By Madhavananda das GGS (Gopal Jiu Publications – IN)
Notes from Sri Hari-bhakti-vilasa
Texts 247 to 542 of the 15th section of Hari-bhakti-vilasa describe the glories of Janmastami and how to observe it. The introduction to this section describes three reasons for observing the Lord’s appearance day:
nityatvam ca param tasya bhagavat-prinanan matam
vidhi-vakya-visesac cakarane pratyavayatah
The observance of Janmastami is accepted as a regulative principle in three ways: 1) the Supreme Lord becomes pleased when one observes it; 2) there are special sastric injunctions requiring its observance; and 3) it is a fault to not observe it. (Hbv. 15.266)
FOR KRISHNA’S PLEASURE
That the observance of Janmastami pleases Krishna is supported with the following statement from the Skanda Purana:
prahladadyais ca bhu-palaih krta janmastami subha
sraddhaya paraya visnoh pritaye krsna-vallabha
prajapatyarksa samyukta sravanasya sitastami
varse varse tu kartavya tustyartham cakra-paninah
For the pleasure of Lord Vishnu, even great kings like Prahlad Maharaja faithfully observed the vow of Janmastami, which is very dear to Krishna. It is the duty of everyone to celebrate Janmastami every year, on the eighth day of the dark fortnight of the moon in the month of Sravana, when it is joined by the Rohini-naksatra, for the satisfaction of the Supreme Lord, who carries a cakra in his hand. (Hbv. 15.267-68)
THE FAULTS OF NON-OBSERVANCE
Texts 269 to 282 of this section of Hari-bhakti-vilasa cite the Visnu-rahasya Purana describing various ghastly reactions that one will suffer by not properly observing the Janmastami fast and offering special worship to Krishna on this day. A few examples:
Eating on Janmastami is equivalent to eating the flesh of a vulture, a crow, a hawk, or a human being. If one eats on Janmastami they get the reaction of eating all the sins of the three worlds. If one eats even a tiny bit on Janmastami they will be tortured by the Yamadutas after death…. Those who eat on Janmastami take one hundred generations of their ancestors and one hundred generations of their offspring with them to hell… It is the duty of all devotees to celebrate Janmastami, even with a very small budget, for the pleasure of the son of Devaki. One should not fail to celebrate Krishna’s appearance day, otherwise one will be forced to reside in hell for a kalpa. (Texts 270-272, 274, 282)
MATERIAL BENEFITS
Texts 283 to text 340 then go on to speak about the glories of following Janmastami as collected from various sastric sources. This section entices the reader with many material blessings. For example, Hari-bhakti-vilasa (Texts
283-284, 289-292) quotes from the Bhavisottara Purana regarding the benefits of observing this festival:
BHAKTIVINODE’S ANALYSIS
In this connection it is interesting to note Thakur Bhaktivinode’s enumeration in the first chapter of Caitanya-siksamrta of the various general motivations people have to try to please the Lord:
1) Bhaya — out of fear.
2) Asa — for satisfying material aspirations.
3) Kartavya-buddhi — out of a sense of duty (literally, “a mentality of what should be done”).
4) Raga — out of genuine attraction for the Lord.
Bhaktivinode elaborates on these motivations: Those who take to worship of the Lord out of bhaya, asa or kartavya-buddhi are not on such a pure level. Those who worship the Lord according to raga are real worshipers…. Bhaya o asa nitasta heya — Bhaya and asa are extremely low class. When a practioner’s intelligence becomes clear, he gives up bhaya and asa, and kartavya-buddhi becomes his sole motive. As long as raga towards the Lord has not appeared, the devotee should not give up worship according to kartavya-buddhi. From this sense of duty, kartavya-buddhi, two considerations arise: vidhi-samana, respect for the rules, and avidhi-parityaga, avoidance of those things contrary to the rules.
SRILA PRABHUPADA’S INSTRUCTIONS
His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada also instructed his followers to abide by the rules of the janmastami-vrata, such as fasting. He wrote in his commentary on Bhagavad-gita 11.54:
There are so many rules and regulations, and if one at all wants to understand Krishna, he must follow the regulative principles described in the authoritative literature. One can perform penance in accordance with those principles. For example, to undergo serious penances one may observe fasting on Janmastami, the day on which Krishna appeared, and on the two days of Ekadasi (the eleventh day after the new moon and the eleventh day after the full moon).
FOOD VERSUS PRASADAM
As cited above, Hari-bhakti-vilasa [15.272] states that anyone eating even the smallest morsel on this day will have to go to hell. One may ask, then, why it is that Srila Prabhupada did not repeatedly stress this point, and why it is that that many vaisnavas serve prasadam to their guests on Janmastami? Although forbidding the eating of food on this day, Hari-bhakti-vilasa does not describe any adverse reactions for persons who honor prasadam. Krishna states in Bhagavad-gita (3.13):
yajna-sistasinah santo mucyante sarva-kilbisaih
bhunjate te tv agham papa ye pacanty atma-karanat
The devotees of the Lord are released from all kinds of sins because they eat food which is offered first for sacrifice. Others, who prepare food for personal sense enjoyment, verily eat only sin.
