Celebrate month of Kartika by singing Damodarastakam and offering a ghee (clarified butter) lamp to Krishna
Radhika Gopinatha dasa
Professor of Vedic Theology and Religious Studies: Present society needs a new paradigm of devotion to God.
The month of Kartik according to ISKCON calendar starts today. A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, the founder of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON), emphasized the significance of the Damodara month and its associated practices.
Importance of Damodara Month
Spiritual Growth
Prabhupada considered the Damodara month an opportunity for spiritual growth and self-realization.
Increased Devotion
He encouraged devotees to increase their devotion and love for Lord Krishna during this period.
Purification
Prabhupada emphasized the purifying effects of observing the Damodara month, which can cleanse the heart and mind of material contamination.
Mercy and Blessings
He assured devotees that Lord Krishna's mercy and blessings are readily available during this month.
Observance Overview
The month of Kartik (October-November) is considered sacred in the Hare Krishna tradition, and within it, the Damodara month, also known as Kartik Vrata, is especially revered. During this period, devotees observe various spiritual practices to honor Lord Krishna's pastime of being bound by His mother, Yashoda, with a rope (Damodara).
Damodarastakam
The Damodarastakam is a devotional prayer composed by Satyavrata Muni, consisting of eight verses that glorify Lord Krishna's Damodara pastime. Devotees recite this prayer daily during the Damodara month to invoke Lord Krishna's blessings and mercy.
Ghee Lamp Offering
One of the key practices during the Damodara month is offering a ghee lamp (deepa) to Lord Krishna. This is done to symbolize the light of knowledge and devotion that dispels the darkness of ignorance. The ghee lamp is typically offered at home or in a temple, accompanied by the recitation of the Damodarastakam.
Significance
The Damodara month and the practices associated with it are believed to bring numerous spiritual benefits, including:
How to Observe
To observe the Damodara month, you can:
The Puranas and the great spiritual masters have emphatically recommended observing this simple yet extremely spiritually-potent worship of Lord Krsna in the form of a little cute naughty child.
“One who either at home or in a temple offers Lord Damodara a lamp during the month of Kartika, will obtain the greatest results” “A person who offers a lamp to Lord Krsna during Kartika attains the eternal spiritual world where there is no suffering.” -Padma Purana-
The time of the year has come when, once again, we have the wonderful opportunity to obtain the uncountable benefits of the Damodara month. Devotees from every corner of the world are taking take part of the most auspicious of months by engaging in the service of the Lord.
“The month of Kartika is the topmost of all other months. It is the most meritorious and purified of all other pure months.”
For everyone who takes part in this magnificent festival, The Lord will grant more benefits than what can be enumerated. This is all due to the Lord’s mercy when receiving an offering of a simple candle with love and devotion.
“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 Kartika” “When one offers a ghee lamp during the month of Kartika his sins in many thousands and millions of births perish in half an eye blink” – -Skanda & Padma Puranas-
(1)
namāmī?varam? sac-cid-ānanda-rūpam?? lasat-kun?d?alam? gokule bhrājamanam? ya?odā-bhiyolūkhalād dhāvamānam?? parāmr?s?t?am atyantato drutya gopyā
(2)
领英推荐
rudantam? muhur netra-yugmam? mr?jantam? karāmbhoja-yugmena sātan?ka-netram? muhuh? ?vāsa-kampa-trirekhān?ka-kan?t?ha-? sthita-graivam? dāmodaram? bhakti-baddham
(3)
itīdr?k sva-līlābhir ānanda-kun?d?e? sva-ghos?am? nimajjantam ākhyāpayantam? tadīyes?ita-j?es?u bhaktair jitatvam?? punah? prematas tam? ?atāvr?tti vande
(4)
varam? deva moks?am? na moks?āvadhim? vā? na canyam? vr?n?e ‘ham? vares?ād apīha? idam? te vapur nātha gopāla-bālam?? sadā me manasy āvirāstām? kim anyaih?
(5)
idam? te mukhāmbhojam atyanta-nīlair? vr?tam? kuntalaih? snigdha-raktai? ca gopyā? muhu? cumbitam? bimba-raktādharam? me? manasy āvirāstām alam? laks?a-lābhaih?
