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Sri Krishna Janmashtami

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Today, the hindu community is celebrating Sri Krishna Janmashtami. Significance of Janmashtami relates to the historical background of the birth of Lord Krishna. Lord Krishna was born to free the earth from all kinds of evil and its sources. He was entitled to kill all the demons on this earth. He was born on the eighth day (Ashtami) of Krishna Paksha in the month of Sravana. The month of Sravana starts a season of festivals for hindus. All the friday and saturdays are considered to be very auspicious throughout this month. It is the same month during which the ‘Vara Mahalakshmi‘ festival is celebrated too. This is followed by Ganesh Chaturthi, Vijaya Dashami, Bali Padyami, Naraka Chaturdashi and the list goes on… Here is the photo of a wooden Krishna Idol at one of the resort which I visited recently.

Krishna

May this Janmashtami festival bring lots of happiness and may the God fulfill all your dreams of life. At our native place, Krishna janmashtami will be observed for 9 days starting today. I will be visiting my native place for the concluding proceedings of Srikrishna Janmashtami next week. That includes the ritual of Dahi Handi (Utti) or Gopalkala. And the celebration concludes with the procession of idol/photo of Lord Krishna through all streets of the village. Can’t wait till next week to take part in those celebrations!

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  3. Happy Krishan janmasthami to you and your family. So is this the biggest regional celebration for you, like the onam celebration for the Keralites.

    It is nice to hear that you are looking forward to see your family and friends at home. More than the legends associated with all these celebrations, to me, they mean the family time. Enjoy the festivities and the traditional cuisines, for all Indian celebrations come with the common feast and the entertainment 🙂

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    • Thanks Prasanna! My wishes to you too. Well, Sankranti is the biggest of all. Also, I live with my family including parents in Bangalore. We have few relatives in our native place, nothing more! I was told by my parents that since our village has the Krishna temple, our family was the first to offer the rituals on janmaashtami day. Now that we have moved, we are missing it for sure!

      Good to know that.. after all food is the important stuff and without that no indian festivals would conclude!

      Reply

  4. Shubho Janmashtami to you as well.

    btw… when Lord Sri Krishna appeared on this planet… there were no other religions (faiths) except the ancient vedic faith. ‘Hinduism’ was not meant to be a ‘religion’ as we know today. “Hinduism” was never meant to be a “religion” at all. Infact, the word “religion” never existed… in this ancient Vedic faith. This was “sanatana-dharma”… “sanatana” means “ancient” and “Dharma”, refers to “rightousness”. It essentially was the “path of rightousness”… and was an assimilation of the accumulated knowledge of the ancients… over a period of time… or rather, through the ages.

    Hinduism is not a ‘Religion’ but a ‘Philosophy of Life’ and was never limited to the sub-continent as is widely believed. Infact, “Arab” is not a foreign word. It originates from the sanskrit word “Arva” meaning “horse”. This land is well known for its fine horses… isn’t it… ??? It was originally called “Arvasthan”. Even in the Far-East… their epics are the same as ours.

    Hinduism is not a religion such as Christianity or Islam since the particular ‘ism’ did not have a single founder or is a cult movement to unite people under a single founder. The people of India or the so called Hindus followed a pattern of life that was unique. They believed in a Single Supreme being in whom all the power and Energy of the Universe resides and also from which it emanates from much like the source of the river. They believed that the power and energy could be broadly branched : Brahma the Creator, Vishnu the Preserver and Shiva the Creator.

    Currently everyone is totally steeped in such ‘positive and enlightening’ aspects: community, caste, etc… that there are hardly any ‘Hindus’ around.

    An interesting incident took place in 1948-49. A young researcher by name Dr B.M. Gupta met Dr Einstein, the accepted father of Modern science in Princeton Institute of Advanced Studies in the States. The German scientist hailed him in Sanskrit instead of English. The Indian scientist pleaded his inability to reply in Sanskrit. Dr Einstein was amazed at the poor response of the young Indian scientist and said, “You hail from India which is the original home of Hindu philosophy, yet you have not cared to learn that language. See my library which treasures classics from Sanskrit namely the Gita and other treatises on Hindu Philosophy. I have made the Gita as the main source of my inspiration and guidance for the purpose of scientific investigations and formulation of my theories.”

    Not only Einstein, but Thoreau the great thinker also derived his inspiration from the Gita and Upanishads. He himself categorically states thus: “In the morning I bathe my intellect in the stupendous and the cosmogonal philosophy of the Bhagavat Gita, since whose composition years of the gods have elapsed, and in comparison with which our modern world and its literature seem puny and trivial and I doubt if that philosophy is not to be referred to a previous state of existence, so remote is its sublimity from our conceptions.”

    Also while talking about the pyramids of Egypt Thoreau says, “How much more admirable the Bhagavat Gita than all the ruins of the East”.

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  5. It’s always very interesting to go through the blogs that you post.
    I really liked the wooden idol picture of lord Krishna posted on your blog.
    Wishing you a Happy Janma Ashtami celebration & a happy weekend.

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  8. hey happy celebrations!!!! May God bless you and your family with lot of peace and happiness….
    where u off to for the celebration????
    take care

    Reply

  10. Happy Janmashtami to you too Mohan. I have heard of the festival you mention in the post and believe it is a lot of fun!

    I have also posted on Janmashtami at Live Life Kingsize – Lessons from Krishna

    Have a fun holiday.

    Sowmya

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  12. Wow! Never knew the celebrations go on for 9 days in Chittoor 🙂

    What is the Dahi Handi ritual?

    Wising u a happy festive season ahead too 🙂

    Reply

    • Yup.. not in all parts of the district, but happens with utmost devotion in our village since there is a temple of ‘Venugopala Swamy’. Wikipedia is the right place for all that you need to know about Dahi Handi. Thanks Swaram, wish you the same too 🙂

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  13. Hey thanks for bringing in the festival on the blog (as I get into the mood of writing a post on this tom!) So have you ever climbed the janmashtmi pyramin during dahi handi?

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    • Sure, look forward to read that! I haven’t tried that before… there are professional teams that form pyramids to crack the handi.. Let me see if I can sneak through this time 🙂

      Reply

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