Festivals of India series - Akshaya Tritiya

The next in this series is Akshaya Tritiya (also called as Akha Teej) and it is celebrated all over India with great devotion and respect. The word ‘Akshaya’ is a combination of ‘A’ (as in another) and ‘kshaya’ which are two different words in Sanskrit language. Degeneration is ‘kshaya’ and that which does not degenerate or diminish is ‘a’-‘kshaya’ = Akshaya. Tritiya means third day of the lunar month. This festival falls every year on the third day of lunar Vaishakha month in the bright half fortnight (Shukla Paksha). Akshaya Tritiya (Akha Teej) on a Monday or with Rohini Nakshatra is considered to be more auspicious. This translates to somewhere in months of April-May every year.

Akshaya Tritiya means festival of abundance, that which never degenerates. The sun and the moon are at their best today – they are fully radiant and give their best. So, as everybody is celebrating it these days, Akshaya Tritiya is not about buying gold and hoarding it. There is much more to it than buying gold. Let us see what!!


As per Hindu way there are 3 ½ lunar days that are considered auspicious. Generally if you are performing activities like marriage, starting a business or travel, house warming etc, you need to consult an astrologer for an auspicious time that will bring prosperity and good luck in the venture or relationship. But in these 3 ½ (sadhe teen) days if you wish to start any such venture, you are most welcome to do so because these are considered very auspicious days.
They are
• first day of Bright Half of Chaitra maasa (starting of new year) i.e. Ugadi,
• tenth day of Bright Half of Ashvina maasa (Vijaya Dashami festival ),
• third day of Bright Half of Vaishakha maasa (Akshay Tritiya- Parshu Jayanti)
• First half of first day of Bright Half of Kartika maasa.

Today you can specially perform Vishnu Puja ad offer him the blend of milk, honey, curds, ghee and sugar which is called the Panchamritha. You may add banana also in this. You can also offer God fruits and coconut because coconut is considered to be a complete offering.

Hindu mythology states that there are 4 yugas - SatYuga, TretaYuga, DwaparaYuga and KaliYuga. There are also Trimurtis - Lord Brahma, Lord Vishnu and Lord Shiva who are symbolical representation of Lord of creation, Lord of Protection and care taking and Lord of destruction.
Now Lord Vishnu needs to incarnate whenever there is a crisis on his beloved earth. One of his incarnations (sixth one to be precise) is Rishi Parashuram, a holy sage was born on this day. It is believed that he reclaimed the land throughout the western coastal region of India (Goa, Konkan coast, Kerala as it is today) from the Lord of Sea.
The TretaYuga is also believed to have been started today.
The holiest of River Ganges (or Ganga) also descended from heaven on this day to earth and became the life line of so many living beings on earth. Hence a dip in rivers, Ganges is considered very auspicious for all Hindus on this day. If you see the modern political map, you may notice that the important ancient cities of India like Haridwar, Varanasi (Banares), Prayag (Allahabad), Patna (Pataliputra), Champanagar (Bhagalpur), Kanpur and Kolkata (Calcutta) are located on the banks of river Ganges.

Since Indian economy is mainly agricultural based, all celebrations and festivals are surrounded around the reaping season, crops etc. Farmers observe this day as Navanna (new grain) Parvam (festival). Indian economy is based on agriculture and this is the time for reaping Ravi crops. The farmers of India bring their crop (Wheat, gram, mustard etc) home from the fields in these days. They have enough money to celebrate and this socio-economic reason brings them in festive mood.

It is believed that this world is running on righteousness (dharma). Any action (karma) you do in this will have an impact or fruition or result. This impact may be positive (punya) balance in your bank of life or negative (paapa) balance. The world will collapse if everybody runs on negative balance or paapa for themselves. So you must take care to see that you have a positive balance of your karma impact. It is also believed that all your sufferings in this world are because of you running on negative balance of results of karma. So any problem or suffering can be set right if you do the right charity at the right time and earn positive balance of punya. This balance will get exhausted in keeping up of health, wealth and general well being of you, your family and your near and dear ones. Because of this, you need to have a continuous supply of punya for yourself to keep your happiness and peace quotient high. So, any such charity performed on this day of akshaya tritiya is considered to give you an eternal supply of punya. This will protect you and your family and your near and dear ones from any suffering.

