KRISHNA JANMASTAMI

Krishna Janmashtami is simply known as Janmashtami or Gokulashtami. It is a Hindu festival that celebrates the birth of Lord Krishna, the eighth avatar of Vishnu. It is observed according to the Hindu lunisolar calendar, on the eighth day of the Krishna Paksha (dark fortnight) in Bhadrapada, which overlaps with August or September of the Gregorian calendar.

It is an important festival of the Hindu and is celebrated all over India. But, a great scale celebration is observed particularly in Mathura and Vribdavan. Major Vaishnava and non-sectarian communities found in Manipur, Assam, Bihar, West Bengal, Odisha, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Kerala, Andra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and all the other states of India,  celebrate it with a great devotion and enthusiasm. Dance-drama enactments on the life of Krishna according to the Bhagwata Puran are performed. Devotional singing through the midnight when Krishna was born, fasting, a night vigil (Ratri Jagaran), and a festival (Mahotsav) on the following day are a part of the Janmashtami celebrations. After Janmashtami, Nandotsav is celebrated to mark the occasion when Nanda Baba distributed gifts to the community in honour of the birth of Krishna. 

Krishna was born to Devaki and Vasudeva, in the Yadav Clan, in the era of chaos. Evil had pervaded every where. The story runs that when Devaki was being married, an astrologer told her brother Kansa that he would be killed by Devaki's child. Then, Kansa decided to kill all her children. He put Devaki and Vasudeva into the prison,  and literally killed seven of their children just when they were born. But,  when Krishna was born, the prison gates were opened automatically. Vasudeva carried Krishna in a bamboo bucket ( tokari) across the Yamuna to his foster parents Nand and Yashoda. When Kansa came to know of Krishna's bringing up in Gokul, he applied different tricks to kill him,  but he couldn't do so. At the end,  when Krishna grew up and went to Mathura, Kansa was killed by Krishna. Astrology proved true. 

In Gokul, Krishna did a lot of Ras-lila and pranks with the milk- women i.e. gopiyan. The love story of Radha and Krishna is legendary. They are the collective combined forms of feminine as well as the masculine realities. Radha is acknowledged as the Supreme Goddess and one can attain the blessings and mercy of Krishna only by taking the name of Radha. Radha is considered to be an incarnation of Laxmi. It is believed that Krishna enchants the world, but Radha enchants even him. Therefore, she is the supreme goddess of all and together they are called as Radha-Krishna. 

Here, I would like to share some Krishna Janmashtami related experiences with you. Just ten years back when I used to keep a hostel,  the little kids in the hostel celebrated Janmashtami with great enthusiasm and devotion. They would keep fasting till midnight. My children also observed fasting. My younger son still keeps a fast on the day. Then, all the children together would perform Pooja at 12 O'clock midnight when Krishna was born. Prayers were performed and devotional songs were sung. After Pooja,  Prasad was distributed,  with Butter ( Mahan) being the main Prasad. Then, all the children were served rice, curry, different types of vegetables and pakaudis etc. After having this delicious dinner,  they would all go to sleep. It really gave a wonderful experience.

In my childhood,  I also used to keep a fast. It was a whole day long celebration. It had a different meaning and definition in the village that time. I, actually, lived in my village that time. On the day of Janmashtami,  all the girls who kept a fast, would get collected at a place, in fact at someone's house. A special swing was prepared.  we all would swing and sing birth-songs ( sohar ) to welcome the birth of Lord Krishna. It was really a gala time. The whole day, we would be swinging and singing. In the evening, we would go to the village canal to have a sacred dip in that. On coming home, we would perform Pooja to Lord Krishna and have Prasad. We would break our fast at midnight after Krishna's birth. The dinner would be quite special that day. The most enchanting thing was singing the birth-songs. It was really amazing.