Janmashtami: the day of the Great Birth by Sister Nivedita

http://collections.delcampe.net/page/item/id,164871856,var,Ladoo-Gopal,language,E.html

http://www.ahmedabadcity.com/gifts/largeview/handicrafts/01787.htm

SUDDEN [ringing] of bells, a blaze of lights waved before an altar— while [outside], the watching stars and purple blackness of the midnight sky look down— such is the solemn moment of the Birth of Krishna. Surely it is only in this country, where a temple …. takes the form of a verandah, that Nature wholly mingles herself with worship, to bring the sense of the Divine to the Human.  The Western monk chants his Hours--Lauds and …. Vespers and Nones—but those footfalls of the Sun that he commemorates were trodden long ago in the deserts of the Thebaid and he sings within closed doors, holding himself snug against the chill winds [outside]. Here in India, however, we practise the Faith in the very land, and every day we realise afresh the cosmic events that gave it birth.

http://www.facesoflondon.co.uk/2011/06/saying-a-prayer/

Who has felt the stillness that falls

on lawn and river

at the moment of noon?

Who, watching through long hours, has heard

the distant music of the flute arise

by the Ganges side

with the first ray of dawn?

Who has wandered in field and forest

at the time of cow-dust,

and known the sudden touch of twilight on the soul,

[he knows, she knows]

…. why the village bells ring

and prayers [happen] …. at the stated hours.

http://ebooks.adelaide.edu.au/k/kingsley/charles/k55w/chapter4.html

For that which in one man's eyes is superstition, another may know to be but an added firmness of sensation.  But surely of all the worships in the Hindu cycle, none has the power and force of those celebrated at midnight.

When slumber has fallen on men, gathered together

in the great hive of Night;  

when even the wild creatures are still,

each in his place on hillside or bough;

when all that is trivial and personal has been blotted out

with the passing of the sunlight,  

till, in the sound of the river,

we can almost hear that of the far-off sea—

then the lamps of the altar shine  

as though they were in truth the heart of the universe;

then the worshipper feels    ...self to be but

one of an innumerable host of stars and worlds,

all of which wait with him for the dawn

in the darkness of Light Ineffable.

And most of all this is true of the midnight service of the Birth of Krishna. Among the [people who could afford] in Bengal it is customary that each house shall contain a private chapel of its own, and only the poor …. [go to] to temples for the observance of the great festivals; but to my own household… this is rather a reason for frequenting them than otherwise. We love to see the band of simple worshippers, for the most part women, who arrive now and again and seat themselves to watch the ceremony in the outer court, while an elderly priest gives informal religious instruction during the preliminary stages of the function. We like, too, to listen to that religious instruction itself, and to the questions which now and again it has to meet.

http://swaralu.wordpress.com/2007/06/

And so one night we sat on the steps of a certain temple of Kali, which stands at a corner hard by and looks far across the Ganges with the hay boats drawn up in line beneath the bank, on and on to the edge of the world in the distant North-West. The temple is old, and the corner rounded off with the wisdom and beauty peculiar to the old Indian method of laying out a town, and the image that dwells there, under a sheltering bo-tree, is known as "the Kali of the Hay-merchants." Only a few years ago the spot was at the extreme end of Calcutta, but to-day this can no longer be said, though there is still a large open space opposite, where a great tree stands, and now and then gives a long shivering cry, as if to warn the neighbourhood of coming storm. All the evening through the street had been full of passers up and down. And sudden bursts of singing and sounding of shankh and gongs had disturbed the ordinary quiet in all directions.

For we are early old-fashioned folk in the Hindu quarter of Calcutta. Lights are out and noises hushed, as a rule, before ten o’clock; and by eleven o’clock, even on the Janmashtami, everything was closed except the temples. Here, by the light of his own altar, an Oriya priest still sat chanting the tale of the Holy Birth from a palm-leaf book. There, a few Brahmins chatted late round the foot of an image at which presently they would be offering worship. But the bamboo mats were all up and padlocked in front of the shops, and only the lamplights from the open shrines streamed across the curb.

It was thus that we waited for the moment of the Birth.

The temple had disappeared. The tones of the kindly old priest sounded dim and far away. Centuries had rolled back. The walls of a prison closed about us, and we waited once more with the royal victims, Devaki the mother and Vasudeva the father, for the coming of the Holy Child.

