Restoring the Ganges with Swami and Patrick

S. Patrick McCollum and H. H. Puja Swami Saraswati set an example for one hundred million people at the center of the Kumbh Mela on how to restore the beauty of the sacred Ganges River by personally mucking trash. Pilgrims seeing their example, joined them and soon a mile of the Sangam was cleaned in an hour.

Press came and covered the event, sending photos around the world. When interviewed, S. McCollum said, "We must be the example of what we want to see. If we want our brothers and sisters to honor our planet, we cannot walk on flower petals and drink milk and honey. We must instead choose the filthiest example of what we want to change and get down in the mud and clean it up."

"Puja Swami Saraswati and I decided on a strategy to teach the pilgrims at the Kumbh that if the Ganges is sacred, then the pilgrims who hold it so need to step up and clean up their mess. We went to the center of the Sangam and he and I mucked trash and filthy garbage all along the Sangam in front of millions of pilgrims. Then each time we would make a pile, I would then dip my hand into the water we had just cleaned in front of everyone and bless myself, telling all who could hear that the Mother Ganges is Sacred. Pilgrims started jumping off boats and joining us, and soon we had cleaned a mile of the Sangam."