FOR THIRTEEN YEARS Srila Prabhupäda lived in Allahabad. He moved there in 1923 with his family. Allahabad was a good location to start his pharmaceutical business, Prayag Pharmacy. He entered a business partnership with a physician, Dr. Ghosh, who diagnosed patients and gave medical prescriptions, which Prabhupäda would fill. Motilal Nehru and his son, Jawaharlal, (the future Prime Minister of India) were both customers at Prabhupäda's pharmacy.
During his time in Allahabad, Prabhupäda stayed in contact with Srila Bhaktisiddhänta Sarasvati, whom he had first met in 1922 in Calcutta. On November 21, 1932, under the direction of Srila Bhaktisiddhänta, the Allahabad Gaudya Matha held a cornerstone-laying ceremony for their new temple. The governor, Sir William Haily, was the respected guest. Srila Bhaktisiddhänta held an initiation ceremony, and Prabhupäda received initiation (harinäma and Gäyatri) from him.
Previously, upon learning that Prabhupäda had requested initiation, Srila Bhaktisiddhänta had remarked, “He likes to hear. He does not go away. I have marked him. I will accept him as my disciple.”
Prabhupäda at Kumbha-melä
The Vedic literature states that whoever bathes in the Triveni-sangam at the auspicious time of the Kumbha-melä is guaranteed of liberation from birth and death. That is why the Melä has always attracted millions of pilgrims.
Yet Srila Prabhupäda said, “We are not interested in liberation. We have come to preach devotional service. Being engaged in Krsña's unalloyed devotional service, we are already liberated.”
In contrast to almost everyone present, Prabhupäda emphasized giving spiritual knowledge as the prime reason for attending the Melä. The devotee’s only ambition is to enlighten as many people as possible. Pilgrimage was secondary. With this mood, the devotees attended the 1971 Kumbha-melä with Prabhupäda and enthusiastically presented Krsña consciousness to the millions of pilgrims.
None of the western devotees had ever attended the Kumbha-melä. The many bizarre sights can bewilder and confuse the mind, but Prabhupäda reminded the devotees that spiritual life is neither exotic nor bewildering, but simple and practical.
“To go to a holy place means to find a holy person and hear from him,” Prabhupäda had said. “A place is holy because of the presence of the saintly persons.”
In a conversation recorded in January 1977 (just before the Kumbha-melä), Prabhupäda said that the real purpose of the Kumbha-melä is to take advantage of the spiritual knowledge presented there:
The Kumbha-melä is sat-saìga. If you go to the Kumbha-melä to find out a man of knowledge, then your Kumbha-melä is right. If one thinks that this salila, the water—to take bath in the water—is Kumbha-melä, then he is a go-khara [a cow or an ass]. But the real idea is “Now there are assembled so many saintly persons. Let me take advantage of their knowledge.” Then he is intelligent. People should take advantage. You can go to different groups of saintly persons. Different groups mean brahmeti paramätmeti bhagavän iti. There are some yogis, some jnänis, some bhaktas. They are of the same category, little difference. But they’re all spiritual. They have no interest in this material world.
Some Real Yogis
Srila Prabhupäda said that although many of the sadhus present were inauthentic and didn’t really know the highest goal of human life, many were perfect yogis. These yogis, from remote parts of India, would come out for the Melä and then return to seclusion.
“I have personally seen,” Prabhupäda said, “that they take bath in the Ganges and come up in the seven sacred rivers. They go down in the Ganges and come up in the Godavari River. Then they go down and come up in the Krishna River, and go down, like that.” The devotees, therefore, should respect everyone who attended the Melä.
Prabhupäda also explained that one is not liberated automatically by taking bath at the Kumbha-melä on the specific auspicious days. But by coming to the holy tirtha and taking bath on the holy days, the door to liberation gets opened.
“If you are trying to enter a room and the door is closed,” he said, “there is some prohibition. It is more difficult for you to enter the room. But if the door is opened for you, then your entrance to the room is easier.”
Monkey Renunciation
After the 1977 Kumbha-melä, the story of the death of a Naga Baba made the national newspapers. Wearing no clothing, he had died from the extreme cold.
Prabhupäda commented on the incident.
“He must die. They imitate. They have no sädhana [regulated spiritual practice], no bhajana [worship], and simply nägä [naked].”
The devotees told Prabhupäda that the imitators smoke chillums (marijuana) and become so intoxicated that they don’t feel the cold. One disciple told Prabhupäda that he had seen a Naga who had been smoking cigarettes for twelve years without stopping. Another man had been holding his arm up in the air for the past twelve years. His fingernails had grown very long, and his arm was flat. Another renunciant hadn’t sat down for eighteen years. He carried a small swing with him, which he would tie to a tree and lean on.
“This is markata-vairägya, the renunciation of a monkey,” Prabhupäda said, referring to the type of renunciation that, although difficult to perform, doesn’t produce any advancement in Krsña consciousness. The monkeys also have no clothes to wear and live in treetops in the secluded forest, but the male monkeys have a large group of female monkeys to sport with.
Some devotees concluded that severe penance was not recommended anywhere in the Vedas, but Prabhupäda corrected them: “No, Hiranyakasipu did it. But what did he gain? He became a räksasa [demon] and was killed.”
The Significance of Prayag
THE WORD prayäg refers to a place where great sacrifices are held. Many ages ago, Lord Brahmä chose as a place for sacrifice a prime piece of land encircled by three sacred rivers: the Ganges, the Yamuna, and the Sarasvati. That site became known a Prayag. In A.D. 1573, the Mogul king Akbar erected a large fort at the confluence of the three rivers and renamed the city Ilahabas or Ilahabad, “the city of Allah.” From that time, Prayag became known as Allahabad.
The confluence of the three rivers is known as the Triveni-sangam. Tri means “three,” veni refers to a braid, and sangam means “union.” The dark blue and black Yamuna flows swiftly into the white and gray Ganges. The Sarasvati flows underground.
Bathing in any of these sacred rivers is purifying, but the purification is said to increase a hundred times where the rivers meet. The Varäha Puräëa states: “In Prayag there is the Triveni. By bathing there one goes to heaven, and by dying there one gets liberation. It is the king of all tirthas [holy places of pilgrimage] and is dear to Lord Visnu.”
Lord Brahmä has said, prayägasya pravesesu päpam nasyanti tatksanam: “All sins are at once cleansed upon entering Prayag.”
Many exalted saints and sages have visited Prayag. Çri Caitanya Mahäprabhu, Lord Nityänanda, and Advaita Äcärya all spent time there during pilgrimage tours.a