Happy Janmashtami!
Krishna jinka
nam, gokul jinka dham, aise Shree Krishna bhagwan ko, ham sab ka Pranam.
Jai Shree Krishna ! Today is a very precious day Someone special
was born. Born to fight against
inhumanity, selfishness, inattentiveness,
Born to save the Trust and Love in God as well as in Human being . May
Krishna show you the way in your life as he did to Arjuna in the Battle of
Mahabharata.
Have a Blessed Janmashtami!
Krishna Janmasthami is the celebration of the day that
Bhagwan Krishna incarnated in human form upon the Earth. The birthday of
Lord Krishna is celebrated with great
devotion and enthusiasm in India in the month of August most likely. According to the Hindu
calendar this religious festival is celebrated on midnight
of the the Ashtami of Krishna Paksh or the
8th day of the dark fortnight in the month of Bhadon. Shri Krishna
Janmbhoomi is a Hindu temple in Mathura, Uttar Pradesh.
The temple is built around the prison cell where Krishna is said to have been
born.
The
day is celebrated by worshipping Bhagwan Krishna, fasting and chanting
devotional kirtan and bhajans until past midnight.
The Bhagavad Gita says that whenever there is darkness in
the world, whenever trouble and ignorance exist, the Lord incarnates to shine
His divine light on the darkness. However, the Lord does not simply incarnate, give wisdom
and depart. Rather, His divine light, His divine message and His divine grace
continue to shine, on and on, upon all future generations. His wisdom is such
that, once given, it is timeless and eternal, infinite and universal. Lord
Krishna’s message in the Bhagavad Gita and the message of His entire life are
not meant merely for those who lived 5000 years ago in the lands of Mathura,
Vrindavan, Kurukshetra and Dwarka. Rather, the messages are as timeless as His
presence and grace.
Most
Indians, and now Westerners are familiar
with the Bhagavad Gita. We know that Lord Krishna’s verbal message to Arjun on
the battlefield was “Stand up. Do your duty.” However, there are many other
important messages in the Gita and also invaluable lessons and divine teachings
embedded in the very life He lived. At this holy time of Janmasthami, let us
examine and take to heart these messages. We must remember that Bhagwan Krishna
incarnated FOR US. He incarnated to remove our veil of ignorance and darkness.
It is our duty to Him to take His message to heart and let it uplift, inspire
and transform us.
Never
Lose Your Song:
One of the most beautiful lessons of
Bhagwan Krishna’s life is: never lose yourself due to external circumstances,
never lose your smile, never lose your song… Bhagwan Krishna’s life was full of trials and
tribulations, beginning on the day when He took birth in a locked jail cell and
ending in the jungle shot by a hunter’s arrow. However, throughout it all –
through the innumerable challenges wrought upon Him – He always maintained His
divine smile. He always played His divine flute. He never once said, “I’m in a bad mood today
so I will not play my flute.” No. Regardless of what the external world brought
and wrought, the Song was on. This is a beautiful message for our own lives.
So frequently we let small, small things upset us and ruin
our day. However, to truly be Krishna devotees means that we should try, as
much as possible, to follow His divine example. After all, it is for us that He
incarnated on Earth and gave His beautiful, divine messages.
There is
a beautiful message here, even from the first moment of the Lord’s life. We may
be living in the darkness of midnight; we may be bound and chained by so many
attachments, temptations, anger, grudges, pains and by the binding force of
maya. We may feel ourselves locked into the prison of our own bodies, the
prison of duality. However, as soon as we let the Lord live in our own hearts,
all darkness fades, all chains are broken and all prison doors open freely.
Wherever the Lord is, there are no locks.
Also,
we can see that the door to the Lord – from any direction, inside or outside –
is always open. The only lock is the lock of our own ignorance and our own
illusions. As soon as that ignorance is dispelled, as soon as we see His
glowing form, all the doors in this life and in all lives open to us.
