Dead woman performs ‘Maha Snaan’ at Mahakumbh 2025, thanks to his son; social media melts

As thousands of devotees braved the biting cold of January winters for a holy dip in Triveni Sangam at Mahakumbh 2025, a picture of an elderly man holding onto a framed photo of his dead mother at the religious congregation is going viral.

Mahakumbh is a significant Hindu pilgrimage and festival held every 12 years.

Like several other devotees in Uttar Pradesh's Prayagraj, the dead woman was at the MahaKumbh Mela 2025, thanks to her son, to bathe in Sangam, the confluence of the Ganga, Yamuna, and the mythical Saraswati rivers, at dawn in what is referred to as “Maha Snaan”—the main ritual of the Maha Kumbh 2025.

In a post on X, a user by the name ‘Mishrain’ shared that her father went to Mahakumbh and took the Maha Snaan with his mother's picture. “Baba went to Maha Kumbh and took Maha Snaan with mother's photo,” the user wrote in Hindi.

In later comments, she clarified that the picture in the man's hand is of his mother and not wife and that the X user addresses her grandmother as “maa.”

The X user then shared her father's picture at the Mahakumbh, and said, “This is what we call love, right?”

Check out the viral post here:

The post has garnered a lot of attention on social media and has over 269.2K views.

Here's how netizens reacted:

Netizens responded overwhelmingly to the post, highlighting the emotional depth of love, remembrance, and cultural significance.

“Ye pic poore insta pe viral hai,” a user wrote.

“Aisa beta har maa ko mile. (May every mother get a son like him),” another user said.

“This is beautiful,” a user exclaimed.

“Truly touching! The love and devotion in this image are so palpable,” another user said.

“True love mother, my life, my god and my everything,” said another user.

“Rarely found these days,” a user said.

In a follow-up post, Mishrain wrote: “Guys thanks a lot so much much he is really overwhelmed of your love and loved all the positive comments thank you making him smile. (sic)”