HPI
UJJAIN, INDIA, April 21, 2004: Hinduism Today correspondent Rajiv Malik and photographer Thomas Kelly reported by phone from the Kumbha Mela grounds yesterday to the Hinduism Today office in Kauai, Hawaii. Rajiv said the 3.5 million devotees for the bath on the 19th was by far the largest crowd ever in Ujjain. “There were so many people,” he said, “the police were asking them to immediately leave the city after their bath, to not even stay in the Mela area.” With help from Sri Swami Pragyanand Maharaj, Rajiv and Thomas had witnessed the initiation of 1,000 sadhus at a ceremony on the 19th. “In my twenty plus years in India and Nepal,” said Thomas, who specializes in photographing sadhus, “I have never witnessed such an initiation.” Today, the 21st, is to be the biggest bathing day of the Mela, and Rajiv and Thomas were headed for the main ghats.