Thursday, November 20, 2014

The divine month of Margashirsha


In the journey of searching God through devotion it is a very natural question - how to recognize God?. They say God is everywhere. However it is not easy to reach that stage where one can experience presence of God everywhere. It requires long and consistent practice for mind to reach that stage. 

So to start with they recommend to see God in the best of every creation. For example - in all mountains Himalaya is considered the best and divine mountain and hence it is worshiped as a form of God, in all trees Ashwattha (Pimpal) tree is considered as best and divine tree and hence it is worshiped as a form of God, in all rivers Bhagirathi river is considered as the best and divine river and hence it is worshiped as a form of God, in the vedic meters (verses in vedas have different meters) Gayatri meter is considered as the best and divine meter and hence it is considered as a form of God. And so on.

Similarly in all months of Hindu calendar, month of Margashirsha (part of November and part of December) is considered as best and divine month and hence it is considered a form of God.

Here are few important days in Margashirsha

Shukla Ekadashi (11th day of waxing phase of moon) of Margashirsha is celebrated as Gita Jayanti - birthday of the most popular scripture of Hindu dharma  namely Bhagwad Gita.

Shukla Shashthi (6th day of waxing phase of moon) of Margashirsha is celebrated as Champa Shashthi. This is a very popular day in Maharashtra. On this day Lord Khandoba (aka Malhari Martanda) is worshiped. In south india this day is celebrated as Skanda Shashthi. On this day Karthikeya Swami is worshiped.

Pournima (15th day of waxing phase of moon) of Margashirsha is celebrated as Datta Jayanti - birthday of Lord Dattatreya. Many people observe fast on this day and perform parayana (sacred reading) of scriptures such as Gurucharitra, Saisatcharita, Datta Mahatmya etc.

No comments:

Post a Comment