So akshaya tritiya is a day when you perform actions (karma) to fulfil your desires and earn eternal bliss, be it through the way of Dharma(Righteousness), Artha(wealth), Kaama(Worldly pleasures) or Moksha(eternal salvation). Hence it is common for people in India to do charity (for Dharma), start a new business (for Artha), get married or engaged (for kaama) or perform religious activities like holy offerings to fire God as homam (for moksha) etc.

Festivals of India series - Sri Rama Navami

Festivals on India series – Sri Rama Navami

Last article, we saw the New year Ugadi. Now we shall see the first festival after Ugadi i.e. the Sri Rama Navami. This festival is about the birthday celebrations of Lord Ram. As Navami stands for number 9 in Sanskrit, this festival comes exactly after 9 days of Ugadi. There is a story behind the celebrations. It seems long long ago, King Dasharatha who was ruling the Kosala kingdom had 3 wives – Kausalya, Kaikeyi and Sumithra. He had everything that a king would envy for except children. Those days it was a practice to perform yagnas or rituals with offerings to the Fire God, Agni Deva. So, as suggested by the Gurus, King Dasharatha decided to perform the Putrakameshti Yagna or the ritual which would give him children. As a rich king would do it, Dasharatha performed the yagna with great fervor and Agni, pleased with his offerings came out of fire and blessed him with a pot of a sweet preparation. He also said that the magic pot with the sweet preparation would help him achieve his desired wish. King Dasharatha was very happy to have the pot and he rushed it to his wives who were equally happy to receive it. Now, here Dasharatha had his brains running cleverly and distributed the sweet equally to his wives Kausalya and Kaikeyi only. He intentionally left Sumithra out of the share and left everybody wondering because as they knew Sumithra was his wife dearest.
Kausalya and Kaikeyi on hearing that Sumithra never got a share, offered to share their portion of the share equally. They both did this separately and hence Sumithra got 50% of the sweet – 25% from Kausalya and 25% from Kaikeyi. This is what Dasharatha wanted probably as he was able to secure majority of the sweet for his dearest wife without annoying the elder 2 wives. It was a practice in olden days that kings marry as many as 4 times in order to build a great empire and a great successor. Now that his wives consumed the sweet, accordingly in due course of time (the day when the Punarvasu star shined) they gave birth to four children Rama, Bharata, Laxmana and Shatrughna. Now Kausalya gave birth to Rama, Kaikeyi to Bharata, and Sumithra gave birth to Laxmana and Shatrughna because that was the proportion in which they consumed the sweet – Kausalya 25%, Kaikeyi 25% and Sumithra – 25%+25%=50%. And they all lived happily because the king, his wives and his subjects got all what they wanted.

It is believed that Lord Ram is the giver of everything in life.
He is the Maryadaa Purushottam meaning the ideal Man. There is nobody better than him. He is also
Ekabani – meaning with a single sure shot of arrow he is kills the enemy
Ekapatni vratastha – meaning eternally wedded and devoted to a single wife and
Ekavachani – meaning he won’t go back on his words whatever may happen.

Sri Rama Taaraka mantra
Sri Rama Rama Rameti – is the mantra to be uttered or written one crore or 10 million times and it is believed that it will fulfil one’s wish whatever it may be.

Festivals of India

Festivals of India

Festivals are a great way to bond over families, good food and have a memorable time. Hardly any country celebrates as many festivals as do Indians. Festivals in India are the most celebrated occasions. You have some festival or the other every month or every fortnight. There is a festival for fire, festival for water, festival for victory of good over evil, festival of lights, festival of gold and prosperity and many others like that.

Festivals not only mean celebrations. It takes into account the nature’s activity and combines within itself the flavors of the flora and fauna of any region. So a single festival is celebrated across various regions in many forms. So you eat a particular kind of fruit or vegetable on a particular festival day and not otherwise. And when you are in one region you would have to celebrate the festival in one way and when you are in another part of India, the same festival will have a variant in terms of celebrations. There are of course non-believers in this theory but the essence of festivals is in following the ritual wholeheartedly. Besides it does no harm to you in anyway – physically, mentally ore otherwise. In fact it does a lot more good to you emotionally. So raise your E.Q. (Emotional Quotient) and raise a toast to the festivals of India.

