Kartik Nahan, Snaan or Snan 2010-The Cleansing!

Meady's Musings Production does not hold the rights to this picture and it is republished from this site.

Since UCP's existence we've explored the festival or Kartik year after year as you can see here:

1.Kartik Snan, Kartik Snaan or Kartik Nahan? Either Way an Ode to the Great Element Water!

2. A Pligrimage in the Month of Kartik

However just as ceremonial bathing on Kartik cleans us afresh to start anew...year after year on UCP we like to explore religious festivals from a new point of view...afresh...as if like babies we were exploring it for the first time...for as Jesus says you must make your heart like that of a child...then and only then can you enter the kingdom of his father! :)

So this year...2010...we've been exploring the Kartik Nahan again...looking at it this time from the point view of it being a ceremonial bath...for cleansing of sorts not really so much of the body but of the heart, soul and to some extent perhaps the mind...at least on the psychic level.

In one of the legends of Kartik it is said that when Lord Vishnu took the form of the Dwarf Brahmin Avatar or Vaman Avatar and then grew to large proportions after being granted three steps of land as dakshina with one step he then covered the whole earth and by the second step the entire material universe piercing the roof of the cosmos really with no where else for the third step to go so that King Mahabali in order to fulfill his promise offers up his head for the third step and is crushed by Lord Vishnu thus obtaining immortality for his benevolence in fulfilling his promise...as sides to this story if is said that through the hole in the universal roof Mata Ganga flowed finally entering the earthly plane! (See video below where the water that Bramha pours on the feet of Vaman Avatar can been seen as Ganga.)


So to touch her (Ganga) in her watery form is said to indeed be a very powerful thing for the devotee. Her water can cleanse devotees of all their sins...however even if you don't take this in the literal sense and only in the symbolic sense...let's still consider this today...if the water did have magical powers and so you could start over afresh and anew...freeing your mind of the past...how would you feel?...how would you be? Please consider this today as we here at UCP celebrate Kartik Nahan 2010!

Krishna and the Mountain...Govardhan Puja and Karma Yoga!

Meady's Musings Production does not own this picture or its rights and a re-print of it can be bought on this site.

It's the funniest thing...discussing the festival of Diwali and how it's celebrated world over with a friend...I came to thinking...well in many parts of the world Diwali is celebrated as a many days festival and as such on one of the days depending on the part of India you are in or from where in India your ancestors came Govardhan Puja is performed.

Now our point of raising this here on the prayers is to do with some of the series we have had on here before...in particular the God series where we explored God as water but we didn't explore however God as rain did we?...but it is interesting and it is why we are bringing this up on the prayers now...God as rain or rainfall in Hinduism is personified as the God Indra...he is also God of Gods or Deva hi Dev or God of the God Kingdom or God of Heaven or King of Heaven i.e. svargaloka.

Now we can see how rain or rainfall can be personified as a deity on its own i.e. deified especially by peoples of the past and rural peoples of today as in an agrarian society one needs rainfall to get those crops growing and flourishing...and it's how our stories here on the prayers begin and tie in....

Govardhan puja is done to celebrate the great mountain and the act of Krishna while incarnate on earth lifting it to shelter a village form the wrath of Indra...as he was pouring down his rain...because you see he had made it that the farmers at the time had to pray to him to get rainfall for their crops but the thing is when the farmers had to spend this whole chunk of time preparing and praying to him...well they couldn't tend their crops. And so Krishna said to them:

"Why do this? You people are farmers and should be spending your time tending to your crops not praying for rain! LOL! Are you people crazy! LOL!"

But the people said:

"Oh Krishna but we must as if we don't Indra will get mad! Really mad and we will either not have enough rain to nourish our crops or either he will rain down his wrath on us and flood out all our crops."

"So Krishna went on and on expounding his view of Karma yoga...recall this post here...and he told the people he would deal with Indra and they should tend their crops."

