Janmashtami

People celebrate this festival with fun, frolic and merrymaking. The raasleelas, bhajan, kirtan and various local functions are the special attractions of the place.

TIME OF THE YEAR

The festival of Janmashtami is celebrated during the month of August or September depending on the Indian calendar. The celebration of this festival is followed according to the Indian calendar and hence the month in the English calendar varies every year. This day also falls on the day of Shravan Poornima when the monsoon season is at its high in most of the part of India.

THE CELEBRATIONS

The celebration generally consists of bhajan, kirtan, chanting of holy mantras and preparation of ‘jhoolan’ or swing, where the idol of lord Krishna and His beloved Radha is kept and worshiped in the evening. Preparation of sweets and traditional goodies, dressing up small children the same way lord Krishna did in His childhood days, etc., are some of the other important aspects of this festival.

However, what attracts the pilgrims most is the raasleelas - a kind of folk theatre that narrates the various aspects of Krishna’s life. Every year, with the onset of the rainy season, the raasleelas begin. Under a huge canopy, a vast crowd (men on one side and women on the other) sits in rapt attention, watching the events unfold on the stage. Raasleelas are held in every corner of the city, particularly in Brindavan. Some are staged by troupes that have been around for 50 years; some are not so old; but all of them are put up with great love and devotion by the actors and musicians, and are watched by an equally devout audience. In fact, while watching the raasleelas the audience periodically breaks out into the resounding cry, Krishna bhagwan ki jai! (Hail Lord Krishna). The raasleelas are always put up on a stage blazing with light and color. Huge sheets of silk in bright colors (red, blue, yellow) embellished with sequins and gold work form the backdrop. The raasleelas are usually in Brajbhasha, the dialect of the region, but once in a way, the actors improvise and break into Hindi. The musicians sit in one corner of the stage, singing with the barest accompaniment just a harmonium and a tabla. The most interesting aspect of the raasleelas is the fact that Krishna is always played by a young boy, never a grown up man, and when the show ends, the people quietly queue up to go onstage and offer their prayers to Lord Krishna. Reverentially, they touch the little boy’s feet and drop their offerings in a big urn placed next to him. For the devotees, the young boy playing Krishna is not human at that time he is a manifestation of Lord himself.

RITUALS

The ceremony that follows is a very simple affair. To the chanting of mantras, the priests bathe the idol with Gangajal (water from the holy Ganges river), milk, ghee (clarified butter), oil, and honey. Yellow-robed priests pour all these from a conch shell. Once the ceremony is over, it is time for devotees to break their daylong fast and to pack their bags and head homeward. Janmashtami is celebrated on the eighth day of the new moon in the lunar month of Bhadra corresponding to the months of August–September of the western calendar.

In Janmashtami, the moment of importance is midnight when Krishna is born. People fast all day (some without water) and eat only after the midnight birth ceremony is over. Temples and homes all over India display jhankis (tableaux) showing important incidents from the Lord’s life. Often the image of the baby Krishna is placed on a swing and bathed with 'charanamrit' (holy water). Midnight prayers are performed. The sound of hymns and religious songs extol the greatness of Krishna. While this festival is celebrated throughout the country, it is in Mathura that the celebrations reach their peak. The midnight ceremony is often relayed live to devotees by radio and television.

LEGENDS OF LORD KRISHNA

Krishna, the eighth of the 10 incarnations of Vishnu (the Preserver of the Universe), is one of Hinduism’s most popular gods, and his story is a long one, which can only be very briefly outlined here. He was born at Mathura to Vasudeva and Devaki, the cousin of the ruling King Kansa. It was prophesied that Devaki’s eighth son would kill Kansa. Kansa imprisoned Devaki and Vasudeva and killed her children as they were born. However, Krishna was smuggled out of the prison and brought up as the child of the cowherd Nanda and his wife Yashoda at Gokul.