Prior to the section describing the glories and rules of Janmastami, Hari-bhakti-vilasa already described that prasadam is not to be considered food. Like Krishna himself, it is always situated beyond this material world. Hari-bhakti-vilasa (9.403-404) quotes the Brhad-visnu Purana:
naivedyam jagadisasya anna-panadikam ca yat
bhaksyabhaksa-vicaras ca nasti tad-bhaksane dvijah
brahmavan-nirvikaram hi yatha visnus tathaiva tat
Those foodstuffs and beverages that are offered to Krishna for his pleasure are transcendental and one should never try to distinguish them as eatables and non-eatables. Offerings to Sri Hari are transcendental, incorruptible, and non-different from Vishnu.
Honoring prasadam cannot result in any type of contamination. Rather, those who consider that Krishna’s remnants, which are non-different from him, to have sin in them, or that there is some mundane fault associated with honoring them, are great offenders. Hari-bhakti-vilasa further quotes the Brhat-visnu Purana:
vikaram ye prakurvanti bhaksane tad dvijatayah
kustha-vyadhi-samayuktah putradara-vivarjitah
nirayam yanti te vipra yasman-navartate punah
O brahmins, those who have a perverted mentality, and think offerings to Sri Hari to be material, will suffer from leprosy, and reside in hell after losing their wife and children.
As stated in Hari-bhakti-vilasa [15.282, quoted towards the begining of this article], it is the duty of all devotees to personally observe Janmastami. To not do so would be neglecting the instructions of sastra. However, understanding the following principle given in the Utkala khanda (36.19-20) of the Skanda Purana, many vaisnavas don’t hesitate to serve prasadam to their guests on Janmastami:
asucir-vapyanacaro manasa papam-acaran
prapti matrena bhoktavyam natra karya vicarana
Even if one is in an unclean state of body or mind, or engaged in irreligious acts, he should eat maha-prasada whenever it is available to him. There is no need to deliberate on this.
Bibliography
— Bhagavad-gita As It Is. English translation and commentary by A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada. Bhaktivedanta Book Trust. Bombay. 1995.
— Bhaktivinode Thakur. Sri Caitanya-siksamrta. Sri Chaitanya Math. Mayapur. Bengali. Gaurabda 420.
— Gaudiya-vaisnava-kanthahara. Compiled by Atindriya Bhaktigunakara. Sri Chaitanya Math. Mayapur. 1960. Bengali.
— Sanatan Goswami. Sri Hari-bhakti-vilasa. English translation by Bhumipati Das. Rasbihari Lal & Sons. Vrindavan. 2005.
— Sanatan Goswami. Sri Hari-bhakti-vilasa. Sanskrit with Bengali translation by Kanailal Adhikari. Sri Chaitanya Gaudiya Math. Mayapur. 2000.
dear Madhavananda Prabhu
Please accept my humble obiasences
All glories to Srila PRabhupada
You was quoting:
asucir-vapyanacaro manasa papam-acaran
prapti matrena bhoktavyam natra karya vicarana
Even if one is in an unclean state of body or mind, or engaged in irreligious acts, he should eat maha-prasada whenever it is available to him. There is no need to deliberate on this.
Are you saying it is ok to take grains on Janmastami at midnight? It is clearly stated in sastra one should never take grains on Janmastami:
In the Vayu Purana it is stated, “If one desires to become free from all sin, he or she should accept some rice Mahaprasada of Lord Jagannatha (or other grains of Mahaprasadam) on the day after Janmastami day.”
Lord Brahma instructs Narada in the Visnu Rahasya, “Anyone who eats grains on Janmastami day becomes filled with all categories of sin performed in the three worlds, and takes birth as a snake in the forest.”
As stated by Lord Brahma in the Brahma Purana, “When the Janmastami tithi and its Rohini Naksatra ends (next morning), then only one should consume grains to break the fast.”
The Yagnavalkya Smruti supports Lord Brahma’s statement, stating the following, “Only when both–the tithi and the–Naksatra timings of Janmastami have ended, then only one should break ones fast. There is no other way than this.”
Brahma vaivarta Purana 4th Canto 8 chapter text 71:
71 On a pure Janmastami (not mixed with the saptami) one should not eat even fruit or betel nuts, or even drink water Eating these is like eating stool or cow’s flesh, or like drinking urine. What, then, can be said of eating rice?
your servant
Payonidhi das
Hare Krishna Prabhus
The next question that arises (and I really dont have sastric quotes for this) is to be able to do the magnitude of service that is required on Janmastami. If due to weakness because of fasting one is not able to do services or go on Sankirtan, what should one do?
Payonidhi wrote publicly to Madhavananda, and I am replying on behalf of Gopal Jiu Publications.
