Saturday, October 18, 2008

Ahoi Ashtami: 21st October 2008


Celebrated in autumn on Ashtami (eighth day of a lunar fortnight), the Ahoi Ashtami is a rite held before Diwali when women pray for their children. The ritual is usually celebrated in the months of October-November or the Karthik month of the Hindu calendar. Very similar to Karwa Chauth, although not overly popular, the Ahoi Ashtami is a fast specifically observed by mothers for the well-being of their sons, performed mostly by people living in Northern India. Pure water is offered to stars in the evening by mothers praying for the long life of their sons.


The story behind Ahoi Ashtami

The story of Ahoi Ashtami is woven around a woman who lived in a village with her seven sons. While the renovation and painting of her house was in process, she went to the forest to get soil. The incidence fell during the month of Karthik just before the Hindu festival Diwali . All of a sudden while digging the soil, the axe accidentally fell and hurt a cub in a nearby den. Subsequently the cub died with the woman feeling sorry and repentant for the mishap. However she took soil from the forest and returned home.


Few days later all her seven sons passed away within the span of a year. She was deeply grieved. Unable to bear her guilt any longer, she confessed her wrongdoing to some elderly neighbors in the village. Tears streaming down her cheeks, she wailed that she hadn’t sinned intentionally; accidentally her axe killed the cub which in turn led to the death of her sons. The neighbors assured her that the confession had expiated half her crime already. As further atonement of her offence, they suggested that she propitiate the goddess Ashtami Bhagawati by sketching the face of the cub.

So, the woman fasted religiously on the Karthik Krishna Ashtami. Eventually she got back all her seven sons by the power of her prayers and God’s grace. Ever since it became a ritual to worship the goddess Ahoi Ashtami Bhagawati every year without fail. This story gained popularity with the passage of time and even today mothers fast and pray to Ahoi Mata for the well-being and bright future of their sons.


The Rituals



The Ahoi Ashtami fast and prayers are roughly similar to those of Karva Chauth. People from all over North India celebrate the festivities with slight variations. But broadly the following method is adopted.


The Ahoi Ashtami festival is specifically meant for mothers having sons. They keep a fast for the entire day, celebrated in the month of November (Karthik Maas), praying for the longevity of their sons to Ahoi Mata.

Waking up before sunrise, the women have some refreshments and proceed to the temple to offer prayers for their children. The fast ends in the evening when the moon appears. Some families also break their fast once they sight stars in the sky with pure water being offered as obeisance.

The portrait of Ahoi Mata is painted on a wall and a bowl of water is placed on it. Printed calendars, posters and pictures of Ahoi Mata are readily available and can be used instead of the wall painting. An untwisted red-hued thread is wrapped around the bowl of water, its edges smeared with turmeric powder and placed on the left of the picture. Soon after, the story of Ahoi Mata is read out by an elderly lady of the household. All the other women sit down, listening to the narration with rapt attention.

The other essentials mandatory for the ritual, are grains placed in a plate and positioned in the centre of the picture. The food offerings comprise of puris, halwa, boiled chana, jowar and so on. Of late, people have been serving sweets relished by their children. Money offerings are also placed before Mata's picture. Once the reading of the story is over, the sweets and money are distributed among children and family elders with joyous abandon. Some people follow the custom of stringing a garland with silver coins for keepsakes, adding to it when a child is born in the family or a son gets married. Every year the Ahoi Mata portrait is adorned with this garland and the tradition is passed on to future generations.

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Wednesday, October 15, 2008

Karva Chauth: 17th October 2008


Karva Chauth is a traditional Hindu festival at which married women observe a fast and worship the karva filled with water (or make an offering of a karva filled with sweets). As the name signifies, karva means an earthen pot with a spout, used in prayers. Chauth corresponds to the fourth day leading to the name Karva Chauth. The event falls on chaturthi tithi after the full moon in the Kartik month of the Hindu calendar, about nine days before Diwali. Having great social and cultural significance, it is celebrated in the northern part of India like Punjab, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and Gujarat with enthused exaltation. The festivities of Karva Chauth vary from region to region depending on the culture and traditions of that state.


It is customary for married women to fast the entire day without food or water for the longevity of their husbands’ lives, well-being and prosperity. The ritual reflects dedicated devotion by the wives for their husbands and is of great significance for wedded bliss. A woman who keeps this vrat or fast is acclaimed as Saubhagyavati (a joyous state of wifehood). In the evening they listen to the Karwa Chauth katha or legend. The fast is over after moonrise.


On the day of Karva Chauth married women wake up before dawn. They bathe and invoke the blessings of Goddess Parvati for their husband's long life. Women are then given sargi by their mothers-in-law to eat before sunrise. It is a tough fast, as after this they are not supposed to take any form of food or liquids. During the day, the married woman receives baya from her mother, which is meant for the mother-in-law. During Karva Chauth, parents send gifts to married daughters and their children.

