Festivals during Feb 2008 Part 2.

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Dear friends and devotees, Bhakti is eternal. Festivals during Feb 2008 Part 2. 1. RATHA SAPTAMI (Magha sukla saptami) 13.2.2008. Ratha Saptami is a festival

celebrated on the seventh day of the bright half of the Magha month, when the Sun God is worshipped. The Sun God is presumed to be arriving in a chariot drawn by seven horses, which represent the seven colours of the rainbow. . The charioteer, Arun, has his feet deformed. Arunodaya means the dawn. On this day some people go to take bath in the river before dawn carrying a lamp on their head. The Sun God is then worshipped in the courtyard in the front of the house, where an image of the God with the chariot is drawn on the ground surrounded by a rangoli. Cow dung is burnt in the centre. Mud vessels, facing the Sun, are used to boil milk on the stove, which is believed to reach the

Sun. The lord is then offered "kheer" and twelve heaps of grain placed in the traditional "sup". The heaps represent the constellations through which the sun goes. Brahmins are offered grains too. Some people show their respect to the sun by bowing twelve times every day to the sun, repeating every time one of the twelve names of the sun. These twelve names are: Mitra, Ravi, Surya, Ahanu, Khaga, Pushana, Hiranyagarbha, Marichi, Aditya, Savita, Arka, and Bhaskara. The new season begins with this day, when the Sun God, sitting on his chariot sets out on his

journey. The Gayatri Mantra From ancient times men have attributed divinity to the sun. For Upanayana the thread ceremony, the boy is made to stand facing the sun, and the priest makes the following prayer, “Oh Sun, this is your student. Protect him and give him a long life”. After the ceremony every day in the evening the Gayatri mantra must be recited. This mantra is given great

importance. God Surya is the mover of this world. The shining brilliance of God is the most exalted and the most difficult to describe. This brilliance is liked by everybody. We meditate upon such brilliance. We bring it to our mind. May this God, who is the sun, inspire our intellect and our devotional meditation and may the recitation of this “Gayatri” illumine our intellect. 2. Bhishmaashtmi. (Magha sukla ashtami) 14.2.2008. The eighth day (ashtami) of the waxing moon (shukl paksha) of Magha is celebrated as Bheeshmaashtami. This is in reverence to Bheeshma the most revered of characters of the Mahabharat who is respected for his honesty, sincerity and determination. Bheeshma was the son of King Shantanu by his wife Ganga. In order to please his father, Bheeshma took an oath of celibacy and hence promised that he would never marry and would forever remain faithful to the throne of Hastinapura (Kaurava dynasty). This oath has becoming the touchstone of determination in Indian. To take up a herculean task is described as a Bheeshma

Pratignya. During the battle of Kurukshetra, Bhishama was obliged to enter the war on the side of the Kauravas. Since the Kauravas were facing one defeat after another, Duryodhana suspected that Bheeshma was not impartial. Bheeshma, to save his self respect, in anguish, took up such a weapon which could only be opposed by Lord Krishna. Krishna was compelled to lift the Sudarshana Chakra. Seeing that, Bheeshma stopped fighting and welcomed the death straight from Krishna, whom he was aware as Lord Sreemannarayana. However on Arjuna’s request, Krishna came back and with the help of Shikhandi,

