News Desk: Lord Sri Krishna Janmashtami 2012 was celebrated with religious fervor across the nation yesterday to mark the birthday of Lord Krishna, an incarnation of God Vishnu. Today is ‘Nandotsava’. Yet, in some places the occasion is being celebrated today.

 

Mathura, Birth place of the Lord was discerningly decorated to embrace the occasion. Lakhs of people flocked to Mathura and Vrindavana to be assembled in the birthday celebration of the Lord.

 

Devotees of Lord Krishna throng to temples dedicated to Lord Krishna to offer prayers, flowers, sweets and sing hymns all for sake of divine blessings. Children dressed themselves in fancy dresses as 'Bal Krishna'. Most people were on fast or had pure vegetarian diet that is free from onions and garlic on Janmastami.

 

The Iskcon (International Society for Krishna Consciousness) temples on Janmashtami across the world are also celebrating the birth of their cherished lord. They chant 'Hare Rama Hare Krishna', the Mahamantra on the occasion.

In Mumbai and Pune, ‘Dahi Handi’ was celebrated to mark the occasion. It refers to a clay pot filled with buttermilk and is hanged to a height so that devotees break it by hitting with an object.

 

Krishna Janmashtami is observed on the Ashtami tithi, the eighth day of the dark half or Krishna Paksha of the month of Bhadra in the Hindu calendar, when the Rohini Nakshatra is ascendant. A ‘Shalegram’ (round black pebble considered as the God Himself) was inserted in a cucumber depicted as the womb and at midnight, the cucumber is cut to signify that the God taken birth. Then the cut cucumber was distributed. The birth follows with another ritual called abhishek. It is the ceremonial sacred bathe of the Lord in Panchaamrit and dressed in new attire. Toys and decorative items are also kept in front of the young God.

 

Lord Krishna was born in a jail to Vasudeva and Devaki in Mathura located on the banks of Yamuna river in present Uttar Pradesh. He was then secretly taken out of the prison cell by his father Vasudev to be raised by his foster parents, Yasoda and Nanda, in Gokula village. Born in the dark night and dusky in complexion, he was named ‘Krishna’ by the saints. He grew up herding cows, playing with gopis and his childhood love Radha and stealing butter from the households of the village. Later the Lord visited Mathura and killed the evil king Kansa who was his maternal uncle.