Lord Krishna's Janmashtami and his wisdom " Yadaa yadaa hi dharmasya"

Janmashtami celebrates the birth of Lord Krishna, when the Moon entered the house of Vrishabha at the constellation of the star Rohini, on the 8th day of the second fortnight of the month of Sravana, which corresponds to the month of Bhadrapada Krishnapaksha at midnight according to the Barhaspatyamana, in the year of Visvavasu, 5,172 years ago in Mathura. 

The eighth Avatara, whenever Dharma declines and evil predominates, to establish Dharma and vanquish evil. In the Gita (4/78) the Lord has ordained: 

"Yadaa yadaa hi dharmasya glanir bhavati Bharat; 
Dharma sansthaapanaarthaaya sambhaavami yuge yuge." 

Lord Krishna that perhaps is the omniscient charioteer delivers the wisdom of the Bhagavad Gita to Arjun before the great war of Mahabharata – a Hindu epic. Therefore Krishna is also known as Parthasarathi, or Arjun's/Partha's charioteer. 

Sri Krishna who manifests all levels of joy, is also the source of spiritual joy, which overrides mental or emotional joy, just as emotional joy overrides physical joy. If all the three are integrated and interdependent, then the observance of the festival takes on the full meaning of Krishnaarpanamastu - let everything be offered to Sri Krishna. 

Janamashtami is celebrated with great fervour all over India especially at Mathura and Brindavan where Lord Krishna spent his childhood. Temples and homes are beautifully decorated and lit. On Janamashtmi, devotees keep daylong fasts and keep themselves awake while chanting holy songs, until midnight follows.

Janmashtami : august 2008 in india

Udupi July 31, 2008: The annual Sri Krishna Janmastami and 'Sri Krishna Leelotsav' at the famous Sri Krishna Temple would be held here on August 23 and 24 respectively, informed Sri Sugunendra Thirtha Swamiji of Paryaya Puttige Mutt today addressing the press. 

He said as part of Janmastami, a nine-day 'Sri Krishna Navotsav' would be held featuring seminar and dialogue on Sri Krishna by eminent scholars from different parts of Karnataka.

MUMBAI: Graduates and BPOwallas are fast emerging as the Big Boys of govinda, or so it seems. Janmashtami, when the govinda gaggle is out on the mean streets of Mumbai to be drenched in milk and curd, is scheduled for August 24. 

"' Govinda' is a Gen.Now event and many of our young volunteers who are doing their post-graduation or are into software and BPO are giving the festival a new look,'' said Prakash Patil of a suburban Janmashtami group. 

Take the case of Sagar Tade. The 20-something youth from Mazgaon is a commerce graduate from a prestigious south Mumbai college. Tade has earned a job in the banking sector. "The pocketborough where I grew up sizzles with the govinda fever every year. It is impossible to resist the call of 'aala re... ','' he added. 

Ditto with Swapnil Gosavi. "All my friends are out on the ground every evening to practice the human pyramid. Govinda has nothing to do with education. Even if I had done my post-graduation from Yale University, I would love to dance to the 'dholak' beat every year,'' laughed Gosavi who is doing a course in aviation. The commerce graduate from Devi Pada, in Borivli, rubs shoulders with school dropouts and cable operators as they slug it out on a slushy maidan. 

In Girgaum, Rahul Patange has plans to goad Wizzcraft into sponsoring his 80-year-old 'mandal' in Mangal Wadi. "We have to inject glamour, pace and style into govinda. The new generation is doing this with gusto,'' said Patange whose fluency in English earns him admiring glances from his 'Mee-Marathi ' friends. 

After a gruelling 10-hour schedule in a Malad call centre, Shankar Garud, 21, has all the energy to go through the paces at a govinda ground, a Bisleri bottle tucked neatly into his bag. "My call centre colleagues who are not from Mumbai are eager to see me doing the pyramid,'' said Garud. 

According to Nitesh Pawar, a computer science graduate from Ruia college, the concept of govinda blurs social distinctions. "It's nice to see graduates and geeks carrying the weight of auto-rickshaw drivers and courier employees on their shoulders,'' said Pawar who works in a Dalal Street firm.