Once more, as on the first Day of the Birth, the rains seemed to fall and the winds to blow, and the only sound that reached us besides the violence of the storm was the heavy breathing of the guards, smitten into slumber by spirits, carrying to the prison of Kamsa the commission of the Most High. Surely never was the anguish of motherhood so great as on that night! Seven times had Devaki given life, and seven times had it been snatched away by the cruel king her brother, as soon as given--for had it not been told that one of her babes should be his enemy and take his life?

And now at the coming of the eighth child, especially named in the prophecy, and looked for with concentrated passion of fierceness and jealousy--how, in that seven-times wounded heart, could there be room for joy? Heavy moments are these, full of bitterest anguish of expectancy and dread; full of the agony of love that longs to save, but finds no means for protection of the Beloved, and yet at the same time moments in which is mingled a sense of lofty faith, a growing awe, an intuition of infinite tenderness and triumph.

It was over at last. Before them lay the Babe Himself, all laughter, all radiance.  One more had been added to the "wretched births" of the Avataras, and even in a prison the mystery of Incarnation made itself felt.

The books say that it was the new-born child who instructed Vasudeva to wrap him in his cloak, and pass out of the prison to the village on the far side of the Jumna, and then substitute him for the new-born girl of Nanda the cowherd and return.

Was it so, indeed?

Or was it overwhelming clearness of vision

that came with the presence of the Divine

and seemed life speech?

However that be, it met with prompt and eager obedience from the royal prisoners. No mother's weakness of Devaki, no masculine scepticism of Vasudeva, was put forward to check for one moment the course of events. Concealing under his mantle the shining Child, the father turned to make his way through darkness and storm. The guards slept soundly; the prison doors opened silently of their own accord. And none had ever seen the Lord of the Worlds save him who carried Him.

Terrible was the storm, and full of terror the flood of the Jumna when the moment came for crossing it. Here and there Vasudeva tried, but it was impossible to find means, when suddenly a jackal passed in before him, and he, guided by this lowliest of beasts, forded the stream in safety and reached the hut of Nanda the cowherd.

Here, too, sound sleep had fallen upon all, and Yasoda herself, when she awoke in the morning, did not know that the Boy in her arms was a changeling, nor dreamed that he was in truth of the royal house.

http://uddharan.files.wordpress.com/2009/12/yogamaya-devi1.jpg

http://www.amazon.com/Yakshagana-Malla-Durgaparameshwari-Kala-Mandali/dp/8188698199

In the prison; however, a terrible scene had been enacted. The infuriated sovereign, Kamsa, informed of the occurrence at last of the long-expected birth, had come in person to visit the prisoners. Suspecting foul play when he saw a female child, but unable to substantiate his suspicions, he seized the infant by the feet to dash it to pieces against the wall. But the girl was an incarnation of Yogamaya, and the king suddenly found his clenched fingers empty, while over above him, illuminating the chamber with her glow, stood the great Goddess. "Your enemy is even now growing to manhood," she said, "in the village of the cowherds," and then the vision faded out and there was none with them. Poor fate-maddened king--doomed by each act only to fill deeper the cup of his iniquities till the destined champion should appear, and in single combat avenge the wrongs of his people and his blood--how sad and yet how necessary was the part that he played in the story of Brindaban and the wondrous childhood! How strange—

but at this point a movement among the priests interrupted our memories and recalled us to the present.

The mystical moment of midnight had come.

The Holy Child was born once more among men, and here, not in a prison but in a temple, and amidst the music of bells, with flowers, and lights, and incense, we were to celebrate that old-time coming of the Lord of Worlds. Many minutes passed in silence and prostration, and then we slipped away through the ….. hush of the quiet street to our own door.

But as we reached it we lingered for a moment regretfully on the threshold. "Ah surely," said we, "this is no accustomed scene. For in truth we have come through wind and storm across the Jumna, and, bearing the Holy Babe beneath our cloak, we are but now arrived at the hut of Nanda the cowherd in the village of Gokul."

By Maragaret Noble (Sister Nivedita) - slightly changed and re-arranged

http://www.speakingtree.in/public/drhemantsant/album/wall-album_2778/photo/jan-masthamee-of-moseshis-egyptian-mother-carries-him-across-seas-as-did-father-vasudev-carry-krishna-across-yamunathis-statue-in-front-of-laxmi-vilas-palace-by-the-fore-visionary-king-shri-sayaji-rao

This is a re-arranged and slightly retold version of Sister Nivedita's chapter from
Studies from an Eastern Home. I strongly advise the readers to read from the Original.
If they liked this they will like the Original better.
If they did not like this they are likely to like the Original.
http://www.vivekananda.net/BooksBySwami/StudiesEasternHome/StudyEasternhome.html

http://www.vivekananda.net/BooksBySwami/StudiesEasternHome/10.html

and I am indebted to various good people all over the Globe. I have put their links here above in their respective places. They are all very, very click-worthy, look-worthy and study-worthy.

