'We were struck by the sheer energy even before we stepped into the holy water,' says T N Sekhar.
Divinity appears where there is faith.
We never thought about visiting the Kumbh Mela till we started reading about the experiences of people who had gone there.
I felt I was missing out on something I would never get an opportunity to be a part of again in my lifetime; my wife and I are senior citizens.
As the Kumbh Mela started drawing towards the end, we made our bookings through a travel agent.
The first roadblock came in the form of an unavoidable business trip on the same dates. Despite my efforts to change dates on both sides, I had no option but to cancel our visit. I lost half my money!
I was restless, not knowing what to do.
Then, as if someone introduced a thought in my mind, I remembered a tour operator from the south who had helped us with Shirdi tour.
Desperate to make the Maha Kumbh visit happen, I requested him to help us out.
And things worked out. Like he later said, it was "Triveni Amma" who wanted us to make the trip.
We bought our air tickets and booked a cozy hotel in the main city for the two days we stayed there. A car took us from the airport to the hotel.
Now comes the most interesting part.
We were asked to be ready at 5 am to avoid the rush. A team of helpful bike riders appeared early in the morning at our hotel gate. We had the ride of our lives, meandering through the crowd of devotees walking to the ghats.
We were able to breeze through the areas where four wheelers were not allowed.
Despite being mentally prepared for the electric atmosphere created by gatherings like this, we were both struck by the sheer energy even before we stepped into the holy water.
Since it was early in the morning, we braced ourselves for a chilly dip. I think I was a bit more ready for that feeling of shock when you step into cold water as I had already visited Manasarovar.
But the water was tepid as if saying She will take care of your every concern.
The first thing my wife said was she could feel MahaThripuraSundari embracing us in the form of water.
Standing with a large crowd of people filled with faith and devotion, enveloped in the sheer energy that the water emanated, we saw the sun rise. And time stood still.
My wife, who is afraid of stepping even into ankle deep water, wanted us to move into deeper waters.
Nothing can explain what we felt at that moment.
That holy dip left us praying for many more such moments. It was sheer bliss.
We went to the nearby temples before returning to the hotel to relax for the rest of the day.
We are now back in Chennai with a couple of litres of the holy water to be distributed to family and friends who could not make it. Joy shared is definitely joy doubled.
Har Har Mahadev!
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