The Lord was not given an “easy” childhood. On
the sixth day of the Lord’s life, Putna (the demoness) made Him drink poison
from her breast. In His third month of life a bullock cart fell on Him. Then,
when He was four, huge trees fell on Him. Until the age of eleven, He was in
Vrindavan and Govardhan. The people of Govardhan worshipped Indra, singing his
praises and making daily offerings to him. However, Bhagwan Krishna admonished
them and said that they should worship Govardhan instead, since it was
Govardhan who gave them land, water, grass for their cows. Yet, the people were
afraid. Indra. As Indra pummeled the beautiful land of Govardhan with rain,
hail, thunder and lightening, the Lord held up the mountain of Govardhan over
the heads of the people, protecting them from the violent storm. However, as He
held up this mountain on the tip of His finger, for days and days as Indra grew
more and more furious, He never became angry, nor frustrated, nor disheartened.
No. He was always smiling, even in the midst of the torrential storm.
A few short
years later, He was forced to kill His uncle, and He had to flee His home in
Mathura. For years, then, this King of all Kings lived in a simple ashram,
doing seva for the saints with no facilities, no amenities and no comfort. He
had no coat for winter, no umbrella for the rains…Yet, wherever He went,
wherever He was, He was always blissful, always joyful, always shining His
divine light upon others.
We, on the other hand, may get stuck in one traffic jam
and our days are ruined. We have one business failure and we feel dejected and
broken. We become afflicted with disease and we lose our faith in God.
He did this to show us that the real palace is the palace of our heart. Obstacles we face, we must remain immersed in
Divine Connection. Then we will not become depressed or frustrated. His life
teaches us that we cannot change what happens – it happens for various reasons
– but we CAN change our reaction to it. The message of His life is “adapt and
adjust.” Move forward. We cannot stop the wind from blowing, but we can change
the direction of our sails, so that instead of capsizing our boat, we use the
wind to take us to our destination.
Seeing
Bhagwan Krishna everywhere
A very important message from Bhagwan Krishna’s life is to
see him everywhere, in everyone, all the time. We must
also see God in everything! When we look at a poor child, or when we look at an
old widow, or when we look in the face of our enemy, we must see God. Then we
will truly have learned the message of Bhagwan Krishna’s teachings.
Fearlessness
One of the most important messages that Bhagwan Krishna
gives to Arjuna is Abhayam, be fearless. When I say fear, I don’t necessarily
mean terror. But, rather I mean all that makes us anxious, nervous, tense and
in need of controlling our surroundings. The root of fear is distrust. We have
been betrayed, injured and abused. We decide that the world and those around us
cannot be trusted. In this way, we lose that faith which is so crucial. When we
realize that God is always with us, always for us, we will never be afraid
regardless of the circumstances.
Sure, our family and friends may betray us. They may
injure us. But, if we give ourselves to God, if we make our relationship with
Him our first priority then we will never be broken inside; we will always be
cared for. We must realize that we are God’s children. Just as a child is never
afraid when his mother is near, so we must never fear. Fear immobilizes us. It
freezes us. It prevents us from thinking clearly.
Let
us renew our faith in the Supreme. Let us give away our fears, our anxieties.
Let us put all our insurance in the Divine Insurance Company. Let us realize
that everything is just as it is supposed to be. We are in the lap of our
Mother. How can anything go wrong?
The Gita is a divine “Map of Life” for it
shows us clearly both the destination and also the clearest and best path to
reach there. Just as the GPS system in our cars is always there to show us the
path and to quickly tell us if we’ve gone astray, so the Bhagavad Gita is like
the GPS system for our lives. Wherever we want to go, whatever we want to
achieve, we simply need to turn to the Gita for the instructions of how to
reach our goal.
However, in order for the GPS system in the car to start
working, after we have entered the destination address, we must push the
“accept” button. This button activates the guided instructions; without it the
instructions will not begin and we will not be guided to our destination.
Similarly in our lives, we must accept His message and surrender, constantly,
over and over again, to His Divine Will. It is surrender and only surrender
that allows divine grace to work in our lives. It is surrender, and only
surrender, that brings Lord Krishna’s presence into our lives.
With Wisdom, love and blessings from my Guru Swami Chidanand Saraswati, Seeing
Bhagwan Krishna everywhere
Wishing you lots of love, Peace and happiness. Rita, Mom to Kishan forever
