Faith supersedes fear, pilgrims continue with holy dip at Mahakumbh
MAHAKUMBH NAGAR Despite the stampede, which stalled bathing in the Sangam nose area for nearly three hours on Wednesday during the second Amrit Snan of the Mahakumbh on ‘Mauni Amavasya’, faith superseded fear as devotees continued to take the holy dip at all 48 bathing ghats of the Mela area all through the day.
Till 10 am, 3.61 crore faithful had bathed in Triveni Sangam and the number rose to 4.24 crore by 12 noon, 5.04 crore by 2pm and 7.64 crore by evening. On January 28, around 5.50 crore devotees had took the holy dip, as per official records.
The mahurat for the Mauni snan that commenced at 7.35pm on Tuesday ended at 6.18pm on Wednesday evening.
‘The dip in holy waters of Sangam was satisfying and worth the trouble faced to reach Sangam. I saw the belongings of devotees strewn all over the area at Sangam nose testifying the severity of the stampede. Feel sorry for the devotees who became victims of crowd pressure,” said Harish Ghatge, who had arrived with his family of four from Belgaum (Karnataka).
Amidst the news of the mishap, Shipra Goenka from Gujarat also took a holy dip along with her family on Mauni Amavasya. “Ganga Maiyya takes care of us and I have full faith that the Mela will pass off peacefully as it is being held under Ganga Maiyya’s eyes,” she added.
As the day progressed, the situation started to normalise at the Sangam, where devotees in large numbers started reaching for the holy dip. Majority of them were not aware of the tragedy that took place early in the morning. “I got a call from my family members in Solan (HP) inquiring about my well-being. It was then, I came to know about the tragedy,” said Kanak Lata Thapa, 58, who came to Mahakumbh along with her elder sister Prem Lata from Himachal Pradesh
Post the mishap, the influx of devotees remained unaffected amidst repeated announcements by the Mela administration urging devotees to bathe at the nearest ghat, and not proceed towards the Sangam. As a precautionary measure, the Mela administration also blocked all entry points to Prayagraj at highways to prevent entry of people from outside the city.
According to ADM (Mahakumbh) Vivek Chaturvedi, after the initial disturbance due to the stampede at Sangam in the wee hours, bathing was streamlined at all ghats as per guidelines issued by state government and people continued to take the holy dip at their nearest ghat in the Mela area.
“We had already implemented zonal bathing plan since Monday, making devotees take the dip at ghats in their zones. We had also closed all 30 pontoon bridges to stop people from crossing over to the Sangam area otherwise the situation could have been worse,” he added.
All through the day, there were reports of pilgrims breaching the barricading in nearly all 25 sectors of the Mela after being contained in a specific area by the police.
Chief minister Yogi Adityanath also appealed to devotees to ignore rumours and cooperate with the administration. He advised devotees to take the holy dip at the ghat nearest to them and not try to go towards the Sangam Nose.
He spoke to the office-bearers of the Akhil Bharatiya Akhada Parishad, besides eminent spiritual leaders, about the excessive devotee pressure in the Mela area, after which all monastic orders and Acharya Mahamandaleshwars decided to let devotees bathe first and that they would take the holy dip after crowd pressure eases.
As per the CM, around 8 to 10 crore devotees were present in Prayagraj district on Wednesday afternoon.
Meanwhile, the UP government, as planned earlier, extended a grand and flowery welcome for devotees on all the ghats. In a unique gesture, 25 quintals of rose petals were showered from the sky, adding a touch of spiritual fervour and enthusiasm on the occasion.
