Vows, Worship, and Fasting on Sri Janmastami

[Guest guest]

Chapter Eight: Sri Brahma-vaivarta Purana

Sri Janmastami-vrata-pujopavasa-nirupana

Vows, Worship, and Fasting on Sri Janmastami

 

1 Sri Narada said: Now please tell me of the vow of Janmastami, which is

the great vow of vows. Please tell me the result attained by following the

ceremony of Jayanti-yoga.

2 O great sage, what sinful reaction does one meet by not following this

vow or by eating on that day? What pious result does one attain by fasting on

that day?

3 O Lord, please describe the result of following this vow, including the

rules governing the day before the fast, and breaking the fast on the following

day.

4 Sri Narayana Rsi said: On the saptami (seventh day) and on the day

after the fast (the navami or ninth day) one should eat havisya (rice and ghee)

only. On the day of Janmastami (the eight day) one should rise at dawn.

5 O brahmana, one should rise early, bathe, perform his morning duties,

and be determined to follow the vow and the fast for the pleasure of Lord

Krsna.

6 O brahmana, by bathing and worshipping the Lord during the eight day

(Janmastami) of the month of Bhadra (August-September) one attains the result

of bathing and worshipping the Lord for a manvantara.

7 If on this day one offers only a little water to the pitas, he attains

the result of performing sraddha at Gaya for a hundred years.

8 On that day, after bathing and performing his regular duties, a wise

person should arrange for a maternity-room, place in it water, fire, and an

iron sword, post guards,...

9 ...place many things there, place there an instrument for cutting the

umbilical cord, have a midwife there,...

10 ...place there, O Narada, sixteen articles for worshipping the Lord,

eight fruits and candies,...

11 ...the eight fruits and candies being jatiphala, kakkola, pomegranate,

sriphala, coconut, jambira, kusmanda, and manohara,...

12-13 ...and the sixteen articles for worship being a sitting place,

garments, padya, madhuparka, arghya, water for acamana, water for bathing, a

bed, fragrances, flowers, food-offerings, betel nuts, ointments, incense,

lamps, and ornaments,...

14 ...wash his feet, put on clean clothes, perform acamana, say the word

'svasti', sit on the seat,...

15 ...place a pot there, worship the five deities, invite Sri Krsna, the

Supreme Personality of Godhead, to appear there,...

16 ...invite Vasudeva, Devaki, Yasoda, Nanda, Rohini, Balarama, Goddess

Sasthi, Goddess Vasundhara,...

17 ...Rohini, Brahma, Asthami, the Sthana-devata, Asvatthama, Bali,

Hanuman, Vibhisana,...

18 ...Krpacarya, Parasurama, Vyasadeva, and Markandeya and then meditate

on Lord Krsna.

19 Then a wise person should place a flower to his head and meditate on

the description of the Lord spoken in the Sama Veda. O Narada, please listen

and I will tell you that description, which Lord Brahma told the Kumaras in

ancient times.

20 I worship the Supreme Personality of Godhead, who is an infant boy, who

is splendid as a dark monsoon cloud, who is very handsome, whose lotus face is

smiling, whom Brahma, Siva, Sesa and Yama glorified for how many days? Whom

the kings of sages cannot approach in their meditations, whom the munis,

siddhas, and sons of Manu cannot attain, whom the kings of the yogis cannot

imagine in their thoughts, who is the greatest, who is without peer, who is

all-seeing witness.

21 The follower of this vow should thus meditate on the Lord. Then,

reciting mantras, he should offer the flower, and all the other articles to the

Lord. Please hear these mantras.

22 Here are the mantras: O Lord Krsna, please accept this all-beautiful

jewel throne, wonderfully decorated with graceful and colourful pictures and

designs.

23 O Lord Krsna, please accept these wonderful and colourful garments pure

as fire and made by Visvakarma from threads of pure gold.

24 O Lord Krsna, please accept this golden pot filled with water to wash

Your feet. Please accept this pure padya water and this beautiful flower.

25 O Lord Krsna, please accept these gold pots of honey, ghee, yoghurt,

milk and sugar.

26 O Lord Krsna, please accept this durva grass, whole rice, white flower,

clear water, sandal, aguru, and musk.

