High commissioner Professor Anil Sooklal, with his wife Nelistra, has expressed his excitement about Maha Kumbh Mela, an Indian religious festival. Picture: Supplied
MANYANE MANYANE
The Maha Kumbh Mela festival has shown that the world is one family.
This is the message from South Africa’s High Commissioner to India, Professor Anil Sooklal, who attended the event yesterday (Saturday) and was part of the 45 day festival - that was expected to attract 400 million people from across the world.
Tens of millions of people flocked to the northern state of Uttar Pradesh to immerse themselves at the sacred confluence of the Ganges and Yamuna rivers.
This year’s celebration is particularly significant as the Maha or grand Kumbh Mela takes place only every 144 years, marking the 12th Kumbh Mela and a special celestial alignment of the sun, moon, Jupiter and Saturn.
Sooklal said ambassadors from various countries attended the event.
He said the event was also an opportunity for the diplomatic community to celebrate humanity and acknowledge South Africa’s presence.
The festival is one of the largest gatherings of devotees witnessed anywhere in the world.
“This is a festival of humanity. This about about celebrating our common humanity, despite our differences and the countries,” Sooklal said.
Sooklal added that the event also showed that the world has the same concept of ‘Ubuntu’, in which the world is one family.
The festival is scheduled to take place from January 13 to February 26, 2025.
A 118-member delegation, including Heads of Mission (HoM), spouses of HoMs, and diplomats from 77 countries, also participated in the festival
Sooklal said flags of the countries that attended were displayed in acknowledgement of their presence. He said they were also allowed to take pictures in front of their respective flags.
“It was very nice to see the South African flag among the 77 flags,”he said.
The Maha Kumbh Mela is an age old hindu festival where monks, babas, sadhus and gurus gather together where the rivers meet, on the riverbank near Pryagraj.
Pryagrai is in central India where the Ganges river meets the Jamuna river.
According to both ancient mythology and modern astronomy, as the planets align every 12 years, the monks and babas of India would come together to dip in the holy Ganges river.
Sooklal said a large number of ambassadors, including him and his wife, immersed themselves in the Ganges river.
“We celebrating our common humanity and praying for peace at a time when the world is facing so much conflict. It is good to see that humanity can get together and celebrate our common heritage. It was a wonderful experience.
“It was also good to South Africans back home to know that the country was represented and recognised,”he said.
Sooklal said those who attended prayed for peace and also to recognise that we are part of nature.
“We often forget that we must take care of nature. Our rivers, forests and all of nature is part of our responsibility as well.
“All these monks come there and bless these devotees. The whole city is filled with millions of people. This also reminds us that we should live in harmony and peace among ourselves and nature.”
manyane.manyane@inl.co.za
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