A lway s E m b r a c e d
by
Kåñëa
You can inform him of my coming there and ask him to come to see me at that time. When you come to Allahabad you can inform me about the manuscript. Hoping this will meet you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami1
As mentioned, in 1977, the Kumbha-melä was held in Allahabad, now known as Prayag. There is a Mägha-melä observed every year, but according to astrological calculations, a more auspicious occasion comes every twelve years, and at that time, the Mägha-melä is called Khumba-melä. Every twelfth Kumbha-melä is especially auspicious and is called a mahä-kumbha-melä.* The melä is held in Prayag at the Triveëé, which is the name given to the place where three holy rivers of India meet; the Sarasvaté, the Ganges and the Yamunä. This year was one of the great meläs, a mahä-kumbhamelä, which takes place only once every 144 years, and the government of India was predicting an attendance of twelve million people at the confluence of the holy rivers near Prayag. Çréla Prabhupäda had said to Çréla Gour Govinda Swami that he should go and that he would meet him there. Çréla Gour Govinda Swami: Prabhupäda said, “I am going to the Kumbha-melä; from there I will go to Orissa. Are you coming to the Kumbha-melä?” I said, “Yes; definitely I must *Author’s note: By 1977, the number of pilgrims attending the Khumba-melä had grown to a record 15 million! By 1989, the attendance was approximately 29 million - nearly double that of the previous festival. In 2001, around 60 million people are said to have attended the Kumbha-melä, making it the largest gathering anywhere in the world. The latest Prayag Khumba-melä took place in 2013 and became the largest religious gathering in the world with almost 120 million pilgrims in attendance, making it the largest religious festival on planet earth.
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