27 O Supreme Lord, please accept this clear, pure, sweet, scented acamana

water.

28 O Lord Krsna, please accept this scented Visnu-oil, amalaki paste, and

bath water.

29 O Lord Krsna, please accept this beautiful bed made of the best of

jewels and covered with exquisite cloth.

30 O Lord Krsna, please accept this scented paste made of musk the

powdered tree-roots.

31 O Supreme Lord, please accept this fragrant flower so dear to all the

demigods and grown from a blossoming tree.

32 O Lord Krsna, please accept this offering of ripe fruits, sugar-candy,

svastika candy and other candies.

33 O Lord Krsna, please accept this laddu, modaka, ghee, milk, molasses,

honey, fresh yoghurt, and buttermilk.

34 O Lord Krsna, please accept these betel nuts mixed with camphor and

other things, which I offer to You with devotion.

35 O Supreme Lord, please accept this beautiful avira powder made with

sandal, aguru, musk and kunkuma.

36 O Lord Krsna, please accept this incense made by cooking the nectars of

many trees, incense very dear to all the demigods.

37 O Lord Krsna, please accept this splendid and auspicious lamp that

destroys the terrible blinding darkness.

38 O Lord Krsna, please accept this pure drinking-water scented with

camphor and other fragrances, water that is the life of all living entities.

39 O Lord Krsna, as an ornament for Your transcendental body please accept

this garland of many flowers on a fine thread.

40 O Supreme Lord, please accept these fruits, which are the seeds of

trees, and which make one's dynasty prosper.

41 In this way, at that place, one should offer many appropriate things to

Lord Krsna.

42 The person following this vow should then devotedly worship the many

deities there and then offer them all three palmfuls of flowers.

43-45 In this way one should worship Sunanda, Nanda, Kumuda, the gopas, the

gopis, Sri Radha, Ganesa, Karttikeya, Brahma, Siva, Parvati, Laksmi, Sarasvati,

the dik-palas, the planets, Sesa, Sudarsana, the liberated associates of the

Lord, and all the demigods, and one should offer obeisances to them, falling to

the ground like a stick. Then one should offer food and daksina to the

brahmanas.

46 Then the person following this Janmastami vow should hear the chapter

of scripture describing Lord Krsna's birth, and then he should, sitting on a

seat of kusa grass, keep an all-night vigil.

47 At dawn he should perform his regular duties and then he should worship

Lord Krsna. Then he should feed the brahmanas and then he should chant the

glories of Lord Krsna.

48-49 Sri Narada said: When a person follows the Janmastami vow, fasts, and

keeps the all-night vigil, what result does he attain? What is the sin one

commits by eating on this holy day? O best of the knowers of the Vedas,

referring to the Vedas, Vedangas and ancient Samhitas, please, please describe

this.

50 Sri Narayana Rsi said: If (in the dark fortnight of the month of

Bhadra) even only a quarter of the astami is present at midnight, that day is

considered Janmastami, the time when Lord Krsna was born.

51 Because it brings victory (jaya) and piety, this day is called Jayanti.

A wise person should fast, follow the Janmastami vow, and keep an all-night

vigil on this day.

52 This is the most auspicious of all times. The demigods Brahma and

knowers of the Vedas say this.

53 One who fasts, follows the Janmastami vow, and keeps an all-night vigil

on this day becomes freed from the sins of ten million births. Of this there

is no doubt.

54 One should not celebrate Janmastami on an astami mixed with the

saptami. Even if the star Rohini (is conjoined with the moon) this astami is

not considered Janmastami.

55 Lord Krsna, the son of Devaki, was born on an astami unmixed with the

saptami, an astami when the star Rohini was conjoined with the moon. When this

most auspicious moment, an astami when the moon is conjoined with Rohini, is

passed, a person who has followed the Janmastami vow should break his fast.

56 When the tithi of Janmastami is over, one should remember Lord Krsna,

worship the devas and asuras, and break his fast. Breaking the fast in this

way is very purifying and destroys all sins.

57 Breaking the fast in this way, an essential part of the fast, brings

purification and the attainment of other results. The breaking of the fast

should be performed during daytime.

