Devotional

Sri Krishna Jayanti marks the celebration of the birth of Bhagavan Sri Krishna.  Lord Sri Krishna was born on the ‘Rohini’ nakshatram (star) on Ashtami day.  The festival Sri Krishna Jayanti is also known as Gokulashtami and Janmashtam.  The actual day of celebration can be on two different days as the star ‘Rohini’ and Ashtami may not be on the same day.  This occurs between August and September on the Christian calendar.

According to traditional sources, the Janmashtami is observed on the day when the ashtami tithi occurs at midnight. If the ashtami tithi AND the Rohini nakshatra occur on the same day, then the observance is considered to be doubly sacred; otherwise the observance is held on the day on which the ashtami prevails at midnight.  The vrata mainly consists of fasting, spending the whole night in the worship of Krishna, reciting hymns of praise and Krishna’s pastimes, reciting prayers from the Bhagavata,  offering arghya to Krishna, and  the ceremonial breaking of the fast.  The next day is  celebrated as  Krishna Jayanti.

But that is not really how we celebrate it at home…We do the Krishna Pooja in the evening time and do the neivedyam…that’s all.
it is more important for the Iyengars in the Tamil community to observe this festival.

The neivedyam consists of all fat rich dishes….cheedai (recipe can be found at http://allyouwannaknow.net/youtoocantry/2007/09/02/tips-for-seedai-gokulashtami-krishna-jayanthi/), murukku, payasam.

Sri Krishna is Lord Vishnu’s eighth avatar (incarnation) on earth. He is considered to be the Lord’s most glorious incarnations.  Even saying and remembering His name brings joy because Sri Krishna himself was a manifestation of joy at all levels and in all walks of life.  No other God in the Hindu pantheon, or for that matter in any other religion, is associated with so many romantic tales and so fully radiating with all the divine attributes as Sri Krishna

Some stories:

People incorrectly think that Lord Krishna loved butter and so offer butter to Him. In fact, He ate butter because the evil king Kansa taxed the people, and in order to pay their taxes, they were forced to sell butter. To prevent these civilians from suffering and caving into the unrighteous demands of the king, Lord Krishna would eat or spill their butter. In doing so, He taught the people to develop a fighting spirit (kshatravrutti) and not to tolerate injustice in any capacity.

Krishna’s birth in a nut shell:

The myth connected to the birth of Lord Vishnu is as follows. Vasudeva was the chief of ‘Shooras’ and married Devaki one of the seven daughters of Devaka. They were very happy, for none had ever seen so fine a man and a wife matched in such perfect harmony.

‘Kansa’ (also known as ‘Kamsa’) was the son of Ugrasena. Though his father Ugrasena was the King, Kansa himself ruled the kingdom. He was more wicked and had no respect for law, human or divine. The divine Sage Narada once, came to Kansa and advised him not to disregard the law of ‘Dharma’ and foretold, that the eighth child of Devaki would slay him, if he continued to be wicked and revengeful.

 Frightened at the prophecy of Narada, Kansa confined the newly married Vasudeva and Devaki in Gajaraja palace with a condition that every child of Devaki, as it was born, should be handed over to him. In obedience of the promise Vasudeva handed over six of his children one after one whom the cruel Kansa killed mercilessly. Devaki again became pregnant, and she gave birth to a boy.

 With the help of ‘Ganga Charya’ and ‘Akura’ he was saved by showing a dead body of a new-born girl beside Devaki. Kansa did not take it seriously, as this was seventh child of Devaki. The seventh child of Devaki was stealthily sent to Gokul and was growing under the great care and affection of Rohini, the elder wife of Vasudeva. Rohini was living as a guest of Nanda at Gokhul. They named the boy as “Balarama”.   

During the course of their nine years confinement, Vasudeva and Devaki never failed in their devotion and always talked of the Lord and his Grace. Devaki was expecting her eighth child. Surely, the prophecy of sage Narada and the promise of Veda Vyasa began to show the signs of coming true. It was the eighth day of the dark half of the month of ‘Sravana’ (also spelt as Shravan) and there was a thunder and lightning pouring torrential rains and the roads were blocked with water.  

Devaki tingling with ecstasy gave birth to a child when the moon entered the house of ‘Vrishabha’ at the constellation of the star Rohini on Wednesday the 8th day of the second fortnight of the month of Sravana, which corresponds to the month of “Bhadrapada Krishnapaksha” according to the “Barhaspatyamana”, in the year of ‘Visvavasu’, 5,I72 years ago (from I945), which means 3227 B.C.

In the pitched darkness, Vasudeva wrapped the child in a woollen garment, kept it in a basket and lifting the basket on his shoulder crossed the river Yamuna and handed over the child, with the basket to Ganga Charya, the family priest and Nanda, the chief of Gokul Yadavas waiting on the opposite bank. In return, Ganga Charya gave another basket of a new born daughter of Nanda to Vasudeva who carried back the baby to the place of his confinement, as was pre-planned.

Kansa was unable to sleep the whole night due to the anxiety to have a look at the eighth child of Devaki and drove to the palace where Vasudeva and Devaki were in prison. After assuming that the eighth child of them being a daughter, the prophecy of Narada proved incorrect and Kansa was very happy.   

