining salvation and they can shirk their responsibilities. People from elite families have already taken their cars on the highways, they will take a VIP dip in the Kumbh while eating in a good restaurant away from the crowd and will tell you how divine the experience was. What a good arrangement.
If people really knew the importance of rivers and considered them as mother, they would not have gone to Kumbh and thrown excreta in their mother. The report of the National Green Tribunal Board published today shows that bacteria found in human excreta have been found in abundance in the Ganga in Prayagraj and forget about drinking , this water is not even suitable for bathing. If the people rushing towards Kumbh had even a little scientific consciousness, then instead of going there and spreading garbage, they would have asked the government questions like, what happened to the Namami Gange scheme, why are the rivers not getting cleaned even after spending so many crores? Why is so much industrial waste being thrown into the rivers? Why are drains and sewers being thrown into the rivers? Why is so much garbage being thrown into the river in the name of religion? We all know that in countries where rivers are not considered as mother but as rivers, there is so much clean water, and the people there are also so sensible that they do not throw any garbage in the rivers and the governments also take care of the rivers. But all this is possible only in a society equipped with scientific consciousness. Here, the governments themselves are engaged in pushing people into the quagmire of stupidity in the name of religion. And the rich and the poor are all rushing to Prayagraj in buses, trains and their own vehicles. Whatever mythological stories there may be about Kumbh, but after seeing all this, one thing is clear that this is becoming a Maha Kumbh of stupidity in which all the fools are eager to sacrifice whatever little consciousness they have left.
In the link given below, you can read the report of the Green Tribunal about the water quality of Ganga and chaos in Kumbh:
