Festival celebrated by Shri Hari: Lord Krishna’s birthday (Gokula Astami and Ramananda swami’s Appearance.
Festival celebrated by Shri Hari: Lord Krishna’s birthday (Gokula Astami and Ramananda swami’s Appearance.
Suvrat said:-
O King, getting up early on the Janmastami day, Shri Hari performed the morning rituals of daily routine; he celebrated the festival of Ramanand swami by worshipping Him. 1.
He (Sri Hari) performed the worship of Ramanand swamithe incarnation of Uddhav and constructed a big Mandap with the help of his colleagues. 2.
He placed beautiful plantain trunks, decorated the Mandap with colorful robes and prepared a seat for Lord Krishna. 3.
On the Janmastami day, he observed fast for the whole day with his colleagues and at night, installed the golden idol of Lord Krishna and worshipped it. 4.
He spent the whole day singing devotional songs and hymns, took the holy bath at night and worshipped Lord Krishna as per the rituals. 5.
He performed abhisheka to Lord Krishna, Devaki, Nanda and Yasoda with milk, sugar, curd, honey and clarified butter (Panchamrta) and with pure water then after. 6.
He then performed the Mahabhisheka- pouring a continuous stream of water on the idol; later, he decorated them with new robes and ornaments, applied perfumed sandalwood and rice grains with kumkum (red power). 7.
He offered various scented flowers and Tulsi leaves, Druva and Bilee leaves and Ketaki- (Pandanus Odoratissimus) leaves. 8.
Every time while offering leaves, he uttered the name of Lord and worshipped Lord Krishna with one thousand Tulsi leaves (holy basil). 9.
He then offered incense sticks, lighted an oil lamp, circumambulated the deities in clockwise direction and offered holy food as the Naivedya. In the end, he offered fruits, betel leaves and money (Daksina). 10.
At last he performed Diparadhana using the oil lamp and offered handful of flowers to Lord Krishna. He then honored and felicitated the Brahmin by offering them worship. 11.
He then placed Krishna in a cradle and rocked it, read the life story of Krishna as described in the Bhagavata and spent the night. 12.
The next morning, he got up early, performed his daily rituals and performed post-worship (Uttara Pooja) He gave away the golden idol of Lord Krishna to a Brahmin in alms and gave the Brahmins a delicious feast. 13.
Then he thought to perform the Parana himself; after meeting the Brahmins and devotees, he completed the Parana. 14.
In the afternoon, he preached saintly religion to his devotees on the bank of the river, standing amongst his devotees. 15.
He answered various questions asked by his devotees and solved their difficulties. He cleared off the doubts in their minds and preached to them how to achieve spotless success. 16.
All the devotees then worshipped and felicitated him with deep respect, offered him various red, yellow and white costumes, gold ornaments, sandal wood, flower garlands and pearl strings. 17-18.
All the citizens- ladies and gentlemen devotees served and honored their teacher very respectfully with full devotion; they all had given up their pretence and served him dutifully. 19.
Hundreds of men from other regions along with their friends and sages requested him to join them for meals. 20.
O King, Bhagavan then decided to fulfill their wish and accepted their request. Then, one by one, the rich devotees satisfied Bhagavan and his colleagues by giving delicious meals every day. 21.
Thus, served with deep respect and devotion, Bhagavan stayed in that town (Sarangpur- as the Gujarati version describes) in Sravana and then came the festival of Rsipanchami, the fifth day of the bright fortnight of Bhadrapada. 22-23.
All the women observed the prescribed rituals during Rushi panchami. They performed the worship of seven sages to wipe off the defect of menstruation as per instructions of Bhagavan. 24.
Thus ends the twelfth chapter entitled ‘Celebration of Krishna Janmashtami and Ramananda’s appearance’ in the fourth Prakaran of Satsangijivan, the life story of Lord Narayan, also titled as ‘Dharmashastra’ (the rules of the code of conduct). 12
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