Religion: The Holiest Day in History

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At one time, each devotee performed an elaborate bathing ceremony that took up to a month, but with millions now in attendance such rituals are impossible. Most ordinary worshipers simply float a coconut shell with offerings to the local deity, take the "holy dip," and fill small metal vials with Ganges water to take away.

Though any dip in the Ganges washes away all previous sins, the Kumbh Mela offers an incomparably greater benefit. As the ancient poet Kalidas said, "Purified by a bath at the confluence of the Ganges and the Yamuna, a person attains salvation after death even without acquiring true knowledge." For last week's pilgrims, this means that at death they will at last escape the endless cycle of birth and rebirth, and enter the bliss of union with the absolute.