Benefits of Ramayana - Based on a talk near Mavelikara

Om Rama

My salutations to the Devotees of Sri Rama, My salutations to Sri Rama and my salutations to Ramayana, the Lore of Sri Rama!

Mavelikara is our own place. Here in Mavelikara we have a Ramakrishna Ashrama at Kandiyoor. This ashrama is related to Belur Math, the Headquarters of the Ramakrishna Mission, near Calcutta.  From its beginning in the 1920s it was under the direct supervision of Belur Math but since late 1960s it is not being administered by Ramakrishna Mission.

I have come to speak here in place of Swami Kaivalyananda of Kayamkulam Ramakrishna Ashrama, who is a bit indisposed. 

We are in the midst of Ramayana Mela. This is the month of Ramayana. One Swami of our Mission used to say that the best thing that ever happened in India since 1947, after Independence, was the telecast of serials of Ramayana and Mahabharata over mass media. Many children and many of the grown up people too, came to know Ramayana better after seeing these serials. They might have heard and known something about the names in Ramayana: Rama, Sita, Hanuman, etc. But after seeing these serials they came to know these names and their doings much better. This was a very good thing, that Swami used to say.

This is not only the month of Ramayana but this is also the first month of Chaturmasya vrata. This is the season of rains. Sadhus all over India bring their wanderings to a temporary halt and stay somewhere for four months and study the Shastras. You know, the tradition of sadhus is, not to stay in any place for more than three days. They keep wandering from place to place, generally from one holy place to another holy place. They do this so that they don’t develop possessive attachment to any person or place. But during rainy season travelling is very troublesome. So they fix their stay at one place and go into study of scriptures. This is our tradition. Our Ramayana masam is the observance of this practice for the first month of these four. In this month, householders first pay their debts to their ancestors on the day of Vavubali and then start paying their debt to Rishis by study of Ramayana. Our Rishis, our teachers, have left their works for us to help us in our lives. We pay our debt to them by reading their works and trying to follow their teachings. This is a good thing. Only in Kerala we find that Ramayana is given such special attention and respect during this month and people so earnestly go about reading it.

Today, we heard a complaint from a previous speaker, that there were quite good many people at this place for another programme but there are very few here now; here we are about forty, fifty. Well, people come to places where they can connect to. Something so, so old as Ramayana, how do people make connection now? Will you buy an older version of software or an electronic gadget? You always want the latest version. In Religion too, people want the latest. So God answers their prayers and needs and comes again and again as a latest version. We do need old teachings but we need new Acharyas to show us how to use them in these present times and needs.

Swami Vivekananda gave a lecture on, Sages of India, in Madras. That was about Rishis of India. He added Sri Rama to the list of Rishis. There were Rishis during the times of Upanishads. We know many names but very little of their life details. Take for example, Yagnyavalkya, we know little about his life. Then when the times of Itihasa come, we get to know many details. When we come to know many great things about their lives, we are overwhelmed and we give a new name to these sages, we call them Avataras. Such are Rama, Krishna, Buddha, Sankaracharya, Ramanuja, Chaitanya and Ramakrishna. This is the lineage of the Rishis. Sri Rama is a Rishi in this parampara.

Now, what interest can we have in reading Ramayana? If we are assured that we will get something now in reading Ramayana, than we will read Ramayana. Well, Swami Vivekananda says, that even if almost the whole of the Hindu population dwindles, God forbid such happening, if there were only a handful of Hindus, speaking a far cousin patios, of its classic languages, even then there will be a version of Ramayana current amongst them. In such a way has the story of Rama entered the very veins of Hindus. It courses through our body and soul.

So Ramayana is in us. Here a speaker mentioned about common stories of hidden treasure put in a pot and kept buried in our backyard, hidden by our ancestors, so as to escape the hands of plunderers and later, be of use to us, their descendants, but we have forgotten about it or we are clueless where to dig; in such a way, Ramayana is inside us, but we don’t make use of it or don’t know how to make use of it. So let us start considering Ramayana and figure out ways to get things of great benefit out of it. What do we get from Ramayana? Well, I will say, we get four things essentially….