There is fervent excitement on the auspicious day as women make elaborate preparations to dress up grandly for the occasion. Newly weds often wear their bridal costume. Decorative bindis on the forehead are a must. Married women redden their hands and feet with mehndi or henna. In the evening decked in the best of their finery, wearing heavy saris in bridal hues of red or pink, adorning themselves with nose pins, tikas, earrings, bangles, and vermilion powder in their hair parting, symbols of a married woman, they set out for the puja. A few days before Karva Chauth, married women buy new karvas or spherical clay pots and paint them with beautiful designs. Inside the pot, they stuff bangles and ribbons, home-made sweets, make-up accessories and small cloths. The women visit each other on the day of Karva Chauth and exchange these karvas.


Fasting women from all over the neighborhood gather in a group and narrate the story of Karva Chauth, underpinning its significance and sing the Karvachauth song while rotating thalis containing baya. Earlier an idol of Gaur Mata was made of earth and cowdung. Now just an idol of Goddess Parwati is kept. Every one lights a diya or earthen lamp in their thalis while listening to the Karwa legend. Sindoor, incense sticks, fruits, mathi and food grains are mandatory for the evening puja. A portion is offered to the deities and the storyteller.


The women sit in a circle and the thalis are passed in a fera or rotation amongst themselves. The puja song sung by women, while they exchange thalis is as follows:

Veero Kudiye Karwada, Sarv Suhagan Karwada, Aye Katti Naya Teri Naa, Kumbh Chrakhra Feri Naa, Aar Pair payeen Naa, Ruthda maniyen Naa, Suthra Jagayeen Naa, Ve Veero Kuriye Karwara, Ve Sarv Suhagan Karwara....... (6)


The seventh fera goes like this...Veero Kudiye Karwada, Sarv Suhagan Karwada, Aye Katti Naya Teri Nee, Kumbh Chrakhra Feri Bhee, Aar Pair payeen Bhee, Ruthda maniyen Bhee, Suthra Jagayeen Bhee, Ve Veero Kuriye Karwara, Ve Sarv Suhagan Karwara.......


They then wait until moonrise without consuming any food or drink for the fast breaking ceremony. When the moon rises, they look at the moon through a sieve or see its reflection in a platter of water, and then see their husband's face; often closing their eyes in the process they do not sight anyone but their husbands just after looking at the moon. Offering water to the moon, the woman prays for the well being of her husband as she sings a karvachauth ark song. Soon after, the wife receives the first bite of food and a sip of water from the husband. Handing over the baya to the mother-in-law she seeks her blessings. Later on sumptuous dinner is served as a part of the celebration.


The festival of Karva Chauth was earlier celebrated to welcome the season of autumn, soon after the harvest and revel in the company of friends and relatives. But later mythological legends were added to lend a religious touch. It is believed that a pativrata woman has the power to confront the God of Death, Yama.


Legends of Karva Chauth

Hindus have always worshipped the Godheads in male and female form. The goddess as she manifest in the various Vaishnava traditions invariably has a male counterpart. Sita relates to Rama. Lakshmi corresponds to Narayana and Radha has her Krishna. As Krishna is the source of all manifestations of God; Sri Radha, His consort, is the source of all feminine manifestations of cosmic energy. One chants Seeta Ram and Radha Krishna, the female name always getting precedence. Karva Chauth endorses the selfless love of a wife for her husband.


Queen Veeravati - Long time back, there lived a beautiful girl named Veeravati. The only sister of her seven brothers she was married to a king. On the first Karva Chauth after marriage, she went to her parents' house. After sunrise, she observed the ritual but could not stand the austere fast, desperately waiting for the moon to rise. The seven doting brothers were pained at her distressful state and decided to end her fast by deception. They reflected a mirror through the Pipal tree’s leaves. The sister assuming it to be the moon, broke the fast and ate food. Precisely then the queen received the news that her husband was seriously ill. When Veeravati begged forgiveness, Goddess Parvati granted that her husband would recoup only when she completed her fast under strict conditions. The queen did the needful and thus revived the life of her husband.


The story of Karva glorifies the power of a virtuous faithful wife. Her husband was caught by a crocodile. Karva bound the creature with a cotton yarn and asked Yama to send it to hell. Initially Yama refused. However when Karva threatened to curse him, Yama afraid of annoying a pativrata or a dedicatedly devoted wife, followed her instructions. Karva and her husband enjoyed many years of wedded bliss.


Another tale of Savitri pestering Yama who carried away her dead husband is famed. Yama assured that she could ask for any other boon except the life of her husband, Satyavan. Savitri entreated that she be blessed with children and Yama agreed. Being a dedicatedly devoted wife, Savitri would never let any other man, be the father of her children. Yama had no other choice but to restore Savitri's husband to life.


