The story from the Bhagavada Purana

The story from the Bhagavada Purana, of the tussle between the gods and asuras for the Amrit Kalash, the pot of nectar of immortality that emerged from the churning of the milky ocean, is seminal to the Kumbh festivities, In the tussle, thenectar spilled in four places — Haridwar, Allahabad, Nasik and Ujjain — the venues of the triennial Kumbh and the once-in-12-years Purna Kumbh. The story is a metaphor for the inner struggle between our nobler and baser instincts. The nobler, higher mind when invoked will bestow the nectar of wisdom and immortality, the ability to discriminate between the real and the transient. When the baser, lower mind is engaged with, it will only generate the ‘poison’ of illusion and desire, creating its own web of perceived ‘immortality’ where the temporary is taken to be the permanent.

source : FB