All Indian festivals are based on the maasa or (Solar or Lunar) calendar months and the fortnights in each month.

Let us have some introduction to the Sanskrit Lingo of months.
Chaitra(March-April), Vaishakha(April-May),
Jyeshtha(May-June), Ashaada(June-July),
Shraavana(July August), Bhaadrapada(August-Septembet),
Aashvija(September-Octopber), Kaartika(October-Bnovember), Maargashira(November-December), Pushya(December-January),
Maagha(January-February), Phaalguna(February-March).

The fortnights are called pakshas each –
Shukla paksha – fortnight facing new moon
Krishna paksha – fortnight facing full moon

Festivals of India

Festivals are a great way to bond over families, good food and have a memorable time. Just to start with, let us begin with the rich and diversified heritage of India. Let us have a closer look at the festivals celebrated in India and all the folk and mythological significance surrounding them. Hardly any country celebrates as many festivals as do Indians. Festivals in India are the most celebrated occasions. You have some festival or the other every month or every fortnight. There is a festival for fire, festival for water, festival for victory of good over evil, festival of lights, festival of gold and prosperity and many others like that.

Festivals not only mean celebrations. It takes into account the nature’s activity and combines within itself the flavors of the flora and fauna of any region. So a single festival is celebrated across various regions in many forms. So you eat a particular kind of fruit or vegetable on a particular festival day and not otherwise. And when you are in one region you would have to celebrate the festival in one way and when you are in another part of India, the same festival will have a variant in terms of celebrations. There are of course non-believers in this theory but the essence of festivals is in following the ritual wholeheartedly. Besides it does no harm to you in anyway – physically, mentally ore otherwise. In fact it does a lot more good to you emotionally. So raise your E.Q. (Emotional Quotient) and raise a toast to the festivals of India.

All Indian festivals are based on the maasa or (Solar or Lunar) calendar months and the fortnights in each month.

Let us have some introduction to the Sanskrit Lingo of months.

Chaitra(March-April),                         Vaishakha(April-May),          

Jyeshtha(May-June),                           Ashaada(June-July),               

Shraavana(July August),                      Bhaadrapada(August-September),

Aashvija(September-October),           Kaartika(October-November), 

Maargashira(November-December),   Pushya(December-January),

Maagha(January-February),                Phaalguna(February-March).

The fortnights are called pakshas each –

Shukla paksha – fortnight facing new moon

Krishna paksha – fortnight facing full moon

The first festival begins with the new year, the first day of the first month of the year.

Ugadi – Hindu New Year

Ugadi (or Yugadi) marks the beginning of New Year and is celebrated with great fanfare across India. Yuga stands for a repeated cycle of time say 365 days or a year and Aadi stands for the beginning. Hence Ugadi is the beginning of a repeated cycle of time, a year and it comes every year!!.Hurray!!

Each year is called a samvatsara and is named differently. This name repeats itself every 60 years and the so called history repeats itself – analogically. It is given to understand that what ever good or bad experiences a man faces in his life time, whatever he learns and teaches, his successes and failures, his joys and sorrows will be within his first 60 years. 

So coming back to celebrations, we buy new clothes and worship God the first thing in the morning wearing them. We salute our elders at home and greet our other relatives by visiting them or sending them good wish messages or over the phone. These days I guess emails and blogging also will do the trick!!

We thank God for all the goodies given by Him and set aside some money in the name of God or may be donate some money to charity. 

It is time for some New Year resolutions too. So those – I’ll get up early – I’ll help somebody – I’ll not crib – I’ll spend less on clothes – kind of resolutions should start on this day.

We exchange pleasantries with our friends and neighbors and share the sweets and savories. A special Ugadi preparation would be a thick concoction of neem flowers, raw mango and honey. To make it more attractive to children you may also add some dry fruits like cashews, almonds and raisins. It is believed that the combination of neem flowers and raw mango will improve the digestive system functioning and ward off intestinal worms for a very long time (say till next year when we again eat the same concoction!!)

Ask NaniMaa

Enter into the world of healthy living !!!
Celebrate each day, every single moment, each relationship in your life!!!
Life is very simple. We only need to understand it and stick to positive outlook in life.
See the big picture, see farther and think about the long lasting implications of our daily interactions and there will be no need to worry ever!

Raise a toast to healthy and happy living!!