Janmashtami - Celebrate the Birth of the Supreme Lord!!

Once again, we gather to celebrate a jubilant Janamashtami in the hallowed halls of the Radha Krishna Temple of Allen, Texas.This event was unlike any other, however. In the past few months, with the spread of COVID, JKYog devotees have had to turn to virtual engagement sessions to keep in contact with members of our community.  JKYog has hosted nearly a dozen such events, open to everyone from Allen to Allahabad. While the in-person engagements of Family Camp and the weekend retreats will have to wait for another year, it is clear that these online sessions will be with us long after the coronavirus crisis has passed. They have allowed hundreds, if not thousands of people, from all over the world to unite, just for one cause – to grow in Bhakti together. This desire to unite, the serendipity to find similar-minded individuals, and the ability to follow the path that God intended for us, are all precious gifts that we do not take for granted. And what better day to think about the blessings we have gained than today, the day that Krishna took birth on our Earth so many thousands of years ago.

On this day, it was the Master of the Universe that descended on our planet, out of the millions of worlds he sustains, to fulfill his three goals.

paritrāṇāya sādhūnāṁ vināśhāya cha duṣhkṛitām

dharma-sansthāpanārthāya sambhavāmi yuge yuge  (Chapter 4 , Verse 8)

This translates into:

To protect the righteous, to annihilate the wicked, and to reestablish the principles of dharma I appear on this earth, age after age.

However, as Swamiji has said, God can accomplish the first two objectives with only a fraction of his potency while seated in the Divine abode.  The Avatar’s primary purposes is to establish new leelas for souls to remember for countless millenia. And with that, we see Krishna protecting his town from the demons Kamsa sent forth repeatedly. We see the past times with his friends and with the Gopis of Vrindavan. We see the roops that were not always fully manifested in the previous avatars – those of Baby Krishna, Krishna growing up, humbling a celestial God, stealing butter, and accompanying his friends on the battle of Kurukshetra. We are grateful for the memorialization of the words of the Bhagavad Gita, which, in 700 verses, capture the essence of the entire cosmos, including the purpose of life, the reason for creation, and the means to attain the Creator.

Swamiji’s lecture discussed the personal form of God and the references to it in the Vedas.  Even today, there are some who believe in the omnipotency of God, but do not understand how God can take a personal form. They think of the Divine as a formless entity.  Swamiji dismissed these limitations by describing how God has given form to everything that exists, and if God can bestow a form on trillions of creatures throughout creation, it would be erroneous to think that he cannot similarly take on a form himself, in the form of avatars.

We similarly recognize the folly in thinking that life could have taken form without any intelligent design. Everything from the sands of the desert to the stars that form a blanket in the night serve a purpose.Every twinkle in the sky is host to its own stories, its own memories of eons gone by. Everything in creation is on a journey lasting billions of years if not longer, all with the same goal-to recognize the Divine Supersoul seated in all of us. This is abundantly clear because the words have come directly from the mouth of Krishna.

So today, as the JKYog devotees gathered for an entire day, it was different than any other day. The tears of joy shed on this day expressed our collective gratitude, that we were given this opportunity to engage with other like-minded divine souls once again in a union that benefits us all. We had the ability to experience a fraction of that pure joy that the Saints have achieved and experience every day. There are many places we could be, and many things we could be doing today. But on this day, we all chose to spend this precious limited time with each other, in loving remembrance of the time that God descended on our world, of all the worlds he maintains, and provided memories that will last until the end of millenia, all for our own benefit.

We have a promise from the Master of the Universe, that any spiritual practice will make us dear to him. Everyone who has started on this path has already attained the protection of the Lord, in this very world, and need not wait until the world hereafter. This is all we have to do.

śhrī bhagavān uvācha

pārtha naiveha nāmutra vināśhas tasya vidyate

na hi kalyāṇa-kṛit kaśhchid durgatiṁ tāta gachchhati  (Chapter 6 , Verse 40)

This translates into:

The Supreme Lord said: O Parth, One who engages on the spiritual path does not meet with destruction either in this world or the world to come. My dear friend, one who strives for God-realization is never overcome by evil.

Those words, which are from God and therefore precisely perfect, talk about the protection for someone who engages on this path. It is not necessary to complete the journey to gain the protection of God. A genuine attempt to start on the path is all that is required.

It is a magnanimous occasion to be able to partake in this celebration, and we know that we have a limited number of Janamashtamis in our brief lifetime, so we should make the most of each one. Indeed, we think of the souls who celebrated past Janamashtamis with us and are no longer part of our journey today. But we also know that every day presents a new opportunity for us to remember God in the way that he wants us to, and that whatever good or bad may come, it serves the greater purpose. If we believe that God is omni-present and infallible, then we must accept that the world and everything that happens is also perfect. We may not understand the meaning of the ills that befall us, but the ability to even ask those questions reflects the magnificent benevolence of the Creator, of the embodiment of free will in every being. Whatever problems may exist today likely pale in comparison to those Arjun experienced when the Lord revealed the Bhagavad Gita to him. With his uncles, teachers, cousins, and grandfathers lined up across the battlefield, ready to kill him, he placed his solace in the Divine Master seated next to him, and thereby, was afforded an opportunity to ask all the questions we would ask of God if he were standing before us.

Today, the birth of the Lord will be remembered and celebrated in Temples throughout the world, in the homes of devotees, and in the hearts of billions. May it be a chance for us to refresh our commitment to this journey, and a call to help others join and progress on this path, in order to please Him. Let us pray for him to grant us the gift of Bhakti that only he can bestow, and help us realize that perfect state in this very life.

The event was marked by world-renowned singers and dancers i.e., Vidushi Debamitra Sengupta (Odissi), Vidwan Sikkil. C. Gurucharan (Carnatic Vocal), Vidushi Dr. Deepti Omchery Bhalla (Mohiniattam),Vidwan Dr. Vijaykumar Krishnan (Carnatic Vocal & Violin),Vidushi Indrani Mukherjee (Hindustani Vocal). They exhibited the performances composed and enacted by the Saints of yesteryear, to help immerse us in the moment, and try to experience a little more the times and places of that birth over five thousand years ago. There was the re-enactment of leelas in dance form. The performances came from Grammy nominees, Carnatic vocalists, and classical musicians, dedicating the God-given skill they have refined in memory of that very God.

The midnight celebrations at the temple marking the birth of Shri Krishna was filled with so much excitement and merry. Swami Mukundananda’s presence in the celebration make it even more memorable for participants attending in person and virtually. The special cake cutting for the new born Shri Krishna, swinging of the baby in jhoolan accompanied by soulful kirtans filled everyone’s heart with bhakti and devotion!!