Arjuna conquered him. Bheeshma laid himself on the arrows (Ampasayya) until uttarayana punyakala and afterwards reached the eternal abode. This day is observed as a festival in reverence to Bheeshma. 3. Bheeshma Ekadasi. (Magha Sukla ekadasi - dwadasi) 17.2.2008. This festival is celebrated as a token of respect to Bheeshma who preached Dharmasutras to Dharmaraja. In fact, this is commenced on Ashtami, with starving on ekadashi day and ends on dwadashi, during which period, one should read Mahabharatha in full or atleast Bheeshmaprva. Since I know that the present life style of every one has become so mechanical, due to the duties and other living factors, it may not be possible for every one to read one entire Parva. I am, therefore, giving the following abridged one of all the episodes of eighteen parvas, throwing much light on the Avatar of Lord Krishna, for those who desire to study on the day. The Mahabharata The Pandavas were merely a pretext. Krishna used the Pandavas to rid the world of evil men. Yayati’s son was Puru. In Puru’s line were born Bharata and Kuru. One of Kuru’s descendants was the king Shantanu. Shantanu married Ganga and Bhishma was born from this marriage. But Shantanu also married Satyavati and had two more sons, Chitrangada and Vichitravirya. Bhishma never married. Chitrangada died young. When Vicitravirya grew up, Bhishma defeated the king of Kashi and brought two of the king’s daughters, Ambika and ambalika, as brides for Vichitravirya. Vichitravirya was also quite young when he died of tuberculosis. Since Vichitravirya had left no children, Vyasadeva was brought to Hastinapura. Vyasadeva and Ambika had a son named Dhritarashtra and Vyasadeva and Ambalika had a son named Pandu. Dhritarashtra married Gandhari and they had

hundred sons, of whom the eldest and most important was Duryodhana. Pandu had two wives, Kunti and Madri. Kunti’s sons were Yudhishthira, Bhima and Arjuna and Madri’s son were Nakula and Sahadeva. But Yudhisthira was really the son of the god Dharma and not Pandu’s son. Similarly, Bhima was the son of the god Pavana. Arjuna was the son of Indra and Nakula and Sahadeva the sons of the two Ashvinis. Earlier, Kunti had had a son named Karna from the sun-god. This was before she had got married to Pandu. Karna immediately after the birth was left in the river Ganga, recovered and brought up by one Sootha (charioteer) and became a friend of Duryodhana. Because of a curse imposed on him by a sage, Pandu died in the forest. Duryodhana tried his best to kill the Pandavas. He set fire to a house of lac (Lakkagriha) in which Kunti and the five Pandavas were staying. But the Pandavas were saved and fled to a city named Ekachakrapura. There they lived, disguised as Brahmans. In their stay at Ekachakrapura, Bhima destroyed a rakshasa named Bakasura. They then won the hand of the daughter of the king of Panchala. Her name was Droupadi and all five Pandava brothers married her. When Duryodhana learnt that the Pandavas were alive, he handed over half the kingdom to them. Meanwhile, the forest Khandava had to be burnt by Agni to be cured from his Mandya (indigestion). Indra was not at all allowing Khandava to be burnt. Agni sought the help of Krishna and Arjuna, to fulfill his desire. Krishna had briefed Arjuna of the matter. When both successfully helped Agni at the burning of the Khandava forest, Agni gave him several divine weapons. Arjuna had also obtained divine weapons from his guru Dronacharya. On the Pandava side, Yudhishtira had become king. The Pandavas organised a Rajasuya yaga (royal sacrifice) in which they conquered several kingdoms and accumulated a lot of wealth. This made Duryodhana envious. He arranged a game of dice (pachika) between Yudhishtira and Duryodhana’s uncle Shakuni. Shakuni

did not play fairly and Yudhistira lost the game. As a penalty for the loss, the Pandavas were to spend twelve years in the forest and one additional year without being detected. Droupadi went with them to the forest, as did the Pandava’s priest, Dhoumya. After the twelve years were over, the Pandavas came to the kingdom of King Virata where they proposed to spend the additional year that had to be spent in disguise. Yudhishtira pretended to be a brahmana, Bhima cook, Arjuna dancer, Nakula and Sahadeva stable-hands. Droupadi became the queen’s maid. The queen’s brother Kichaka tried to molest Droupadi, but was killed by Bhima. When the year was over, the Kauravas attacked King Virata to rob him of his cattle. But Arjuna defeated all the Kauravas and saved Virata’s cattle. After this success, the identity of the Pandavas could no longer be kept a secret. But thankfully, the one year during which identities had to be kept a secret, was over. King Virata’s daughter Uttara was married to Abhimanyu, Arjuna’s son. Abhimanyu’s mother was Subhadra, whom Arjuna had married. Subhadra also happened to be Krishna’s sister. The Pandavas now demanded their rightful share of the kingdom, but Duryodhana refused. A war was imminent. A huge battalion of soldiers was known as an akshouhini.