Mathura (PTI): As temples in Mathura, Vrindaban and other areas prepare for Lord Krishna's birth anniversary, the administration has sketched out safety plan to ensure full-proof security for the devotees expected to gather here at 'Brij Bhumi', the birth place of their diety. 

Extra forces from different zones have been called up. A special security strategy is being chalked out for the safety and security of two shrines at Sri Krishna Janmashthan and other temples of Mathura, Vrindavan and Goverdhan, said senior superintendent of police S B Shiradkar. 

"Barricading work has already been started at Sri Krishna Janmasthan," he added. 

The festival will be celebrated in Mathura, Vrindaban, Goverdhan and Nandgaon on August 24 while in Vrindavan's Ranganath temple, the anniversary will be observed on August 25 and 'Lattha Ka Mela' the following day, according to south Indian tradition, the temple authrorities said. 

Apart from cleaning and decoration works, sufficient quantity of milk, curd, herbs and medicines are also being provided to these temples for 'Abhishek (Bathing ceremony)' and other rituals during the occasion. 

The idols are being decorated with new Jardozi cloth and various ornaments, they said. 

"To ensure proper glimpse of the diety during 'Abhishek', a wooden platform has been raised at the entrance of the temple," Sri Krishna Janmasthan secretary Kapil Sharma said.

Worshipping the blue god in Kolkata

Krishna on a swing under a Kadamba tree with Radha and dancing figurines of gopis greeted devotees at Shri Radha Krishna Temple on Jhulan. Strains of Jhulan ke din aayo rendered by Kishan Budhadev rent the air. 

Floral decorations and strings of lights hung around the carved pillars and walls of the temple as it celebrated the three-day Jhulan festival for the 13th year from August 12 to 15 and geared up for Janmastami on August 23. 

Through the four days of Jhulan, the temple gates were open from 5.30am to 11am and again from 4.30pm to 9.30pm. Intricate jhankis designed by Shibu Paul of Kalighat recreated mythological scenes. 

“We get thousands of visitors on these festival days. The crowd swells during the weekends,” said V. M. Agarwal, the manager of Shri Radha-Krishna temple. 

Devotees were treated to bhajans by Maruti Mohta, Dhrubajit Bhattacharjee and Dhiren Sanghvi. 

On Janmashtami, the temple will be open from 5.30am to 11am and from 5.30pm to 1am.

Naga Panchami

cobra doused with milk on Nag panchami ,—A cobra is doused with a milk offering—thought to protect the snake from evil—during the annual Hindu Nag Panchami festival, which is dedicated to the worship of snakes. 

Cobras are venomous snakes that feed on rodents, lizards, and frogs. Snake charmers and their cobras abound during the festival. 
—Photograph by Rajesh Kumar Singh/AP

wikipedia says

Nāga Panchamī (Sanskrit: नाग पंचमी) is a Hindu festival celebrated by Hindus in most parts of India. It is celebrated on Panchami in Shravan month. On this day, they worship Nāga Devata (Cobras). Cobras are considered divine in Hindu mythology. People go to temples and snake pits and they worship the snakes. They offer milk and silver jewelry to the Cobras to protect them from all evils. They also fast. This festival is to celebrate the day Lord Krishna defeated the serpent Kalia. On this day swings are put up in the village and people enjoy themselves. The married girls visit their parents during this occasion.

 
Cobra on the Nag Panchami day

The festival of Nāga Panchami is celebrated by Hindus to pay respect to Nāgas. The five Nāgas worshipped on Nag Panchami are Ananta, Vāsuki, Taxak, Karkotaka and Pingala. According to a Puranic myth Brahma’s son Kashyapa had four wives. Kashyapa’s first wife gave birth to Devas, second to Garudas, third to Nāgas and fourth to Daityas. (Dainik Jagran, 25 July 2006). The third wife of Kashpa was called Kadroo, who gave birth to Nāgas. So Nāgas are also known as Kadroojā. They were the rulers of Pātāl-Loka. There is a Sanskrit shloka to remember important nine Nāgas as under: (Dainik Bhaskar 30 July 2006)

