"He who perceives Me everywhere, and beholds everything in Me, never loses sight of Me, nor do I ever lose sight of him." - Bhagavan Krishna, in the "Bhagavad Gita
Bhagavan Krishna’s Janmashtami was celebrated at the Yogoda Satsanga Dhyan Kendra Bangalore on the 24th August, 2019.
As taught by Gurudev Paramahansa Yogananda, the celebrations began with divine communion in deep meditation.
The Program started with devotees performing Energisation exercises at 1 pm. After the opening prayer to Brahma, the chant “Shyamal Krishna”, was melodiously sung by the group and Meditation began.
The entire three and half hour meditation was interspersed with various chants composed by Gurudev, and rendered by devotees with deep devotion. Some of the chants sung were, - ‘My Krishna Is Blue’, ‘I Will Be Thine Always’ and a bhajans on Lord Krishna.
The Tea break at 4.30 pm, saw many devotees continuing their Energization Exercises individually.
The evening celebration began with arathi at 5 pm followed by the ‘Hymn to Brahma’. After the chant –‘Spirit and Nature’ , devotees meditated till 5:40pm.
Post Meditation, the evening reading was conducted. The topic, described was Bhakthi/ Devotion. As defined by Guruji, Bhakthi was spoken of as ‘the complete surrender of one’s Self to the Lord, where nothing of the Bhaktha remains, except for his love for God’. How Gurudev exhorted all his disciples to cultivate deep devotion for God, as that was the bedrock of Meditation; was also described.
In this context, a beautiful story of the ‘Yagnya Pathnis’ from the Bhagavatam, was read out. The story described how the simple hearted wives of ritualistic Brahmins, found salvation by their Bhakthi. In performing ‘Yagnya’, the learned Brahmins, failed to recognise the arrival of Lord Krishna himself to their premises. While their wives, who were filled with deep devotion, recognising the arrival of the Lord, lost no time in serving him, thus attaining salvation much before their erudite husbands. The power of Bhakthi was thus beautifully brought forth.
Post the reading session, ' prayers for others' and a closing prayer was conducted. this was followed by Bhajans that were sung by a group of disciples; as the bhajans were played, rest of the devotees prostrated reverentially before the beautifully decorated altar of Lord Krishna and offered their Pranaamis.
Prasad was then distributed amongst the devotees, who went back home with beatific expressions on their faces.
The celebrations saw the participation of close to 130 people and 32 children in all.