58 Otherwise, if the fast is not broken during the daytime, the results of

fasting, following the Janmastami vow, and breaking the fast are all destroyed.

59 One should not break the fast at night. The only exception is the

Rohini-vrata, when the fast may be broken at night, but not at midnight.

60 In the morning one should worship the brahmanas and demigods and then

break the fast. All the saintly persons agree this is the best time to break

the fast. Only in the Rohini-vrata is it not the best time.

61 If follows the Janmastami vow on a Janmastami when Mercury is conjoined

with the moon, he will never again enter a mother's womb.

62-63 If one a certain Janmastami the navami begins at sunrise and the moon

is conjoined with Mercury or the star Rohini, that Janmastami is very

auspicious. Such a Janmastami occurs perhaps in a hundred years. One who

follows the Janmastami vow on that day delivers ten million of his relatives.

64 Lord Krsna is pleased with His devotees that observe the fast of

Janmastami, even though, because of not having sufficient wealth, they cannot

perform the Janmastami vow.

65 To one who follows the vow, worshipping the Lord with various articles

and keeping an all-night vigil, Lord Krsna, the enemy of the demons, gives the

result of following the Janmastami vow.

66 A person who observes Janmastami in a way appropriate to his financial

means attains the proper result, but a wealth person who does not observe

Janmastami in a way appropriate to his wealth does not attain the same result.

67 A wise person should not break his fast during Janmastami or while the

star Rohini is still conjoined with the moon. To do that is to destroy his

past pious deeds and the transcendental result earned by fasting.

68 Breaking the fast during the tithi of Janmastami destroys one's pious

deeds eight times over, and breaking the fast while the star Rohini is

conjoined with the moon destroys one's pious deeds four times over. Therefore

one should be careful to break his fast when Janmastami and the star Rohini

have passed.

69 O best of sages, when the tithi of Janmastami and the star Rohini both

end at midnight, a person following the Janmastami vow should break his fat on

the third day from Janmastami.

70 O Narada, one who eats during the midnight of Janmastami attains the

sinful reaction of killing a brahmana.

71 On a pure Janmastami (not mixed with the saptami) one should not eat

even fruit or betel nuts, or even drink water. Eating these is like eating

stool or cow's flesh, or like drinking urine. What, then, can be said of

eating rice?

72 The wise say that night lasts for 9 hours and is bounded, at its

beginning and end, by sunrise and sunset, which last for 48 minutes each.

73 A person who on a pure Janmastami (not mixed with the saptami) follows

the Janmastami vow and keeps an all-night vigil becomes free from the sins of a

hundred births. Of this there is no doubt.

74 A person who on a pure Janmastami (not mixed with the saptami) fasts

but does not follow the Janmastami vow or keep the all-night vigil, attains the

result of performing an asvamedha-yajna.

75 He is freed from the sins performed in the infancy, childhood, youth,

and age of seven lifetimes.

76 One who eats on Lord Krsna's birthday is lowest of mankind. His sinful

reaction like that of having raped his mother and murdered a hundred brahmanas.

77 His pious credits of ten million births are at once destroyed. He

become impure. He becomes unfit to worship the demigods or the pitas.

78 At the end of his life he enters the hell called Kalasutra (the rope of

time). As long as the sun and moon shine in the sky he is devoured by worms

with teeth sharp like spears.

79 When his time in hell is over he rises to the earth, where he becomes a

worm in stool for sixty thousand years.

80 Then he becomes a vulture for ten billion births, a pig for a hundred

births, a dog for a hundred births, and a jackal for a hundred births.

81 Then he becomes a snake for seven births and then a row for seven

births. Then he takes birth as a human being, where he is unable to speak and

where he becomes a leper, always suffering.

82 Then he becomes a butcher and then a hunter of wild beasts. At the end

he becomes a thief and a murderer, a man with no scruples.

83 Then he becomes a washerman, then an oil-merchant, and then a

professional brahmana, always impure at heart.

84 If one is unable to fast he should feed a brahmana and give him charity

equal to twice the value of the food.

85 Or, he should chant mantras to Goddess Laksmi a thousand times, or he

should practice pranayama twelve times.

86 Thus I have described, as I heard it from Yamaraja's mouth, the

fasting, vows and worship performed on Janmastami.