अनन्तं वासुकिं शेषं पद्मनाभं च कम्बलम् । Anantam Vāsukim Shesham Padmanābham cha Kambalam

शंखपालं धार्तराष्ट्रं तक्षकं कालियं तथा ।। Shankhapālam Dhārtarāshtram Taxakam Kāliyam tathā

एतानि नवनामानि च महात्मनाम् । Etāni navanāmāni cha mahātmanām

as per http://festivalsofindia.in/nagpanchami/

Nag Panchami - West Bengal, Maharashtra and South India
Hinduism as a religion is many-sided yet bound by a common search for Truth and to Hindus it means a way of life and a fellowship of faiths. With the advent of the Aryans, it originated as a simple form of worship of the forces of Nature, drawing in its system action in social organisations, local cults, deities’ diverse beliefs and modes of worship.

Nag-Panchami is an important all-India festival and is celebrated on the fifth day of the moonlit-fortnight in the month of Shravan (July /August). This is the time when serpents invariably come out of their holes that get inundated with rain-water to seek shelter in gardens and many times in houses. As such they pose a great danger to man.  
 May be therefore, snakes are worshiped on this day. Right from the times when mankind started acquiring some sort of culture, Sun and Snake have been invoked with prayers and ritual worship in most of the countries. In India even before the Vedic times, the tradition of snake-worship was in vogue.

The Legend
In ancient India, there lived a clan by the name of "NAGAS" whose culture was highly developed. The Indus Valley civilisation of 3000 B.C. gives ample proof of the popularity of snake-worship amongst the Nagas, whose culture was fairly wide-spread in India even before the Aryans came. After the Naga culture got incorporated into Hinduism, the Indo-Aryans themselves accepted many of the snake deities of the Nagas in their pantheon and some of them even enjoyed a pride of place in the Puranic Hinduism.


The prominent Cobra snakes mentioned in the Puranas are Anant, Vasuki, Shesh, Padma, Kanwal, Karkotak, Kalia, Aswatar, Takshak, Sankhpal, Dhritarashtra and Pingal. Some historians state that these were not snakes but Naga Kings of various regions with immerse power.

The thousand-headed Shesh Nag who symbolises Eternity is the couch of Lord Vishnu. It is on this couch that the Lord reclines between the time of the dissolution of one Universe and creation of another. Hindus believe in the immortality of the snake because of its habit of sloughing its skin. As such Eternity in Hinduism is often represented by a serpent eating its own tail.

In Jainism and Buddhism snake is regarded as sacred having divine qualities. It is believed that a Cobra snake saved the life of Buddha and another protected the Jain Muni Parshwanath. To-day as an evidence of this belief, we find a huge serpent carved above the head of the statue of Muni Parshwanath. In medieval India figures of snakes were carved or painted on the walls of many Hindu temples. In the carves at Ajanta images of the rituals of snake worship are found. Kautilya, in his "Arthashastra" has given detailed description of the cobra snakes.

Fascinating, frightening, sleek and virtually death-less, the cobra snake has always held a peculiar charm of its own since the time when man and snake confronted each other. As the cobra unfolded its qualities, extra-ordinary legends grew around it enveloping it in the garble of divinity. Most of these legends are in relation with Lord Vishnu, Shiv and Subramanyam.

The most popular legend is about Lord Krishna when he was just a young boy. When playing the game of throwing the ball with his cowherd friends, the legend goes to tell how the ball fell into Yamuna River and how Krishna vanquished Kalia Serpent and saved the people from drinking the poisonous water by forcing Kalia to go away.

 
It is an age-old religious belief that serpents are loved and blessed by Lord Shiv. May be therefore, he always wears them as ornamentation around his neck. Most of the festivals that fall in the month of Shravan are celebrated in honour of Lord Shiv, whose blessings are sought by devotees, and along with the Lord, snakes are also worshiped. Particularly on the Nag-Panchami day live cobras or their pictures are revered and religious rights are performed to seek their good will. To seek immunity from snake bites, they are bathed with milk, haldi-kumkum is sprinkled on their heads and milk and rice are offered as "naivedya". The Brahmin who is called to do the religious ritual is given "dakshina" in silver or gold coins some times, even a cow is given away as gift. 

