Triveni Sangam

This short text is more a sketch of sensations then an explication of Magh Mela. It is a personal glimpse of something special..

Imagine to be on a boat… trying to reach the Magh Mela… All the streets are closed because one of the holiest day to take bath is about to come..to reach the Mela then, from the centre of Allahabad is in itself a kind of pilgrimage. Why are you there? You are there because it  is believed to be the same place where drops of Nectar fell from the pitcher, from the hands of the Gods. So it is believed that a bath in the Sangam will wash away all one’s sins and will clear the way to heaven.

Believe… If you are not Hindu, all these believes can enter in your memory, but it’s quite difficult to understand them properly…

how is it possible to feel holiness from rivers?

Indeed this place is a Triveni Sangam, a confluence of three

holy rivers. Ganga and Yamuna, the visible ones, and Saraswati, which flows underground and joins the other two from below…

Flowing waters…holy waters…invisible water…

With all these informations in mind, you are still on your boat… the Sangam doesn’t appear so far now..many birds

flying…on the river bank, thousands of pilgrims are taking bath..in these holy waters…your mind follows the movements of boats..flags…bodies ..the general euphoria…

Then suddenly something changes…

the boatman  tries to catch your attention…he’s pointing at the water.. what is there?

A difference that at the beginning you can’t recognize…then you realize…two colors..the Ganga and the Yamuma have different colors, one is white and the other is a kind of grey…but you can see them… you can observe how the waters mix together…

and how the current changes..Does it change? You can’t really understand the direction of the current.. it’s a kind of waters hug…they gather..they fight…they split up…you are in the middle of all of this…on your boat…looking at these… flowers, offerings flowing on the waters..

then the imagination of the river Saraswati (goddess of art/music/knowledge) comes at your mind as a silent whisper from below… and then you are filled with unforeseen, inexplicable emotions..you are in..you got it…you feel the meaning of Triveni Sangam…

By Daniela Bevilacqua