> dear Madhavananda Prabhu
> Please accept my humble obiasences
> All glories to Srila Prabhupada
> You was quoting in your article on dandavats.com:
> asucir-vapyanacaro manasa papam-acaran
> prapti matrena bhoktavyam natra karya vicarana
>
> Even if one is in an unclean state of body or mind, or engaged in
> irreligious acts, he should eat maha-prasada whenever it is available to him.
> There is no need to deliberate on this.
>
> Are you saying it is ok to take Maha grains on Janmastami at midnight?
The point we were making was that it is ok to take prasadam grains on Janmastami if one has not taken a vow to fast on that day. Someone who has taken a vow of fasting should know how to respond if prasadam grains are offered to them. They should offer pranams and carefully keep the prasadam until the next day for honoring fully.
If someone is an initiated devotee or is aspiring for initiation then they have taken a general vow to follow the Gaudiya Vaishnava fasting days according to the instructions of guru, sadhu, and sastra. We consider that the conclusion of those instructions are that on Janmastami such devotees should fast from grains and beans, just like ekadasi, until the following day, and if they can avoid eating entirely until after the midnight puja, all the better. However, other devotees and temples may have concluded differently and have different standards for fasting. We consider this to be a detail and not worth arguing about. We share our realizations on the topic and others share their realizations, and we leave the rest up to Srila Prabhupada and Krishna. The main principle is to be always glorifying Krishna, and honoring his prasadam is in the category of such glorification.
Your servant, Bhaktarupa Das
In response to comment 2 while this does not directly refer to Janmastami, it is an interesting exchange:
Tamala Krsna: Sometimes we have heard that ekadasi is an inauspicious alignment of the planets and therefore one has to counteract this inauspiciousness by more chanting.
Prabhupada: (laughs) No, no. It is the most auspicious. And chanting is more effective. [break] Yes.
Tamala Krsna: I remember you were instructing once that all of your initiated disciples should chant twenty-five rounds…
Prabhupada: Minimum.
Tamala Krsna: Minimum on this day. Is that a rule that we should all follow in our temples?
Prabhupada: We are sixteen rounds.
Tamala Krsna: No, I mean on ekadasi.
Prabhupada: Oh yes. Ekadasi, simply you should chant. No other business. Nirjala.
Tamala Krsna: No preaching work? Should they go out for preaching?
Prabhupada: No, those who are preaching, not for them. Those who are sitting idle, or they… (laughter) [break] …has no other regulation, simply preaching. A preacher is so exalted. He hasn’t got to follow any regulation. But don’t take it. (laughter) And actually if one is busy in preaching work, that is first-class. [break] …not my manufactured word, my Guru Maharaja, that the… That Madhava Maharaja, when he was a brahmacari, his name was Hayagriva. So he was to go somewhere. So but he was sick. Guru Maharaja was informed that he was sick and “Today is ekadasi. He cannot take his regular meals.” So Guru Maharaja said, “No. Let him take immediately meals and go.”
Revatinandana: For preaching. [break]
Tamala Krsna: …Maharaja would sacrifice everything for preaching.
Prabhupada: Oh yes.
Hare Krsna Prabhus,
Nice artciel on the glories of Janmastami, but the quotes about going to hell for non observance, what is the need for them, aren’t all devotees going to follow anyway, and those quotes remind me of the christians, quotes to instill fear in me, they also seem rather harsh punishments too. I would find it much more enlivening to hear the benefits only. Thank you
Ananta P das
Regarding comment number two, as Praghosa Prabhu has cited, Srila Prabhupada’s stress was on service and practicality.
We should follow the instructions of our guru and if necessary for health, take ekadasi prasadam or medicine. Doing so is still considered to be fasting. While defining fasting in general, Hari-bhakti-vilāsa (12.100) quotes the Udyama Parva of Mahābharata:
aṣṭaitāny avrata-ghnāni āpo mūlaṁ phalaṁ payaḥ
havir brāhmaṇa-kāmyā ca guror vacanemauṣadham
“Water, fruit, roots, milk, ghee, the advice of a brahmin, the words of the guru, and medicine — these eight do not break the vow of fasting.”
Regarding comment 5: We heartily agree with you Ananta Purusottama Prabhu. That was partly the purpose of our article — to reflect on Sanatan Goswami and Thakur Bhaktivinode’s attitude towards the statements in sastra that describe ghastly hellish punishments as a motivation for following Janmastami.
It’s important to always remind ourselves that our goal is love of God, not avoidance of hell, or obtainment of material benedictions. As Thakur Bhaktivinode said, such consideration of bhaya or fear, is very low class.
Avoidance of hell is a very insignificant fruit of bhakti. We are the society for Krishna consciousness, not naraka-danda-moksa-sanga — the society for liberation from the punishments of hell. Leave that mentality for the Christians and Muslims.
Thank God, when Srila Prabhupada came to the West he didn’t preach such hellfire and brimstone. If he had, I doubt if many of us would be here today.