 

Celebrations

During this time, snakes often seek refuge in houses as their holes in the ground become flooded with rainwater. Due to the danger they pose to humans, snakes are worshiped during this period to protect villagers from harm.

Nag Panchami is celebrated throughout India; however, more festivities are seen in the south than in the north.

The village of Baltis Shirale, which is situated approximately 400 kilometers (approximately 250 miles) from Mumbai, conducts the most outstanding of all the celebrations.

Reportedly, the largest collection of snakes in the world can be found in Baltis Shirale. Visitors from all over the world gather in the village to worship live snakes. Interestingly, despite no venom being removed from the snakes, no one has ever been bitten.

Other popular areas of worship during the Nag Panchami include:
Adiesha Temple in Andhra Pradesh
Nagaraja Temple in Kerala
Nagathamman Temple in Chennai
Hardevja Temple in Jaipur.

In Bengal and parts of Assam and Orissa the blessings of Mansa, the queen of serpents are sought by offering her all the religious adoration. Protection from the harmful influence of snakes is sought through the worship of Mansa who rules supreme over the entire clan of serpents. On this occasion snake-charmers are also requisitioned to invoke the Snake Queen by playing lilting and melodious tunes on their flutes.

In Punjab Nag-Panchami is known by the name of "Guga-Navami". A huge snake is shaped from dough, which is kneaded from the contribution of flour and butter from every household. The dough-snake is then placed on a winnowing basket and taken round the village in a colourful procession in which women and children sing and dance and onlookers shower flowers. When the procession reaches the main square of the village all the religious rites are performed to invoke the blessings of the snake god and then the dough snake is ceremoniously buried.

In Maharashtra, Hindu women take an early bath wear their "nav-vari" - nine yards-sarees, put on ornaments and get ready for the "puja" of Nag-Devata. Snake charmers are seen sitting by the roadsides or moving about from one place to another with their baskets that hold dangerous snakes that are their pets. While playing the lingering melodious notes on their flutes, they beckon devotees with their calls -"Nagoba-la dudh de Mayi" (give milk to the Cobra Oh Mother!) On hearing that call, women come out of their houses and then the snake-charmers take out of the snakes from their baskets. Women sprinkle haldi-kumkum and flowers on the heads of the snakes and offer sweetened milk to the snakes and pray. Cash and old clothes are also given to the snake-charmers. Bowls of milk are also placed at the places which are likely haunts of the snakes.

Elderly women draw pictures of five-headed cobras on wooden planks, recite mantras and pray. The daughters wash the eyes of their fathers with rose flowers dipped in milk and then receive gifts from their fathers. In Hindu homes frying any thing on this day is forbidden by tradition.

The most fantastic celebrations of Nag-Panchami are seen in the village of Baltis Shirale which is 70 Kilometres from Sangli and 400 Kilometres from Mumbai. There people pray to live cobras that they catch on the eve of this pre-harvest festival. About a week before this festival, dig out live snakes from holes and keep those in covered earthen pots and these snakes are fed with rats and milk. Their poison-containing fangs are not removed because the people of this village believe that to hurt the snakes is sacrilegious. Yet it is amazing that these venomous cobras do not bite instead protect their prospective worshipers.

On the day of the actual festival the people accompanied by youngsters, dancing to the tune of musical band carry the pots on their heads in a long procession to the sacred-temple of goddess Amba and after the ritual worship the snakes are taken out from the pots and set free in the temple courtyard. Then every cobra is made to raise its head by swinging a white-painted bowl, filled with pebbles in front. The Pandit sprinkles haldi-kumkum and flowers on their raised heads. After the puja they are offered plenty of milk and honey.

The Rituals

After all the obeisance is rendered to the goddess and the ritual puja is over, the snakes are put back in the pots and carried in bullock-carts in procession through the 32 hamlets of Shirala village where women eagerly await outside their houses for "darshan" of the sacred cobras. One or two cobras are let loose in front of each house where men and women offer prayers, sprinkle puffed rice, flowers and coins over them, burn camphor and agarbattis and perform "aarti”. Girls of marriageable age regard the cobras as blessings of good luck in marriage. Some courageous girls even put their faces near the cobra's dangerous fangs. Behold the wonder the cobras do not bite them!

