Janmashtami

Once I had an opportunity to witness the Janmashtami festival in Mathura and Brindavan. Though Janmashtami is celebrated throughout India but there is something special about the festivities in Mathura and Brindavan.

On the occasion of Janmashtami, people from all over the country come to visit the Krishna Janmabhoomi Temple, which is on the exact spot where Lord Krishna was born. The priest chants mantras and bathes the idol of Lord Krishna in the main hall of the temple. The deity is taken out of the temple at midnight, at the hour when Krishna was born and the whole atmosphere gets filled with the sound of shells. People jostle each other to get a glimpse of the idol and hail Bal Gopal.

Have any of my fellow IL members witnessed the Janmashtami at Brindavan!

Yes, I once witnessed the raasleela in Brindavan. The raasleela begins much before Janmashtami. The stage has a colorful background of red and yellow sheets of silk decorated with sequins. While the raasleelas is usually in Brajbhasha which is the dialect spoken in Braj bhoomi, but sometimes Hindi too was used.
Lord Krishna himself was played by a young man. The audience was quite mesmerized by the performance and when the show ended, many in the crowd climbed onstage and touched his feet in reverence. There was a large pot placed beside him and the people dropped currency notes into the pot for him. Some of the elderly had tears in their eyes, for them, the young boy was Lord Krishna himself. There is something in the atmosphere and the performance – it left me spell bound.