Do Hare Krishna devotees celebrate Christmas ?

[Guest guest]

One elderly lady asked me this recently,

I did not know what to say to her exactly

since I don't know much about the 1st Christmas

that was observed 2003 years ago.

[Guest guest]

It depends on the devotee. It's not illegal for HK devotees to celebrate the holiday of a different religion. And it may not even be limited to Christians. Perhaps there are some devotees born into Jewish families that still observe Hannukah and Rosh Hashannah with their family

[yasodanandana]

we do not know exactly the year when jesus is born, and honestly,in my opinion, we respect and worship jesus only because the vaishnava acharyas, srila prabhupada included, have said that he really exist, he's an avatara and an enlightened spiritual master... otherwise the "legend" surely would prevail

 

so the year is not sure and the date 25december is surely wrong, because He was born while there was a census by the roman occupants, and they made things like that in march or april

 

the reason of this date is because the christians wanted to merge in jesus other previous pagan legends and popular pagan deities (like mitra??)

 

 

 

we devotees celebrate anything (licit!!!) if we can have sankirtan and prasadam distribution.. and in some temples i have seen special "sunday-like" feasts with guests (bhajan, class, kirtan, prasadam) in x-mas

 

and it is surely nice

[theist]

One who knows the transcendental nature of My appearance and activities does not, upon leaving the body, take his birth again in this material world, but attains My eternal abode, O Arjuna.- Bhagavad-gita 4.9

 

[theist]

pay special attention to that day irregardless of what the "Hare Krsna's" decide to do. If Prabhupada's disciples hold some rememberance celebration that would be very nice, but I don't think Prabhupada told them they must, just like every Avatar's appearance day may not be specifically honored, like Lord Buddha's for example.

 

 

Hare Krsna

 

ps I thought Vaisnava's were resectful the to the Lord's name. What's with x-mas?

 

CHRIST-mass or CHRISTmas sounds much better.

 

[Guest guest]

The Berkeley temple would always have a celebration feast for Christmas.

 

But no Christian prayers or anything like that.

[gHari]

That would make him my vartma-pradarzaka-guru (Guru who shows the way), worthy of honoring on his appearance day, and every day.

 

He told me "SEEK YE FIRST THE KINGDOM OF GOD" and with Prabhupada's help that is more or less what I've done.

 

It was very very good advice.

 

gHari

[yasodanandana]

"I don't think Prabhupada told them they must"

 

- no prabhupada did'nt but reading some biographies, like the hauri sauri diary, it seems that in prabhupada's early times there was New Year's feasts for example..

(of course prabhupada's disciples will give more clarifications)

but i think there's no problem... if there's kirtan and prasadam everything turns good, one can celebrate everything... especially if religious

 

"What's with x-mas?"

 

-sorry, i am not english/american, i was thinking that this X is read Christ... i accept the correction,, dandavats

 

 

[theist]

Yasodanandana,

 

I agree, a festival celebrating the Lord and His devotees everyday is Vaikuntha. I just meant I don't think he laid it out as something that must be offically celebrated in the temples. I would also like to hear if he mentioned this at all.

 

About the x-mas thing. It is most common in America to use this term. Mostly by the secular commercial interests that want to ignore Lord Jesus and sell their jeans and other trinkets instead.

 

It may have had some genuine relevance with a connection to the Greek language a couple thousand years ago but now its just a way to cross out Christ as irrelevant.

 

I know this was certainly not your intent. Just another of my little crusades.

 

But since the transcendental essence is in the name I think we should keep pronouncing it.

 

Haribol

[Kulapavana]

Jesus of Nazareth was a great devotee and celebrating his appearance must be auspicious. and any excuse to have devotees get together to chant Hare Krishna and have a feast is fine by me /images/graemlins/smile.gif

 

we do it for familly reasons too. can you imagine being a devotee kid and get nothing for Christmas from your own parents? especially if your non-devotee family gives you stuff? That is just plain unfair! /images/graemlins/wink.gif

[Guest guest]

 

Yes Thank you all for your nice posts

 

All glories to Appearance Day of His Divine Grace Srila

Jesus Christ Swami Maharaja !!!

 

If he suddenly appeared in a Hare Krishna temple,

would the authorities ask him to give class ?

