I Wish To Go To India For The Kumbh Mela, Steve Jobs Had Said In A Letter In 1974

Steve Jobs’ wife is making the headlines for attending the Kumbh Mela in Prayagraj in India in 2025, but Jobs himself had expressed a desire to attend the mela — exactly 51 years ago.

In 1974, Steve Jobs had said that he wanted to visit the Kumbh Mela in India. The Kumbh Mela is a major Hindu pilgrimage which is celebrated every 12 years, and sees hundreds of millions of people attend. Jobs’ wish to attend the Kumbh Mela had been expressed in a letter he’d written to his childhood friend Tim Brown. The letter was sold for $500,000 in an auction in 2021.

In the letter, Steve Jobs appears to be responding to a letter written by Brown. He appears pensive, and speaks about having “cried many times”. “I wish to go to India for the Kumbh Mela, which starts in April. I will be leaving sometime in March, not really certain yet,” he says. Jobs appears to be already heavily influenced by Hinduism, signing off his letter with a “Shanti, Steve Jobs”.

It’s unclear whether Steve Jobs managed to see the Kumbh Mela — it appears most likely he did not — but he did make it to India in the middle of 1974. He’d planned to visit the ashram of Neem Karoli Baba in Uttarakhand, but when he reached Nainital, he realized that Neem Karoli Baba had passed away the previous year. He however stayed at the ashram in Kainchi Dham, where he found comfort in Neem Karoli Baba’s teachings. Jobs stayed in India for seven months, and immersed himself into the culture.

When he returned, Jobs had been transformed and his parents could barely recognize him. “My head had been shaved, I was wearing Indian cotton robes, and my skin had turned a deep, chocolate brown-red from the sun,” Jobs later said. He was also wearing the orange robes of a Sadhu.

Jobs’ experiences in India played a part in motivation to start Apple two years later in 1976. He’d later go on to say that his time in India gave him a vision for what he wanted Apple to be, and even advised newer entrepreneurs like Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg to visit Neem Karoli Baba’s ashram. Jobs’ fascination with India stayed on till his death — at his funeral, all guests were given a copy of “Autobiography of a Yogi” written by Paramhansa Yogananda. And while Jobs himself never attended the Kumbh, his wife — Laurene Powell Jobs — is making the pilgrimage 51 years after Jobs had planned to.

Here’s the full text of the letter Jobs had written

Tim,

I have read your letter many times. I do not know what to say. Many mornings have come and gone. People have come 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 Kumbh 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 arrive, 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