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SHRAVAN: CELEBRATING NATURE�S BOUNTY |
Shravan is a very special month in the Hindu calendar. It is a season of revival and rejuvenation. It is a season when nature is generous. That special time of the year when harvesting is done. And families and communities all over the country come together in thanksgiving and celebrations of God�s gifts. Shravan traditionally is also a month of fasting and penance. GOAN OBSERVER brings you some of the major festival celebrated during Shravan.
Vasanta is the Rituraj, Varsha is the Mother and Queen of all the seasons. Copious rains quench the thirst, makes everything on earth rejoice, prolongs life, heals, makes plants and herbs come forth. Water is the basis of life, and we get it in the form of life giving Rains. It is during ��the months of Shravana and Bhadrapada that the rain bearing masses of clouds burst open and release water. A verse in Chandogya Upanishad says:
�Water, verily, is greater than food. Therefore, where there are no good rains, living beings are afraid that fcod will be scarce. But when there are good rains, living beings are happy, thinking, there will be much food. It is water in its different forms which is the earth, the atmosphere, heaven, the mountains, Gods and men, animals and birds, grass and trees, wild beasts, worms, flies and ants. All these forms are only waters. Mediate on water.�
This whole season itself is a long festivity. A great number of our sacred days, fairs and festivals occur during these two months. Some of these include Nag Panchami, Raksha Bandhan, Onam, Ganesh Chaturthi, Janmashtami, Anant Chaturdashi and many others.
NAG PANCHAMI (20th August 2004)
Nag Panchami is observed on the fifth day of the bright half of Shravana (July-August). On this day nag as, cobras and snakes are worshipped with milk, sweets, flowers, lamps and even sacrifices. The images of Naga deities made of silver, stone, wood. (or painted on the wall) are first bathed with water and milk, and then worshipped with the reciting of the mantras.
Snakes and cobras are held in awe and reverence in India. They are worshipped and offered prayers on Nag Panchami. Fast is kept and brahmins are fed on this day. The piety observed on this day is considered a sure protection against the fear of snake-bite. At many places real cobras and snakes are worshipped and fairs held. On this day digging the earth is prohibited, because the serpents live under the earth or in the nether world and digging may hurt or annoy them. The various Puranas like Agni Purana, Skanda Purana, Narad Purana, etc., give details of snake-worship and its significance.
NARIELIPURNIMA (29th August 2004)
Narieli Purnima is celebrated on the full moon day of Shravana to appease the fury of the Sea-god Varuna. It also marks the end of monsoon, and is primarily observed by sailors, fishermen and others living in the coastal areas of South India. They offer coconuts to the sea on this occasion. If the sea happens to be far away, people go to some nearby tank, pool, river or some other source of water and offer the coconut.
RAKSHA BANDHAN ( 29th August 2004)
The festival of Raksha Bandhan is observed on the full moon day of Shravana {July-August). This year it falls on August 30. The world �Raksha� means protection. On this auspicious day, women and girls tie an amulet - like thread round the right hand wrists of their brothers as a token of protection against evil during the ensuing year. The thread is called �Rakhi� and is made of a few colourful cotton or silk twisted threads. It can also be prepared from the threads of gold or silver. The brothers give their sisters gifts of money, clothes and other valuable things in return. Sisters feed their brothers with sweets, dry fruits and other delicacies on this occasion.
Priests and Brahmins also tie this kind of thread round the wrists of the right hands - of their patrons and receive gifts. They recite a mantra or a sacred formula while doing so to charge the thread with the power of protection.
The thread charged with the power of the mantra protects the wearer from the possible evils.
ONAM (28th August 2004)
Onam is the most famous festival of Kerala. It is celebrated in the Malayalam month of Chingam, corresponding to Bhadra (August-September). It is a harvest festival characterized by ten days of feasting, merry making and famous �snake� boat races. These boats may be paddled by up to 100 persons. The snake boat race of Alleppey, held annually in August, is most prominent of all. The number of paddlers rowing a boat indicates the affluence of the man whom it belongs to.
A clay moulded image of Vamana, the fifth incarnation of Vishnu is worshipped on this day in the temples and the houses. The youngsters are given gifts of clothes and other things by the elders. The second day of the festivity, Bali is believed to visit his kingdom in Kerala.
GANESH CHATURTHI (18th September 2004)
Ganesh or Vinayak Chaturthi is one of the most popular Hindu festivals, celebrated all over the land, as the birthday of Lord Ganesha, the elephant-headed God, on the fourth day of the bright half of Bhadra (August-September). The clay moulded figures of Lord Ganesha are worshipped during this festival and then immersed into the sea, river, pool or some other such water. Ganesha is the God of wisdom, learning, prudence, success and power. His names are, repeated in the beginning of every new venture. As Vighnesha or the remover of the obstacles, he is propitiated at the start of every activity, whether it be a journey, marriage, initiation, house construction, the writing of a book or even that of a letter.
