Sastra Caksusa

seeing through the eyes of scriptures

Please accept my humble obaisences

All glories to Srila Prabhupada

 I was reading a note by Jayapataka Swami stating the the month of Vaisakha is more auspiscious than Kartika.

 

Personally I have my doubts about this because Haribhakti Vilasa has not stated this, actually Kartika and the month of Purusottama stands out there clearly.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vaisakha .So it goes from april 21 to May 20.It is the month of Madhusudana. Wether Lord Visnu killed Madhu demon during this period is not clear.

Chandan Yatra takes place in this month, Narasimha Caturdasi, Buddha Purnima, (Sometimes informally called "Buddha's Birthday", it actually encompasses the birth, enlightenment (nirvāna), and passing away (Parinirvāna) of Gautama Buddha ,this is according to Wikipedia, the free online encyclopedia)

 

http://www.salagram.net/ekadasi-12.htm is very interersting:  In the Mahabharata there's a story of Dhrishthabuddhi that is told. Then there's a mention of the vrata called Vaisakh vrata that removes all sin. There it suggests to observe a fast by eating once per day after noon for one month (Mahabharata Anusasana parva, chapter 106.) It also refers to Vaishakhsuklaikadasivrat known as Mohini and quotes Padma Purana as its origin Uttara Khanda chapter 51.

I assume that vrata is what Jayapataka Swami was refering to?

 

Vaisakha-sukla EkAdasii,  also known as Mohinii EkAdasii falls in this month and Varuthini ekadasi http://www.prabhupada.org/rama/?p=1657

 

In the Matsya Purana 
(as quoted from the Sri Hari-bhakti-vilasa): ‘On the third day of the bright half of the moon of Vaisakha, the Supreme Lord Janardana created the grain barley, started the cycle of Satya-yuga, and made Tripathaga Ganga descend to the earth from Brahmaloka’

 

So much more is there about Vaisakha ,when I have time I will share my research from Haribhakti Vilasa ,I have read before about the glories of the month of Vaisakha but I do not recall anything about this, due to my Kali yuga memory:

 

However in Hari Bhakti Vilasa Srila Sanatana has advised us to chant Hare Krishna:

 

 In the Laghu-Bhagavata it is said:

 

     "A person who places his thoughts on Lord Govinda alone and happily chants, `O Govinda!' protects the earth with his purity and his good fortune."

 

 

Text 350

 

hari-bhakti-sudhodaye

 

na caivam ekam vaktaram

     jihva rakshati vaishnavi

ashravya bhagavat-khyatim

     jagat kritsnam punati hi

 

     hari-bhakti-sudhodaye-in the Hari-bhakti-sudhodaya; na-not; ca-and; evam-thus; ekam-one; vaktaram-speaker; jihva-the tongue; rakshati-protects ; vaishnavi-of a devotee of Lord Vishnu; ashravya-hearing; bhagavat-khyatim-the glories of the Supreme Personality of Godhead; jagat-the universe; kritsnam-entire; punati-purifies; hi-indeed.

 

 

     In the Hari-bhakti-sudhodaya it is said:

 

     "A tongue busy in chanting the holy names of Lord Vishnu does not purify only the speaker. It purifies everyone who hears it."

 

Text 351

 

dashama-skandhe

 

yan-nama grihnann akhilan

     shrotrinatmanam eva ca

sadyah punati kim bhuyas

     tasya sprishtah pada hi te

 

     dashama-skandhe-in the Tenth Canto; yan-nama-whose name; grihnann-chanting; akhilan-all; shrotrinatmanam-hearers; eva-indeed; ca-and; sadyah-at once; punati-purifies; kim-what?; bhuyah-more; tasya-of that; sprishtah-touched; pada-by the foor; hi-inded; te-of You.

 

 

     In Shrimad-Bhagavatam (10.4.17) it is said:

 

     "O Lord, a person who chants Your holy name purifies both himself and all who hear him. How much more purified, then, is a person touched by Your foot?"

So any month where we chant Hare Krishna and remember His transcendental form is auspicious

 

your servant

Paramananda das

 

 

 

 

 

Views: 326

Comment by Paramananda das on May 17, 2012 at 8:28am
Comment by Paramananda das on April 29, 2019 at 6:49am

Varuthini Ekadasi

Sri Yudhisthira Maharaj said, "Oh Vasudeva, I offer my most humble obeisances unto You.

Please now describe to me the Ekadasi of the dark fortnight (krishna paksha) of the month of Vaisakha (April-May), including its specific merits and influence."

