Maha Kumbh Mela Attracting Foreigners to the Practice of Yoga

The Maha Kumbh Mela in Allahabad is attracting foreigners from western countries, many of whom are utilizing the opportunity of taking part in the world's largest religious congregation to practice yoga.

During the spiritual programmes, run by gurus, the foreign tourists find solace in yoga.

Hundreds of foreign devotees were seen kneeling on the ground on their yoga mats, chanting hymns, and practicing exercises on Thursday.

An elated disciple from Australia said that he finds the Kumbh Mela extremely blissful.

"It is a joy to come over here. It is the assembly of the saints, devotees and devotion. This phenomenon is not witnessed anywhere else in the world and it is extremely joyful," he said.

Once every 12 years, tens of millions of pilgrims stream into Allahabad from across the country at Sangam, the place where the Ganges and Yamuna rivers meet with a third, the mythical Saraswati river.

The festival attracts global followers too, with a number of foreigners, mainly from western countries, ordained in the hierarchy of sadhus.

Earlier on Monday, more than a million elated Hindu holy men and pilgrims took a bracing plunge in sacred Ganges river to wash away lifetimes of sins, in a raucous start to an ever-growing religious gathering that is already the world's largest.

Source: ANI