Nanda’s wife Yashoda who had fainted at the time of her delivery never knew, what all has happened in the night and when she came to her senses, Rohini handed over the child to her. Since Nanda and Yashoda were not having any children, quite for some time, the birth of the boy made the people of Gokul with wild delight and joy and the boy was named as Krishna with appropriate rituals.

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I have been writing so many blogs about festivals… I also decided to write some brief description of what the significance of these festivals are and some stories about the Gods. I found that there were various explanations for one single ritual or festival. I am not sure which one is the right one….but I found all stories interesting. So I will list down all that I found. It is up to the reader’s discretion to consider which one is the right one.

Ganesh Chaturthi (Vinayaka chaturthi …as said in tamilnadu)  is one of the very important hindu festivals. This festival is observed in the lunar month of bhadrapada shukla paksha chathurthi madhyahana vyapini purvaviddha. If Chaturthi prevails on both days, the first day should be observed. Even if chaturthi prevails for the complete duration of madhyahana on the second day, if it prevails on the previous day’s madhyahana period even for one ghatika (24 minutes), the previous day should be observed

This festival is dedicated to Lord Ganesha who is worshipped before the start of any auspicious thing.
Without the Grace of Sri Ganesha and His help nothing whatsoever can be achieved. No action can be undertaken without His support, Grace or blessing.
He has as his vehicle a small mouse. He is the presiding Deity of the Muladhara Chakra, the psychic centre in the body in which the Kundalini Shakti resides.
The Vaishnavas also worship Lord Ganesha. They have given Him the name of Tumbikkai Alwar which means the divinity with the proboscis (the elephant’s trunk).

Clay models of Ganesha are brought home and worshipped. The main sweet made for neivedyam are modakas (kozhukattai as called in tamilnadu). A modak is a dumpling made from rice flour/wheat flour with a stuffing of fresh or dry-grated coconut, jaggery, dry fruits and some other condiments. It is either steam-cooked or fried.
Another popular sweet dish is the karanji (karjikaiin Kannada) which is similar to the modak in composition and taste but has a semicircular shape
The kozhukattai also has a salted version where the stuffing is made of urad dal.
After the festival is over, the clay models are to be immersed in water.

The following story is narrated about His birth and how He came to have the head of an elephant:

Once upon a time, the Goddess Gauri (consort of Lord Shiva), while bathing, created Ganesha as a pure white being out of the mud of Her Body and placed Him at the entrance of the house. She told Him not to allow anyone to enter while she went inside for a bath. Lord Shiva Himself was returning home quite thirsty and was stopped by Ganesha at the gate. Shiva became angry and cut off Ganesha’s head as He thought Ganesha was an outsider.

When Gauri came to know of this she was sorely grieved. To console her grief, Shiva ordered His servants to cut off and bring to Him the head of any creature that might be sleeping with its head facing north. The servants went on their mission and found only an elephant in that position. The sacrifice was thus made and the elephant’s head was brought before Shiva. The Lord then joined the elephant’s head onto the body of Ganesha.

Lord Shiva made His son worthy of worship at the beginning of all undertakings, marriages, expeditions, studies, etc. He ordained that the annual worship of Ganesha should take place on the 4th day of the bright half of Bhadrapada.

One of the stories say why one should not look  at the moon on a chaturthi day.

He is very fond of sweet pudding or balls of rice flour with a sweet core. On one of His birthdays He was going around house to house accepting the offerings of sweet puddings. Having eaten a good number of these, He set out moving on His mouse at night. Suddenly the mouse stumbled–it had seen a snake and became frightened–with the result that Ganesha fell down. His stomach burst open and all the sweet puddings came out. But Ganesha stuffed them back into His stomach and, catching hold of the snake, tied it around His belly.

Seeing all this, the moon in the sky had a hearty laugh. This unseemly behaviour of the moon annoyed Him immensely and so he pulled out one of His tusks and hurled it against the moon, and cursed that no one should look at the moon on the Ganesh Chaturthi day. If anyone does, he will surely earn a bad name, censure or ill-repute. However, if by mistake someone does happen to look at the moon on this day, then the only way he can be freed from the curse is by repeating or listening to the story of how Lord Krishna cleared His character regarding the Syamantaka jewel. This story is quoted in the Srimad Bhagavatam. Lord Ganesha was pleased to ordain thus. Glory to Lord Ganesha! How kind and merciful He is unto His devotees!

to check out the story of Krishna and the samantakam mani you can watch http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=831YelUIfS4

A story of how Ganesha won over his parents and got the fruit that Narada brought:

Ganesha and His brother Lord Subramanya once had a dispute as to who was the elder of the two. The matter was referred to Lord Shiva for final decision. Shiva decided that whoever would make a tour of the whole world and come back first to the starting point had the right to be the elder. Subramanya flew off at once on his vehicle, the peacock, to make a circuit of the world. But the wise Ganesha went, in loving worshipfulness, around His divine parents and asked for the prize of His victory.

Lord Shiva said, “Beloved and wise Ganesha! But how can I give you the prize; you did not go around the world?”

Ganesha replied, “No, but I have gone around my parents. My parents represent the entire manifested universe!”

Thus the dispute was settled in favour of Lord Ganesha, who was thereafter acknowledged as the elder of the two brothers. Mother Parvati also gave Him a fruit as a prize for this victory.

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