Lord Sri Krishna replied, "Oh King, in this world and the next, the most auspicious and magnanimous Ekadasi is Varathini Ekadasi, which occurs during the dark fortnight of the month of Vaisakha.

Whosoever observes a complete fast on this sacred day has his sins completely removed, obtains continuous happiness, and achieves all good fortune.
Fasting on Varathini Ekadasi makes even an unfortunate woman fortunate.
Upon anyone who observes it, this Ekadasi bestows material enjoyment in this life and liberation after the death of this present body.

It destroys the sins of all and saves people from the miseries of repeated rebirth.
By observing this Ekadasi properly, King Mandhata was liberated.

Many other kings also benefited from observing it, kings such as Maharaja Dhundhumara, in the Ikshvaku dynasty, who became free from leprosy resulting from the curse that Lord Shiva had imposed upon him as a punishment.

Whatever merit one obtains by performing austerities and penances for ten thousand years is achieved by a person who observes Varuthinii Ekadasi.

The merit one achieves by donating a great amount of gold during a solar eclipse at Kurukshetra is gained by one who observes this one Ekadasi with love and devotion, and certainly attains his goals in this life and the next.

In short, this Ekadasi is pure and very enlivening and the destroyer of all sins.

Better than giving horses in charity is giving elephants, and better than giving elephants is giving land.

But better still than giving land is the giving of sesame seeds, and better than that is giving of gold.

Still better than giving gold is giving food grains for all the forefathers, demigods (devas), and human beings become satisfied by eating grains.

Thus there is no better gift of charity than this in the past, present or future.

Yet learned scholars have declared that giving away a young maiden in marriage to a worthy person is equal to giving away food grains in charity.

Moreover, Lord Sri Krishna, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, has said that giving cows in charity is equal to giving food grains.

Still better than all these charities is teaching spiritual knowledge to the ignorant.

Yet all the merits one can attain by performing all these acts of charity are attained by one who fasts on the Varuthini Ekadasi.

One who lives off the wealth of his daughters suffers a hellish condition until the inundation of the entire universe, Oh Bharata.

Therefore one should be especially careful not to use the wealth of his daughter.
Oh best of kings, any householder who takes his daughter's wealth out of greed, who tries to sell his daughter, or who takes money from the man to whom he has given his daughter in marriage such a householder becomes a lowly cat in his next life.

Therefore it is said that whoever, as a sacred act of charity, gives away in marriage a maiden decorated with various ornaments, and who also gives a dowry with her, obtains merit that cannot be described even by Chitragupta, the chief secretary of Yamaraja in the heavenly planets.

That very same merit, however, can be easily achieved by one who fasts on the Varuthini Ekadasi.

The following things should be given up on the Dashami, (the tenth phase of the Moon), the day before the Ekadasi:

Eating on bell-metal plates, eating any kind of urad-dahl, eating red-lentils, eating chick-peas, eating kondo (a grain that is primarily eaten by poor people and that resembles poppy seeds or agarpanthas seeds), eating spinach, eating honey, eating in another person's house/home, eating more than once, and participating in sex of any kind.

On the Ekadasi itself one should give up the following:

gambling, sports, sleeping during the daytime, betal nuts and its leaf, brushing one's teeth, spreading rumours, faultfinding, talking to the spiritually fallen, anger, and lying.

On the Dwadasi the day after Ekadasi (the twelfth phase of the Moon), one should give up the following:

eating on bell-metal plates, eating urad-dahl, red-lentils, or honey, lying, strenuous exercise or labour, eating more than once, any sexual activity, shaving the body, face or head, smearing oils on one's body, and eating in another's home.

Lord Sri Krishna continued, "Whoever observes the Varuthini Ekadasi in this way becomes free from all sinful reactions and returns to the eternal, spiritual abode.
One who worships Lord Janardana (Krishna) on this Ekadasi by staying awake throughout the entire night, also becomes free from all his previous sins and attains to the spiritual abode.

Therefore, Oh king, he who is frightened of his accumulated sins and their attendant reactions, and thus of death itself, must observe Varuthini Ekadasi by fasting very strictly.

"Finally, Oh noble Yudhisthira, he who hears or reads this glorification of the sacred Varuthini Ekadasi obtains the merit earned by donating one thousand cows in charity, and at last he returns home, to the Supreme abode of Lord Vishnu in the Vaikunthas.

Comment

You need to be a member of Sastra Caksusa to add comments!

Join Sastra Caksusa

© 2024   Created by Paramananda das.   Powered by

Report an Issue  |  Terms of Service