Draupadi, too, is said to have observed this fast. Once Arjuna went to the Nilgiris for penance and the rest of the Pandavas faced many difficulties in his absence. Frantically desperate, Draupadi begged Lord Krishna for help. The Lord reminded her that when Goddess Parvati had sought Lord Shivas guidance under such circumstances, she was advised the fast of Karva Chauth. Draupadi followed the instructions and meticulously observed the fast with its rituals. Consequently, the Pandavas were able to overcome their problems.


Women listen to these legends with rapt attention on Karva Chauth.

Monday, October 13, 2008

Sharad Poornima:14th October 2008


The Rasa Lila

Lord Krishna is construed as the quintessential romantic hero with tenderness and teasing and the beauty of His dark body, enflaming the desire of the individual soul for union with God; the supreme lover towards whom the enraptured village girls with whom He sported in his youth are passionately drawn. The Lord makes us cross a new threshold of awareness that He exists intensely in our hearts when we sing His praises and dwells in our longing for Him. Love for Him can only be savoured by gifted devotees not flawed by conceit or pride but striving towards complete absorption in the joy of Krishna, interpreted as the cry of the enraptured soul for God.

Gopivallabha or beloved of the gopis is one of Lord Krishna’s epithets. The gopi bhava (love flowing towards the Lord) which leads us to Krishna is the zenith of spiritual awareness. The undivided whole that is God requires the absorption of its parts to be restored to wholeness once again. These cowherdesses representing souls in search of salvation are hungry for the fulfillment of their love. As Udhavaji says that so steeped in the love of Krishna are the hearts of the gopis that while others may only aspire to reach the state of oneness with the Lord these simple cowherdesses have already attained it. The longing of the gopikas and the calming of their desires by Lord Krishna is centred within Vrindavan.

Lord Krishna Bathing with Gopis in the Yamuna on Sharad Poornima

On Sharad-Poornima, Vrindavan devotees celebrate the divine union of the ascending soul with the descending God Krishna, a moment of purity and effulgence when the god and the gopis are in unison. The miracle of the Raas Lila: that supreme moment of Krishna’s manifestation as human lover and divine incarnate dancing with the gopis in the forest of Madhuvana and bathing with them in the flowing waters of the Yamuna on the radiant night of Sharad Poornima, the autumnal full moon, enchants us. It is experienced through a celebration of nature in her most glorious state which comes with Sharad Ritu, the autumnal season when the skies are cleared of black clouds, the waters flow clear and the whole earth rejoices on being cleansed.

On Sharad Poornima, Krishna picks up His flute and breathes music into it. Its magical sound intoxicated nature and all living beings,overwhelming them with ecstatic devotion. The gopis had prayed for the Raas Lila to goddess Katyayani and can not resist the call.

Raas Lila:
Lord Krishna the lover with his beloved Shri Radha and gopis on the celestial banks of the Yamuna, in the dense nikunjas, gleaming in the light of the full moon commenced the rapturous dance, holding hands to complete a circle. Amidst the idyllic environs and showering merriment the tempo grew faster and faster. Krishna duplicated Himself through His maya so that between two gopis was found a Krishna, sporting with them in the magical dance of the Raas Mandala, assuming as many forms as was necessary to make each gopi happy. The gopis lost in their passionate desire for Krishna, delicately stepped to and fro with ringing bracelets, moving kundals, evocative clothes; the Lord welcomed them with a charming smile. The Raas brings to halt the course of the moon and the planets as they watch the beauty of the dance. Kam (god of love) and Rati his wife are wonder struck at this divine sight with no distinction between earthly sensual love and spiritual ecstacy, a moment of eternity. The site is closely related to the mysteries of intense passion reflected in the sensuous dance.

Celebration:


Shri Banke Bihari ji

In celestial Vrindavan the most popular deity Lord Bihariji is resplendently decked with mormukut, katikachini and vanshi on Raas Poornima. Millions of devotees from all over Punjab, Delhi, UP and the entire world throng to have His radiant darshan which is possible only once a year!


The Full Moon on Sharar Poornima

News-channels broadcast that the moon looks so ethereal and bigger when the skies are cleared of heavy black clouds! Sharad-Poornima falls in October when the moon gleams after the rainy season but before foggy winter sets in. It proves that Thakurji chooses the most glorious season of the autumnal full moon for his leela or playful dalliance.

During the Lord Rama incarnation also during chaitra -naumi (the first month [lunar] of the Hindu year, March-April) the Sun was most soothing to behold because winter was over and summer had yet to set in. So enchanting is the lila because when the divine suffers division when it literally comes down to earth; it must be sustained and restored to wholeness once again by an absorption of its parts, like Lord Krishna’s union with the gopis steeped in his love.