Clean Up of Sangam’s Banks on Makar Sankranti

On January 14th we celebrated Makar Sankranti, a day marking the beginning of the Sun’s ascent into the Northern Hemisphere, as well as the official start to the Kumbh Mela.

Before taking a sacred dip in Sangam’s waters, however, Pujya Swamiji declared “Let us first give a bath to Sangam before we take our own bath in Sangam!” Thus, devotees, pilgrims, and yogis joined together to clean trash and other waste from the banks of the Sangam.

After thoroughly cleaning the banks of Sangam, removing pounds of plastic, polythene, leftover puja material and other waste, everyone gathered together to take the first holy dip in Sangam’s waters. Parmarth Rishikumars recited sacred Vedic mantras as Pujya Swamiji led everyone into Her waters.

After the large clean-up on Makar Sankranti, it was simply too crowded and busy for the boatmen to shuttle all the trash back to the mainland, but the boatmen pledged to Pujya Swamiji to come back and they would do so. So, two days later on the 16th, we all returned and joined with the local boatmen to retrieve all the trash and ferry it back to be properly disposed of.