Krishna Janmashtami

Krishna Janmashtami

 Janmashtami, also known as Gokulashtami marks the celebration of birth of lord Sri Krishna. Sri Krishna was born in the 'Rohini' nakshatram (Star) to King Vasudeva and Devaki Devi on the eighth day of the dark fortnight in the month of Sravana. This festival is also known as Sri Krishna Jayanti and Krishnashtmi. The real celebration can be on two different days as the star 'Rohini' and Ashtami may not be on the same day. This day corresponds to the months of August and September in the Gregorian calendar.

Janmashtami Celebration in North India

In Uttar Pradesh where the Lord was born in Mathura, his playground gokul and Vrindavan become more crowded and celebrations go up to a week. In Gujarat, where the city of Dwarka has Dwarkadhish temples celebrate it with pomp and joy.

In the eastern state of Orissa, West Bengal and around Puri in Nabadwip, people celebrate it by fasting and doing puja at noon. Pravachana from Purana Bhagavata Purana are made from the 10th skandha engaged in appropriate times of Lord Krishna. The next day called Nanda Utsav or happy celebration of Nanda Maharaj and Yashoda Maharaani. On that day people break their fast and offer a variety of baked goodies during the early hours.

Janmashtami Celebration in Maharashtra

Janmaashtami, popularly known in Mumbai and Pune as Dahi Handi is celebrated with enormous zeal and enthusiasm. The Handi is a clay pot filled with buttermilk that was placed at a convenient height before the event. The top person in the human pyramid trying to break the Handi by hitting it with a blunt object most nariyal (coconut) are preferred to be a sign of purity, truth and other good terms in Hindu religion. When that happens buttermilk has spilled across the group, which symbolizes their performance through the device. Various handis is set up locally in several parts of the city, and groups of young people, called Govinda, travel around in trucks trying to break as many handis as possible during the day.

Govinda Pathak Many of these compete with each other, especially for those handing out large rewards handis. The event, in recent times, has gathered a political flavor, and it is common for political parties and community groups for the rich prizes amounting to lakhs of rupees to offer. Some of the most famous handis is at Dadar, lower Parel, Worli, Mazgaon, Lalbaug, Thane and Babu genu, Mandai in Pune. Cash and gifts are offered for Govinda troops to participate; for over 4,000 handis in Mumbai, 2000 Govinda troops compete for the prizes.

Janmashtami Celebration in Manipur

Janmaashtami, popularly known in Manipur as Krishna janma, is an important festival celebrated in two temples in Imphal, the capital of Manipur. The first festival is in Govindaji temple and the other is the International Society for Krishna Consciousness temple. Followers of Lord Krishna is collected mostly in the ISKCON Temple.

Importance of Janmashtami

The verse in the Bhagavad-Gita (a sacred book told of Lord Vishnu) says that when there will be a preponderance of evil, and the decline of religion, I reincarnated to kill the evil and save the good. The main significance of Janmashtami is to foster goodwill and to counteract the bad Will. Krishna Jayanti celebrates the togetherness. The sacred occasion brings people together, why it means unity and faith.

Significance of Janmashtami

5000 years ago on Janamashtmi, The Lord appeared at midnight. This is indeed a historical fact, but it also has a deeper significance. Midnight is the time of maximum darkness and from the moment the Lord appeared the darkness started diminishing. Similarly our heart is dark being afflicted by multiple anxieties and miseries. But in the darkest hour of our life, when we turn to the Lord and He appears in our heart, all the darkness recedes and the light of eternal hope starts streaming in.

The Lord appeared in a prison cell amidst shackles and then freed His parents . This indicates that all of us  who are shackled by our own material desires can be freed by the Lord who appears in our heart which is like a prison house.

So the real Janmashtami will take place when the Lord appears in our hearts. Though we do not know it, all of us are actually pining for this Janmashtami to occur. All of us want love, care, protection and happiness and this is what the actual Janmashtami - the appearance of the Lord in our heart -  brings.