Duryodhana collected eleven akshouhinis for the war and Yudhishtira collected seven. Krishna was sent as a messenger to Duryodhana to try and preserve the peace, Krishna told Duryodhana that the Pandavas would be satisfied with a mere five villages. Duryodhana refused to give them even this without a fight. So the armies gathered for a war on the plains of Kurukshetra. Noticing that elders and relatives like Bhishma and Dronacharya were fighting on the side of the Kauravas, Arjuna was reluctant to fight. But Krishna gave Arjuna lessons which have come down to us as the Gita. He taught that there was no reason for sorrow if Bhishma or Dronacharya died. That true identity of a person was his atman (soul) which never died, but passed from one body to another. True bliss was obtained when the atman united with the

brahma (divine essence) or paramatma (supreme soul). This was always the goal of a yogi that is a person who sought union with God. Thus instructed by Krishna, Arjuna started to fight. With the help of Shikhandi, he defeated Bhishma. This happened on the tenth day of the fighting. Bhishma did not however die. He had earlier received the boon that he would only die when he actually wished to do so. For many days, he lay there in the battlefield on a bed of arrows. After Bhishma’s defeat, Dronacharya became the general of the Kauravas. Dhrishtadyumna was the general on the Pandava side. Dronacharya killed Virata, Drupada and several other

kings and soldiers on the Pandava side. Dhrishtadyumna also killed many Kaurava soldiers. On the fifteenth day of the fighting, a rumour gained currency that Ashvatthama, Dronacharaya’s son, had been killed. Dronacharya abandoned his weapons on hearing this bad news and Dhrishtadyumna faced no problems in killing him. Karna now became the Kaurava general and lasted for two and a half days before he was killed by Arjuna. Shalya was the last Kaurava general. He fought for only half a day and was killed by Yudhishtira. Bhima and Duryodhana fought the last duel of the war with maces. Bhima broke Duryodhana’s thighs and killed him. Ashvatthama had been fuming ever since his father Dronacharya had been killed by unfair means. In the dead of the night, he entered the Pandava camp where he killed Dhristadyumna and the five sons of Droupadi. Droupadi was disconsolate and demanded revenge. Arjuna and Ashvatthama let loose divine weapons at each other. Since this might destroy the world, they were asked to withdraw these weapons. Arjuna could withdraw his weapon, but Ashvatthama could not. Ashvatthama’s weapon killed the baby that was in Uttara’s womb, but when the dead baby was born, Krishna brought it back to life. This baby was Parikshita. Many kings and soldiers died in the course of the Kurukshetra war. The only ones left alive were Kritavarma, Kripacharya and Ashvatthama on the Kaurava side and Satyaki, Krishna and the five Pandavas on the Pandava side. After the war was over, Bhishma taught Yudhishtira the duties of a king. It was only after this that he died. As a king, Yudhishtira performed many yagas and gave a lot of alms to Brahmins. When Yudhishtira learnt that the Yadavas had been destroyed, he no longer wished to rule. He handed over the kingdom to Parikshita and the Pandavas left on a pilgrimage, in the course of

which they reached abode. It was Krishna who had used the Pandavas as a tool to rid the world of evil kings and establish the good ones. Realizing that the Yadavas were also evil, Krishna also ensured that the Yadavas would be destroyed. He then gave up his life at the place of pilgrimage that is known as Prabhasa. After Krishna died, the city of Dvaraka was swallowed up by the sea. This was the story of the eighth avatara of Vishnu. (A collection) With love and regards, Sastry.

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