Legend has it that when Devaki was with child, she glowed with an almost unearthly light. When Krishna was born, everything was auspicious the planets and stars were in the right position, the rivers and lakes were clear and sweet, flowers bloomed everywhere and an air of tranquility pervaded the earth. As the newborn child came into the world, Vasudeva and Devaki looked at him in wonder. This was not an ordinary child. The Lord had appeared in his real form. Dark as a rain-cloud, the child made the prison glow with the splendor of his crown, his jewelry, and his yellow silk robes. Even as they were looking on, his divine form was lost and he became an ordinary child in their eyes. Vasudeva had been commanded to take the child and leave him in Gokul, in the house of Nanda. Vasudeva placed the child in a small wicker basket and as he wondered how to get across the locked doors, a miracle took place. The locks snapped open. Vasudeva walked towards the door and found that the guards were all sunk in deep sleep. He quickly walked out and reached the banks of the river Yamuna. Suddenly, the sky became overcast and torrents of rain lashed the ground. Vasudeva did not know how he was going to cross the river, but, placing his faith in the Lord, he plunged into the water. The great serpent Adisesha, with his two thousand hoods, protected the child from the rain and the water in the Yamuna receded to give way to Vasudeva.

In his childhood, the incarnate God performed many miracles, but also played childish pranks that have been immortalized in the rich folklore of India. His flirtations with the wives and daughters of the cowherds (gopis) are legendary. Nevertheless, his favorite gopi was the beautiful Radha.

Eventually, he gave up his idyllic pastoral life, and turned his attention to destroying his wicked uncle, Kansa. After slaying him, he founded a new capital, Dwarka, and married Rukmini, daughter of the king of Vidharba.

REGIONAL CELEBRATIONS

Except for Dwarka, which is in Gujarat, most of Krishna’s story unfolds in Mathura and its environs. Brindavan (15 km from Mathura), where he played the flute, sported with the gopis, and wooed his sweetheart Radha; Govardhan (26 km away) where, as a child, he is said to have held aloft the Govardhan mountain on his finger for seven days and nights to protect the cowherds from a deluge; Gokul (16 km), where baby Krishna was kept hidden and sheltered from the evil King Kansa by his foster mother Yashoda; Barsana (21 km from Govardhan), the birthplace of Radha; all these and many other small towns are significant because they were in some way connected with Krishna. Not surprisingly, the entire area, called Brajbhoomi, is deeply steeped in Krishna lore. Janmashtami is celebrated in this entire area with incredible fervor and gaiety. However, the place which is considered the holiest is obviously Mathura, and within Mathura too, one particular temple that is built on the exact site where Krishna was born.

It is estimated that during Janmashtami, almost seven lakh people pour into Mathura and the surrounding towns. Buses crammed with pilgrims come from every corner of the country and line every lane and road in Mathura. Every hotel, every guesthouse, is full, and if one has not made arrangements, one cannot get a room anywhere in the city for all the money in the world. So a lot of pilgrims simply camp wherever they find place in a park, on the pavement, even on the road! All of Mathura becomes a sort of giant living room, with people sitting, sleeping and cooking wherever they can find a square inch. They throng the temples (of which there are many in Mathura), and wander around the innumerable little bazaars that mushroom all over the city. Snack stalls, mithai (sweet) shops, tiny shacks selling trinkets and baubles, others selling religious books and cassettes and pictures of Lord Krishna spring up magically on every road.

Nevertheless, the real crowds during Janmashtami, of course, are at the Shri Krishna Janmabhoomi temple. Hundreds of pilgrims squat on every inch of the temple grounds, fanning themselves with newspapers and listening in pin drop silence to the discourses of erudite religious teachers discourses relayed through a close circuit television network to every corner of the temple. Many people simply camp in the temple all day so that they can witness the midnight birth ceremony. As night falls, the crowds swell into the proverbial sea of humanity, jostling and pushing, in an attempt to get into the temple. The main hall of the temple, where the ceremony actually takes place, is usually so tightly packed with people that there isn’t place to even squeeze in a pin! As twelve o’clock draws nearer, an anticipatory murmur runs through the crowd and it starts straining to get a glimpse of what the priests are doing. At the stroke of midnight, when the deity is taken out, the crowd lets out a mighty roar - 'Krishna bhagwan ki jai'! The sound of frenzied clapping, the call of the conch shell rents the air, as the small deity, wrapped in white, is placed on a raised platform so that everyone can get a look.

Besides Mathura, this festival is celebrated all over India with the special procedure and the regional festivities that are normally followed in each region.

PLACES TO VISIT

The best places to visit during this festival time are Mathura, Brindavan, and Dwarka. These mythological places are related to Lord Krishna and hence, celebrations of this festival follows various programs. Raasleelas, local plays, dramas, etc., most of them marking the onset of festivities.