The Mahakumbh Mela began in Prayagraj on January 13 and will end on February 26. This is the largest peaceful congregation of people in the world. It is believed that people taking a bath in the holy waters of Ganga, Yamuna and Saraswati during Kumbh Mela attain freedom from the cycle of birth, death and rebirth and are on the path of Moksha.
While the Mahakumbh Mela has begun, a 1974 handwritten letter of late Apple co-founder Steve Jobs is doing rounds on the internet wherein he expressed his desire to visit Kumbh Mela.
The letter was auctioned in 2021 for Rs. 4.32 crores. In the letter written to his childhood friend Tim Brown in 1974, Jobs expresses his desire to visit India for Kumbh Mela which was set to happen in April in Haridwar that year.
Here's what the letter reads.
Tim,
I have read your letter many times
I do not know what to say.
Many mornings have come and gone people have came and went
I have loved and I have cried many times.
Somehow, though, beneath it all it doesn't change - do you understand?
I am now living on a farm in the mountains between Los Gatos and Santa Cruz. I wish to go to India for the Kumba Mela, which starts in April. I will be leaving sometime in March, not really certain yet. If you desire, and I am still here when you arive, we can come up here in the mountains together and you can tell me your thoughts and feelings, which I did not fully understand from your letter. There is a fire in the other room and I am getting cold here. I will end by saying I do not even know where to begin.
Shanti,
Steve Jobs
The letter was also shared by a user on X (formerly Twitter). Check the post here.
While Jobs never attended Kumbh Mela, he did plan to visit the ashram of Neem Karoli Baba. He later learned that Neem Karoli Baba had passed away the previous year. However, Jobs chose to stay at the Kainchi Dham ashram and he spent seven months in India, immersing himself into culture and spirituality.
To fulfill the wish of Steve Jobs, his wife Laurene Powell Jobs visited the Mahakumbh Mela that is taking place in Prayagraj.