He is a great scribe and learned in the religious lore and scriptures. It was Ganesha, who at the dictation of the seer Vyasa, wrote the Mahabha-rata. He is also the Lord of Ganas, the Shiva�s hosts. He bears a single tusk (ek danta) and holds in his four hands a shell, a discus, a goad and a lotus and is always accompanied by his mount, the rat. Ganesha is a great lover of sweets and fruits He is also the presiding deity of Muladhara Chakra (plexus) or the psychic centre in the human body where the Kundalini Shakti resides.
There are two very interesting myths about his birth and how he came to possess the head of an elephant. One myth relates that disliking Lord Shiva�s surprise visits during her baths, Parvati formed her scarf into a man�s figure and gave it life. Then, she placed Ganesha to guard her bath-house entrance. Shiva came and tried to enter but when he found his way barred he cut off his head. It greatly angered Parvati, and so ultimately Shiva had to send someone to fetch another head for Ganesha. The first creature found by him was an elephant. Its head was brought and planted on Ganesha�s shoulders.
Another version says that Parvati was blessed with a beautiful son. All the gods assembled to see and admire the� son of Shiva-Parvati. They all gazed at the child except Shani, because he was under a curse, which caused any being he looked at to be burnt to ashes. Parvati insisted that Shani also looked at and admired her son. No sooner, did Shani do so than Ganesha�s head was burnt to ashes. Parvati cursed Shani for having killed his son, but Brahma intervened and comfortingly told her that if the first available head were planted on her son�s shoulders, he would be alive again�. So Vishnu set forth on Garuda and the first creature he found was an elephant sleeping beside a river. He cut off its head and it was fixed on Ganesha�s trunk.
Similarly there is another interesting story which relates why he has only one tusk. On Ganesh Chaturthi, the images of Ganesha are worshipped with sweet balls (laddoos or modakas), water, new raiments, incense, flowers, scent, betel leaf and naivaidyas (food offerings). His mantra is repeated, he is meditated upon and worshipped and the naivaidya distributed as Prasad. Brahmins are fed and given gifts. In Maharashtra this festival is observed with great religious fervour, pomp, gaiety and eclat and Ganesha idols are taken out in grand processions before immersion into the sea.
JANMASHTAMI (6th September 2004)
On the eighth day of the black half of Bhadra (August-September) was born Shri Krishna, the eighth Avtar or incarnation of Vishnu. Therefore, this day is well-known as Janmashtami or Krishna-Janmashtami. This auspicious day of birth of the Krishna, the direct manifestation of Vishnu himself, is celebrated in all parts of India with great enthusiasm. In the Bhagvad Gita Krishna declares: �All this Universe has been created by me; all things exist in me�, and Arjuna addresses him as �the supreme universal spirit, the supreme dwelling, the eternal person, divine prior to the Gods, unborn, omnipresent�. His life is celebrated in great detail in the Puranas like Harvamsha and Shrimad Bhagvatam. The circumstances in which he was born were quite peculiar and mysterious He incarnated himself primarily to destroy evil and wickedness and to establish Dharma.
The demon King Kansa was a great and dreaded tyrant, but he loved his sister Devaki, and at her marriage with Vasudeva, he, out of great affection, drove their marriage chariot. Then, all of a sudden an oracle told him that the eighth born of Devaki shall be the cause of his doom and death.
At this he would have killed her then and there, but for the intervention of Vasudeva and their promise to give him over each and every child born to them. They kept their promise, and Kansa killed all of their seven children one after the other to the great suffering and grief of the couple. They were kept in the prison under strict watch and in chains and locks.
So, Krishna was born as their eighth son in the prison cell. But it so happened, with divine grace, that the guards fell asleep, their chains loosened and locks and the gates of the prison cell opened Vasudeva took the child Krishna to Nanda�s House in Gokula and exchanged him for a baby girl born there to Yashoda. When Kansa heard of the birth of girl child, he at once rushed to the prison cell, and lifted the female child high, catching it by the feet and was about to dash her against a rock, when it slipped from Kansa�s grip and assuming the beautiful form of the Divine Mother vanished saying. �Wretch I thy destroyer is flourishing in Gokula�. There was a great joy and rejoicing in Gokula at the birth of a son to King Nanda and Queen Yashoda. Yashoda was quite unaware of the exchange that had taken place during the night.
The Janmashtami celebrations start right from the early morning with a bath in sacred waters and prayers, etc, but the climax is at midnight with the rising of the moon, which marks the divine birth. On this auspicious day, strict fast is kept and broken only after the birth of Krishna at midnight The temples and homes are decorated, scenes depicting Krishna�s birth and his childhood pranks, etc, are staged with models both living and inanimate. Child Krishna�s image is put into a richly decorated swing and rocked with tender care all the day by the devotees. At night after birth, a small image of toddling Krishna is bathed in Charna-mrita, amidst chanting of hymns, blaring of the conches, ringing of the bells and joyous shouting of �victory to Krishna�.
In Braja Mandala, especially in Gokula and Mathura, this festival is celebrated with greatest possible religious fervour and enthusiasm and the special deliberations of the day are relayed on the air. People from distant places congregate to Mathura and Vrindavana on this day to participate in the festival. The piety and fast observed on this day ensure birth of many good sons and salvation after death. Reading and recitation of the Bhagvatam and Geet Govind-am are most recommended on this day.
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