Indian Independence Day

                        

 

 
On August 15, 1947, India achieved freedom from British rule. Every year is August 15 is celebrated as Independence Day in India. This national festival celebrated with great enthusiasm all over the country. The day is a national holiday in India. Across the country, flag pole hoisting ceremonies conducted by the local government in attendance. The main event takes place in New Delhi, the capital of India.

Celebrations

Prime Minister of India hoists the Indian flag on the ramparts of the historic site, Red Fort Delhi, 15 August. This is Telecast place live on national channel Doordarshan and many other news outlets across India. Flag hoisting ceremonies and cultural programs take place in all state capitals. In cities around the country the national flag hoisted by politicians in their constituencies. In various private organizations flag hoisting is carried out by a senior official of that organization. Across the country, flags are awarded to people who wear them proudly to show their patriotism towards India. Schools and colleges around the country organize the flag hoisting ceremony and various cultural events in their premises, where the younger children in costume representing their idols of the Independence era.

Partition and Independence of India

Between 1940 and 1942, Congress launched two abortive agitation against the British, and 60,000 Congress members were arrested, including Gandhi and Nehru. Unlike the uncooperative and belligerent Congress supported the Muslim League the British during World War II. Delayed but perhaps sincere British attempts to meet the demands of the two rival parties, while preserving the unitary state in India, seemed unacceptable to both the alternating rejected what the proposal was made during the war. As a result, definitely a three-way deadlock in: Congress and the Muslim League doubted British motives in transferring power to the Indians, while the British struggled to retain some hold on India while to give greater autonomy.

The Congress wasted precious time denouncing the British rather than allaying Muslim fears during the highly charged election campaign in 1946. Even the more mature Congress leaders, especially Gandhi and Nehru, failed to see how genuinely afraid of Muslims were and how exhausted and weak the British had become in the wake of the war. When it became clear that Congress does not need to share power with the Muslim League was in the center, Jinnah declared August 16, 1946, Direct Action Day, with riots and bloodshed brought common in many places in the north. Partition seemed preferable to civil war. On June 3, 1947, Viscount Louis Mountbatten, the Viceroy (1947) and the Governor-General (1947-1948), plans for distribution of the British Indian government announced in the peoples of India and Pakistan, which itself was divided in the east and west wings on either side of India. At midnight, on August 15, 1947, India ran to freedom amidst ecstatic shouting of "Jai Hind", as Nehru a memorable and moving speech delivered on India's "tryst with destiny." "

This was the speech by PT. Jawahar Lal Nehru to the Indian Constituent Assembly, on the eve of India's independence, towards midnight on August 14, 1947