Director of the Madras Snake Park thoroughly examined these cobras and confirmed that neither the fangs nor the poison had been extracted. This truly is something so wonderful that it cannot be possibly explained by man's rational thinking.

In the evening the open space adjoining the temple of Amba holds a popular fair. Pots containing the cobras are placed on an erected platform and the lids are removed. The cobras raise their heads and spectators look on spell-bound. Vast crowds arrive from Kolhapur, Sanghli, Poona and even from foreign lands to see this wonderful spectacle and enjoy in the fair. The following day the snakes are released in the jungle.

There is one popular legend telling how this festival started. Once Guru Gorakhnath while passing through his village saw a woman praying before a clay-cobra idol. He turned it into a living snake and told her not to be afraid of snakes. Since then this Baltis Shirale and its neighbouring regions worship snakes. Guru Gorakhnath's temple is on a nearby hillock.

Tribals in the interior parts of Maharashtra perform acrobatics and magic shows on the streets. Crowds collect around them to see and touch the snakes which the tribals bring in their baskets to show them off.

There are snake-temples in our country with idols of snake-gods. In these temples cobras are also reared and live snakes are worshipped on Nag-Panchami day.

Important Aspects of Nag Panchami

This so called "snake day" has several important components. In addition to offerings made to the snakes throughout the country during worship and celebration, men and women celebrate the day in these ways:
Cobras are bathed in milk and offered rice as this is thought to offer immunity from their bites.
Women often partake in early baths of milk and wear colourful saris.
Pots of milk and flowers are placed next to holes that are believed to contain snakes as an offering of devotion. If a snake actually drinks the milk it is thought to be the ultimate sign of good luck.
Mansa, the Queen of Snakes, is worshiped in most parts of Bengal during Nag Panchami.
In the Punjabi region, a large dough snake is created and then paraded around the village. The parade is colourful with plenty of singing and dancing; at the end of the parade the snake is buried. Nag Panchami is referred to as "Guga-Navami" in Punjab.
Snake charmers sit alongside the roads of Maharashtra and encourage women to offer milk, flowers and haldi-kumkum (a powdered offering of tumeric and vermillion) to the dangerous snakes the snake charmers carry.
In many villages, snake charmers carry pots containing cobras to a central temple where they are released and then worshiped with offerings of milk and rice.
Mainly in the south of India, people worship figures of snakes made of clay or sandalwood as alternatives to the real-life versions.
No Hindu home may fry anything on the day of Nag Panchami.
Girls who are hoping to marry believe that the cobra offers good luck in their quest for eternal happiness.

Neanderthals Didn't Mate With Modern Humans

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2008/08/080812-neandertal-dna_2.html

Homo neanderthalis first appeared in Europe about 300,000 years ago but mysteriously vanished about 35,000 years ago, shortly after the arrival of modern humans—Homo sapiens—in Europe. 

"If there were only a few, small bands of Neanderthals, barely hanging on, then any change to their way of life could have been enough to drive them to extinction," Green said. 

"One obvious change would have been the introduction of another large hominid—modern humans."

Stephen Schuster, a molecular biologist at Pennsylvania State University, said the new study should silence a lot of theories about interbreeding between Neanderthals and modern humans. 

The study shows that "at least for the maternal lineage, there are no traceable genetic markers that suggest admixture of Neanderthals and modern humans," he said. 

Schuster added that the researchers were exceptionally careful to isolate the Neanderthal DNA. 

"Many more precautions were taken to ensure that no contamination with human DNA has flawed the analysis," he said, noting that researchers sequenced each letter about 35 times to be sure of their work. 

"This was the weak point of previous reports," said Schuster, who was not involved with the study. 

Thomas Gilbert, an ancient DNA expert at the University of Copenhagen in Denmark who also was not involved in the study, called the research a "step forward" and a taste of what might come when the Neanderthal nuclear DNA is finished. 

The team's argument that the Neanderthal population was small 38,000 years ago is speculative, Green said, but "it's better than what we could have said before."