(6)
namo deva dāmodarānanta vis?n?o? prasīda prabho duh?kha-jālābdhi-magnam? kr?pā-dr?s?t?i-vr?s?t?yāti-dīnam? batānu? gr?hān?es?a mām aj?am edhy aks?i-dr??yah?
(7)
kuverātmajau baddha-mūrtyaiva yadvat? tvayā mocitau bhakti-bhājau kr?tau ca? tathā prema-bhaktim? svakām? me prayaccha? na moks?e graho me ‘sti dāmodareha
(8)
namas te ‘stu dāmne sphurad-dīpti-dhāmne? tvadīyodarāyātha vi?vasya dhāmne? namo rādhikāyai tvadīya-priyāyai? namo ‘nanta-līlāya devāya tubhyam
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This song was originally spoken by Satyavrata Muni in a conversation with Narada Muni and Saunaka Rsi. This song is sung during the Month of Kartik, also known as the month of Damodara. As quoted in the Sri Hari-Bhakti-Vilasa, "In the month of Kartika one should worship Lord Damodara and daily recite the prayer known as Damodarastaka, which has been spoken by the sage Satyavrata and which attracts Lord Damodara. (Sri Hari-bhakti-vilasa 2.16.198).”
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TRANSLATION ??????
1) To the Supreme Lord, whose form is the embodiment of eternal existence, knowledge, and bliss, whose shark-shaped earrings are swinging to and fro, who is beautifully shining in the divine realm of Gokula, who I (due to the offense of breaking the pot of yogurt that His mother was churning into butter and then stealing the butter that was kept hanging from a swing) is quickly running from the wooden grinding mortar in fear of mother Yasoda, but who has been caught from behind by her who ran after Him with greater speed--to that Supreme Lord, Sri Damodara, I offer my humble obeisances.
2) (Seeing the whipping stick in His mother's hand) He is crying and rubbing His eyes again and again with His two lotus hands. His eyes are filled with fear, and the necklace of pearls around His neck, which is marked with three lines like a conch shell, is shaking because of His quick breathing due to crying. To this Supreme Lord, Sri Damodara, whose belly is bound not with ropes but with His mother's pure love, I offer my humble obeisances.
3) By such childhood pastimes as this He is drowning the inhabitants of Gokula in pools of ecstasy and is revealing to those devotees who are absorbed in knowledge of His supreme majesty and opulence that He is only conquered by devotees whose pure love is imbues with intimacy and is free from all conceptions of awe and reverence. With great love I again offer my obeisances to Lord Damodara hundreds and hundreds of times.
4) O Lord, although You are able to give all kinds of benedictions, I do not pray to You for the boon of impersonal liberation, nor the highest liberation of eternal life in Vaikuntha, nor any other boon (which may be obtained by executing the nine processes of bhakti). O Lord, I simply wish that this form of Yours as Bala Gopala in Vrndavana may ever be manifest in my heart, for what is the use to me of any other boon besides this?
5) O Lord, Your lotus face, which is encircled by locks of soft black hair tinged with red, is kissed again and again by mother Yasoda, and Your lips are reddish like the bimba fruit. May this beautiful vision of Your lotus face be ever manifest in my heart. Thousands and thousands of other benedictions are of no use to me.
6) O Supreme Godhead, I offer my obeisances unto You. O Damodara! O Ananta! O Vishnu! O master! O my Lord, be pleased upon me. By showering Your glance of mercy upon me, deliver this poor ignorant fool who is immersed in an ocean of worldly sorrows, and become visible to my eyes.
7) O Lord Damodara, just as the two sons of Kuvera, Manigriva and Nalakuvara, were delivered from the curse of Narada and made into great devotees by You in Your form as a baby tied with rope to a wooden grinding mortar, in the same way, please give to me Your own prema-bhakti. I only long for this and have no desire for any kind of liberation.
8) O Lord Damodara, I first of all offer my obeisances to the brilliantly effulgent rope which binds Your belly. I then offer my obeisances to Your belly, which is the abode of the entire universe. I humbly bow down to Your most beloved Srimati Radharani, and I offer all obeisances to You, the Supreme Lord, who displays unlimited pastimes.
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