Now Indra got mad...he did get really mad! And he rained and rained his wrath down...but Krishna the supreme being that he is...lifted up Goverdhan hill with his finger and shelthered the entire village...crops, villagers, cows and all! So hence Krishna is seen to have defeated or humbled Indra...who came and asked for forgiveness...so the lessons learnt are that although the elements and nature can be worshipped they are just part of the whole. And the Universal or Supreme One himself, her or itself in this case personified by Krishna in the end is incharge. And such a being does not act on pride nor requires grand prayers and offerings onto to him,her or it to perform their roles. It's what they must do...in the same way so too we have roles that we should perform well...i.e. perform karma yoga...right action...that is each of us have our roles to act out...and we should act them out as well as we can! Indra, you, Krishna and me and all of us here on the prayers! :)Because even the Supreme One personified here as Krishna never asked to be glorified for what he did...he was just doing his karma to preach to the villagers and then to lift the mountain to protect them from the wrong actions of Indra as he Krishna is the Supreme One and as such his role is to do these things! LOL!

So Karma Yoga it is! :)

But we all in the end like to give praise even though it's not needed so when the farmers had done tending their crops and like us...when we are done with our daily chores...they did join in UCP:Universal Collective Prayers and although Krishna and the hill were just doing their jobs...the villagers honoured the great mountain for sheltering them and Krishna for lifting it and there you have it they performed Govardhan puja! :) Prayers from the heart...not extortion (you see because Indra was saying if you didn't pray to him he'd not do his role and that was just wrong man!)...and prayers not instead of your other work but after all your work is done!

Don't mind the accents of the Hare Krishnas from ISKCON here in the Youtube vid below showing the Govardhan puja as even if their mouths form the Sanskrit and Hindi words kinda badly their hearts are in the right place...and they're Bhaktivedantas after all so that's all good! And the beautiful picture at the top of the blog is also an original ISKCON print if I'm not mistaken!

Happy Diwali 2010 with Wonkie Cartoons!

UCP-Universal Collective Prayer has been on a kinda go slow...remember us saying so!

So we've decided to blatantly plagiarise a blog from another place to keep up with the Diwali celebs on the prayers...well with credit so it's legal...well not really plagiarise anyway seeing as it's really just a link back...but here is the cartoon from the top of the blog...



And since the cartoon speaks of Amitabh Bachchan we here at UCP thought we would just let you know of how he is in reality spending Diwali right now in India in his own words according to this article:

"Superstar Amitabh Bachchan when asked about his Diwali plans said, “”My father’s marked verse on the Ramayana shall be read, a gentle prayer shall go up for all, from all; sweets and bonuses shall be disbursed to staff by members of the family. There are now preparations on for Diwali, the lights for the house are being put up. The simple single toned white-yellow lights will be put all over the boundary and ceiling of the house and once up, they will be switched on when we shall finish our Diwali puja and light the first lamp.”

Well as far as we see Big B is going traditional way and we will definitely see the junior B with the Bachchan bahu celebrating Diwali."

And for sure in his own words with these twittering tweets from his Twitter account:

"# T175 -A united family is a model of unlimited strength ! about 6 hours ago via web

# T175 -Just back from a family jamboree ! Nothing in the universe can ever be a bigger force than the coming together of family !! about 6 hours ago via web

# T175 -The greatest joy of life is to live up to commitment ! Give all to receive all ! about 6 hours ago via web

# T175 - सुख शांति आप सब के जीवन में सदा बनी रहे . मंगलम मंगलम मंगलम ! about 6 hours ago via web

# T175 -लक्ष्मी माता देवी का स्वरुप आप सभी के घरों मे प्रवेश हो . यही इस्वर से प्रार्थना है . about 6 hours ago via web

# T175 -दीपावली की अनेक अनेक शुभकामनाएं . ये वर्ष, हर वर्ष आप सब के जीवन में खुशियाँ ही खुशियाँ लाये . आप सब का जीवन मंगलमय हो . नमस्कार about 6 hours ago via web

# T175 -A most prosperous Deepavali to all ..may all the Gods and Goddesses shower their unstinted bounty on you .. be environment conscious ! about 6 hours ago via web

# T175 -It is remarkable how sufficient water intake can revive energy ... just did some gallons of it and feeling like conquering the world ! about 20 hours ago via web

# T175 -Up and about ... intake of water is minimal and need to improve that .. pooja in the house today ..and tomorrow .. love festivity about 20 hours ago via web "