One, we get Ramakatha, Rama’s story, from Ramayana.  Ramayana is the tale of Rama’s doings. It is good to read the story of Rama as early as possible. I, as far back as my memory go, read the story of Rama when I was about eight years old. I was in class 3. That was the Ramayana written by Rajaji (C. Rajagopalachari), in Tamil. Later I must have read it ten, twelve times. The many incidents that we read in Ramayana will come useful to us when we come across similar situations in our lives. We will get tips from Ramayana on how to handle our situations here now.

Two, we get Ramarupam, the Rupa of Rama, the form of Rama.

Okay, we have read the story of Rama and draw our lessons and use that to handle the present problems. Is that all? No. We have to think deeply. We have to meditate. To help us in that we need the form of Rama. If we meditate on the form of Rama together with Sita, then we get strength.                                   

What are the forms of Rama that we meditate on? There is the form of Ramlala, the Child Rama. We have heard much of Kochu Krishnan, Unni Krishnan, the Child Krishna, but in South we have not heard much of Kochu Rama, though we have the name Ramunni quite commonly. There have been great people who have meditated on Child Rama and have had Vision of Child Rama. The Rama in Ayodhya is Child Rama. We find in Sri Ramakrishna’s life, incidents where Child Rama moved and played with him. The form of Child Rama is an ideal form for meditation. Or one may meditate on the form of Rama with Sita. We think of Rama, we meditate on Rama, and then very soon He becomes our own Rama. So on meditation one gets Rama. Generally we don’t meditate on the heated Rama threatening to dry up the ocean. Maybe, that Rama is good to look up sometimes but when we meditate, we let our mind stay with serene Rama, like Ramlala or Sita Rama.

So this much about Ramakatha and Ramarupam.

Then comes Rama Namam. The highest thing we get from Ramayana is the Name of Rama. The repetition of the Name of Rama is called Taraka Mantram, the Mantra that that liberates the soul and gives Salvation to the soul. One has to do Japa of Rama Nama. We don’t know if Mahatma Gandhi read the story of Rama frequently but we know he repeated the name of Rama incessantly. So let us try repeating the Name of Rama.

So after reading the Ramayana and applying the lessons we learn to situations in our present times, after meditating on the form of Rama and after repeating the Name of Rama, and while we are doing all these, we happen to get doubts. We stand still on our tract and doubt if we are doing things right. We doubt if it really works. We want proof that things will work out all right.

At this juncture we get the fourth benefit from Ramayana. Ramabhaktas, a grand succession of devotees of Rama starting with Hanuman. There were always Ramabhaktas with us: from Hanuman to Ramakrishna, Vivekananda and many till today, we have devotees of Rama with us. Shivaji was a Rama Bhakta. He was a devotee of Durga but he was a Rama Bhakta too. There had hardly been anyone who had done great good to the country who had not heard the story of Rama in their youth. We see that every one of them had heard the story of Rama from their mother or father or grandmother or grandfather or someone. The boy Gandhi was once afraid and a servant in the house told him to chant the name of Rama to ward of that fear, so he started repeating Ramanama and found it beneficial. So we hear when we go to Porbandar. They show a place where he received Ramanama. He went on to repeat it till the last moment when he faced death.

So we have to read the lives of the devotees of Rama and get inspiration from that.

Now comes the last word, the bottom-line. Why do we do all this? We hear Rama’s Story, we think of his Form, we repeat his Name, we familiarize with his devotees; where do we go after all this?

We are here to get to see Rama. We have to meet Rama. We may be enjoying the story of Rama and all the world’s poetry on that; We may be pundits knowing minutest thing to do with the Story of Rama; But the real thing is to see Him. To see Him as you see me, as you see each other, or even more directly, as Ramakrishna said to Naren, when he answered his question about tangibly seeing God. You think of him and try to call him by your mind, you try to establish contact through telephone, or you try to Google search for him and contact him, or you may search for him in Facebook. Somehow or other, you have to get Him face-to-face. And, once you get the touch of Rama on your shoulder, then that instant you understand this is the real Rama, the living Rama who is with you. Your life becomes fulfilled, Sampurnam.

So the Last Word is Vision of Rama. For that we have to plead to Hanuman to show us the way. That is what Tulasi Das did. Or you beseech Sita to do this favour for us, to put in a word for us...

May Sita shower Her grace on us; May Hanuman grant us all strength; May we all get the Vision of Rama. This is my Prayer.

Om Shanti Shanti Shanti