• Long years ago we made a tryst with destiny, and now the time comes when we shall redeem our pledge, not wholly or in full measure, but very substantially. At the stroke of the midnight hour, when the world sleeps, India will awake to life and freedom. A moment comes, which comes but rarely in history, when we step out from the old to the new, when an age ends, and when the soul of a nation, long suppressed, finds utterance. It is fitting that at this solemn moment we take the pledge of dedication to the service of India and her people and to the still larger cause of humanity.
• At the dawn of history India started on her unending quest, and trackless centuries are filled with her striving and the grandeur of her success and her failures. Through good and ill fortune alike she has never lost sight of that quest or forgotten the ideals which gave her strength. We end today a period of ill fortune and India discovers herself again. The achievement we celebrate today is but a step, an opening of opportunity, to the greater triumphs and achievements that await us. Are we brave enough and wise enough to grasp this opportunity and accept the challenge of the future?
• Freedom and power bring responsibility. The responsibility rests upon this Assembly, a sovereign body representing the sovereign people of India. Before the birth of freedom we have endured all the pains of labour and our hearts are heavy with the memory of this sorrow. Some of those pains continue even now. Nevertheless, the past is over and it is the future that beckons to us now.
• That future is not one of ease or resting but of incessant striving so that we may fulfil the pledges we have so often taken and the one we shall take today. The service of India means the service of the millions who suffer. It means the ending of poverty and ignorance and disease and inequality of opportunity. The ambition of the greatest man of our generation has been to wipe every tear from every eye. That may be beyond us, but as long as there are tears and suffering, so long our work will not be over.
• And so we have to labour and to work, and work hard, to give reality to our dreams. Those dreams are for India, but they are also for the world, for all the nations and peoples are too closely knit together today for any one of them to imagine that it can live apart Peace has been said to be indivisible; so is freedom, so is prosperity now, and so also is disaster in this One World that can no longer be split into isolated fragments.
• To the people of India, whose representatives we are, we make an appeal to join us with faith and confidence in this great adventure. This is no time for petty and destructive criticism, no time for ill-will or blaming others. We have to build the noble mansion of free India where all her children may dwell.
• The appointed day has come-the day appointed by destiny-and India stands forth again, after long slumber and struggle, awake, vital, free and independent. The past clings on to us still in some measure and we have to do much before we redeem the pledges we have so often taken. Yet the turning-point is past, and history begins anew for us, the history which we shall live and act and others will write about.
• It is a fateful moment for us in India, for all Asia and for the world. A new star rises, the star of freedom in the East, a new hope comes into being, a vision long cherished materializes. May the star never set and that hope never be betrayed!
• We rejoice in that freedom, even though clouds surround us, and many of our people are sorrowstricken and difficult problems encompass us. But freedom brings responsibilities and burdens and we have to face them in the spirit of a free and disciplined people.
• On this day our first thoughts go to the architect of this freedom, the Father of our Nation [Gandhi], who, embodying the old spirit of India, held aloft the torch of freedom and lighted up the darkness that surrounded us. We have often been unworthy followers of his and have strayed from his message, but not only we but succeeding generations will remember this message and bear the imprint in their hearts of this great son of India, magnificent in his faith and strength and courage and humility. We shall never allow that torch of freedom to be blown out, however high the wind or stormy the tempest.
• Our next thoughts must be of the unknown volunteers and soldiers of freedom who, without praise or reward, have served India even unto death.
• We think also of our brothers and sisters who have been cut off from us by political boundaries and who unhappily cannot share at present in the freedom that has come. They are of us and will remain of us whatever may happen, and we shall be sharers in their good and ill fortune alike.
• The future beckons to us. Whither do we go and what shall be our endeavour? To bring freedom and opportunity to the common man, to the peasants and workers of India; to fight and end poverty and ignorance and disease; to build up a prosperous, democratic and progressive nation, and to create social, economic and political institutions which will ensure justice and fullness of life to every man and woman.
• We have hard work ahead. There is no resting for any one of us till we redeem our pledge in full, till we make all the people of India what destiny intended them to be. We are citizens of a great country on the verge of bold advance, and we have to live up to that high standard. All of us, to whatever religion we may belong, are equally the children of India with equal rights, privileges and obligations. We cannot encourage communalism or narrow-mindedness, for no nation can be great whose people are narrow in thought or in action.
• To the nations and peoples of the world we send greetings and pledge ourselves to cooperate with them in furthering peace, freedom and democracy.
• And to India, our much-loved motherland, the ancient, the eternal and the ever-new, we pay our reverent homage and we bind ourselves afresh to her service.” (indohistory.com)

Raksha Bandhan

Raksha Bandhan or Rakhi is a festival primarily observed in North India, which celebrates the relationship between brothers and sisters. The festival is followed by Hindus, Sikhs and Muslims. The central ceremony involves tying a Rakhi from a sister on her brother's wrist. This symbolizes sister's love and prayers for her brother's welfare. The brother in return offers a gift to his sister and vows to protect her life when she presents sweets to her brother. The brother and sister traditionally feed each other sweets. The festival falls on the full moon day (Shravan Poornima) of Shravan

Significance of Rakhi

Festival of Rakhi have taken a broader meaning in the world, spreading harmony and together the family members under one roof. Rakhi stands for love between brothers and sisters, the bond of love that they have shared since their childhood. This festival has immense significance in India. The custom of celebrating Raksha Bandhan started in ancestral period and even today people consider their need to express affection in traditional ways. Rakhi is strengthening the bond of love between brothers and sisters.