[Kulapavana]

that would depend on authorities spiritual maturity. btw: sometimes Christians let us speak to their congregation, we should not beat them in narrow-mindedednes /images/graemlins/wink.gif

[yasodanandana]

"I just meant I don't think he laid it out as something that (christmas) must be offically celebrated in the temples."

 

-right...

[theist]

If he suddenly appeared in a Hare Krishna temple,

would the authorities ask him to give class ?

 

/images/graemlins/smile.gif

 

 

If we expand our perception a little could we appreciate at least some measure of Krsna consciousness in those Christians who, rejecting societies version, choose to meditate of Christ's appearance?

 

 

[Guest guest]

yes.. of course, big appreciation!!!

[Priitaa]

There is so much I could say here! Though I doubt I will cover it all.

 

First, I agree with the devotee, I think it was Yasodhanandana, who said that Christ wasn't born on Dec 25th. The story I have heard is that the worship of a big oak tree was part of a Pagan religion. In order to convert them, they merged the appearnce day of Christ with the day of worshiping an oak tree. And so we have the Christmas tree! I always wondered what the heck that had to do with a manger. :-)

 

Not sure if this is accurate but I also heard Christ was born in August!

 

Anyway, as far as kids and Christmas are concerned, I agree with Kulapavana who mentioned how our children would feel if they didn't recieve any presents. Exactly. Even if living in the midst of a devotee community, they just 'know' that all children receive presents on Christmas. It would only help turn them away from Krishna consciousness if we were to deny them what everyone else around them is doing.

 

When my children were little I use to try to dovetail things. We would get a tree, but would make some of our own ornaments out of construction paper, glitter, crayon, etc. and cut out pictures of Krishna, put him in the center of a cut out star for example. Then hang it on the tree with thread. I would also make sure they got some presents, but that our Deities did too. And we would unwrap the Deities presents first. Matter of fact, the children had to buy GouraNitai (our Deities) a present too. It was cute. Everyone got something, even Lord Caitnaya and Nityananda. :-)

 

And yes, any excuse to get together and chant Hare Krishna is fine. I suspect one reason Prabhupada may have let us have Christmas and New Years celebrations is because in the beginning many were attached, since that's the way most were raised. Also, he wasn't so much out to change our culture or any bona fide spirutal attachments (as Jesus is shaktyavesha avatara), so he helped us dovetail them. Tho New years is another story, ha, but at least devotees get together to eat prasad and have bhajana/kirtana, whereas nondevotees get together to break as many of the 4 regulative principles they can.

 

After I did research for my three web pages on Christ and Krishna, I was surprised how strict he was! Some of the things I would read, I began to feel I could not do. That many of us could not do. What we learn in Christian church is not so much what Christ actually taught. There, we are trained to focus on his merciful side, which he definitely had, but he was extremely strict. It made me appreciate him more, and also how fortunate I have been to discover Srila Prabhupada.

 

Prabhupada lets us do things Jesus did not let his disciples do. For example, and this one is even in the current Bible and not hidden, Christ said to one who wanted to be his follower, to "leave the dead to burry the dead." (His father had just passed away and the man wanted to join Christs movement, but to first burry his father.) I have heard several stories where Prabhupada let a devotee return to burry a parent or attend their funeral. ~~ I just realized this may be misuderstood. I am not saying Jesus wasn't merciful, not at all. What I am trying to express is that modern Christianity misrepresents him, and by so doing they don't have to pick up their own cross and do much of anything other than go to church on Sunday. Well, enough of this. :-) Back to chanting Hare Krishna. I bet Jesus is! /images/graemlins/smile.gif

[ShegavichaRana]

her a question as,"Do Christians celebrate Janmashtami?" and take it from me, from her answer you would know that, HK devotees are far more magnanimous than christians.

[Priitaa]

LOL Good point!

 

Tho I suppose some of them are merely curious.

 

It has benefits that we accept Jesus as shaktyavesh avatara (which is true). Once when I was at Ratha Yatra, a woman came over and asked me "Do you believe in Jesus?" And I said, "Yes, we do." Then she said to her friend, "They're ok, they believe in Jesus too." /images/graemlins/smile.gif

[Bhakta Don Muntean]

Ah here it is again...you're not bashing biblical at this point...