Festival-Janmashtami 2011

Hi good day everyone after a long time :) !
Today is Janmashtami, the birth of Shri Krishna.

Janmashtami in Maharashtra is known as Dahi-handi.
The Rasa lila re-creates the flirtatious aspects of Krishna's youthful days, the Dahi Handi celebrate God's playful and mischievous side, where teams of young men form human pyramids to reach a high-hanging pot of butter and break it.

Since morning I have been seeing the various mandals & their govinda's going from one galli to the next for dahi handi. Their enthusiasm is contagious, cant help laughing at all the dancing & prancing around they do in the streets to some fast beat bollywood number.



The handi is a clay pot filled with buttermilk that is positioned at a convenient height prior to the event. The topmost person on the human pyramid tries to break the handi by hitting it with a blunt object mostly nariyal (coconut) is preferred being a sign of purity,truth and other good terms in hindu religion. When that happens the buttermilk is spilled over the entire group, symbolizing their achievement through unity. Various handis are set up locally in several parts of the city, and groups of youngsters, called govinda, travel around in trucks trying to break as many handis as possible during the day. Read more here




The Govinda Pathaks compete with each other, especially for the handis that give hefty reward amounts by the locality hosting the event. This is the Chembur naka dahi-handi, this years-2011 reward is 11lakhs.



Returning from office I waited & watched 3pathaks try their luck in breaking the handi. As you can see they created 4layers for a 8layered handi. Till the time I was there, the handi was intact, no one was injured & the crowd was getting thicker.

The interesting thing which caught my attention was-Sri Krishna taught us Karma Yoga. The real meaning of Janamashtami vow is to become Karamyogi like Krishna. Karma yoga is action (karma) performed without expectations or thought of reward. He strongly dictated in Gita that a man is bound to get the fruits of his actions. If he has done good actions/deeds throughout his life, he will get good results. Karma yoga is most suitable for people who have an active temperament. It involves working in the world and giving of oneself in a selfless way. The real essence is to become a selfless Karamyogi.

This is so in tune with the current affairs of today-Jan Lokpal Bill :)

Hope you got a taste of this enthusiasm too :)

Bye. take care.

Comments

Yash said…
It is a great sport indeed! :D
Very informative article...made a good read.
Please read my latest blog post as well...(tech blog) Please promote it on Indivine here, if you like it: http://bit.ly/pnls4G
Hey Nilima, good post after a long time. Nice and timely :) nice pics too