Monday, October 20, 2008

THE MONTH OF DAMODARA


The great Damodara month starts on Oct 14th.It is of tremendous opportunity for every living soul to wash away the accumulated past sins thru many descriped devotional activities in this month. Please refer the scriptures quotes on the Glories of Damodara month. Among all the devotional activities...the best is offering ghee lamp to Lord Damodara. Please take the opportunity. .
K a r t t i k a M a s a
THE MONTH OF DAMODARA

In ISKCON temples, centres, and homes worldwide devotees gather for the entire month of Damodara (Karttika) to offer lamps and in great joy sing the glories of Lord Damodara. Krishna is known as Damodara ‘the one whose belly was bound’ due to one of His pastimes:
While mother Yashoda was allowing Krishna to drink her breast milk, she was forced to stop because she saw the milk pan boiling over on the oven. She stopped allowing Krishna to drink from her breast and immediately attended to the overflowing milk pan. Krishna became very angry because of His mother’s behavior and devised a means of breaking the pots of yogurt. Because He created this disturbance, mother Yashoda decided to bind Him. These incidents are described in this chapter.
Having turned the mortar upside down, He was stealing butter hanging from a swing and was distributing the butter to the monkeys. As soon as Krishna saw that His mother had come, He immediately began to run away, and mother Yashoda began to follow Him.
After going some distance, mother Yashoda was able to catch Krishna, who because of His offense was crying. Mother Yashoda, of course, threatened to punish Krishna if He acted that way again, and she decided to bind Him with rope.
Unfortunately, when the time came to knot the rope, the rope with which she wanted to bind Him was short by a distance equal to the width of two fingers. When she made the rope longer by adding another rope, she again saw that it was short by two fingers. Again and again she tried, and again and again she found the rope too short by two fingers. Thus she became very tired, and Krishna, seeing His affectionate mother so tired, allowed Himself to be bound.
The full story can be read in the Srimad Bhagavatam 10th Canto, 9th chapter "Mother Yashoda Binds Lord Krishna"



"In the month of Karttika one should worship Lord Damodara
and daily recite the prayer known as Damodara-ashtakam,
which has been spoken by the sage Satyavrata and which attracts Lord Damodara."
(Sri Hari-bhakti-vilasa 2:16:198)

Just as there is no yuga equal to Satya-yuga, no scripture equal to the Vedas, and no place of pilgrimage equal to the Ganges, so there is no month equal to Kartika. Even unserious persons who execute devotional service according to the regulative principles during the month of Karttika, and within the jurisdiction of Mathura (or Vrindavana) in India, are very easily awarded the Lord's personal service". During the Kartika month millions of devotees worship Damodara Krishna with ghee lamps and devotional bhajans, glorifying His playful childhood pastime of stealing yogurt. (H.H. Mahanidhi Swami)
"When one offers a lamp during the month of Karttika, his sins in many thousands and millions of births perish in half an eye blink."
"Please hear the glories of offering a lamp during pleasing to Lord Kesava. O King of brahmanas, a person who offers a lamp in this way will not take birth again in this world."
"By offering a lamp during the month of Karttika one attains a pious result ten million times greater than the result obtained by bathing at Kuruksetra during a solar eclipse or by bathing in the river Narmada during a lunar eclipse."
"O Tiger among sages! For a person who thus offers a lamp burning with ghee or sesame oil, what is the use of performing an asvasmedha-yajna? "
"Even if there are no mantras, no pious deeds, and no purity, everything becomes perfect when a person offers a lamp during the month of Karttika."
"A person who during the month of Karttika offers a lamp to Lord Kesava has already performed all yajnas and bathing in all holy rivers. "
"The ancestors say: When someone in our family pleases Lord Kesava by offering to Him a lamp during the month of Karttika, then, by the mercy of the Lord who holds the Sudarsana-cakra in His Hand, we will all attain liberation."
By offering a lamp during the month of Karttika one burns away a collection of sins as big as Mount Meru or Mount Mandara. Of this there is no doubt."
"A person who offers a lamp during the month of Karttika attains a result that cannot be obtained with even a hundred yajnas or a hundred pilgrimages."
"Even a person addicted to all sins and averse to all pious deeds who somehow offer a lamp during Karttika becomes purified. Of this there is no doubt."
"O Narada, no sin exists anywhere in the three worlds that will not be purified by offering a lamp to Lord Kesava during Karttika."
"A person who offers a lamp to Lord Krishna during Karttika attains the eternal spiritual world where there is no suffering."
"As fire is present in all wood and may be extracted by friction, so piety is always present in the offering of a lamp during the month of Karttika. Of this there is no doubt."
"O King of brahmanas, when someone offers Him a lamp on the full-moon day of the month of Karttika, Lord Krishna, finding that He does not have sufficient money to repay that gift, gives Himself in exchange for that lamp."
"One who offers a steady lamp to Lord Hari during the month of Karttika enjoys pastimes in Lord Hari's splendid spiritual world."
Even one who never performs religious rituals or even the worst sinner will surely be purified by this offering. O Narada, in the three worlds there is no sin that can stand before this Kartika dipa. In fact, by presenting this dipa before Lord Vasudeva, the eternal abode can be reached without obstruction.
"All the results acquired by donating grains during pitri-paksha or by distributing water in the hot months of Jyeshtha or Ashadha are easily gained in the course of Kartika merely by reviving (relighting) a dipa offered by someone else."




Monday, October 13, 2008

DEVOTIONAL் SERVICE


For one who explains this supreme secret to the devotees,pure devotional service is guaranteed, and at the end he will come back at me

SRI KRSNA