Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare
Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare
Please let me know what is the way to serve Ladoo Gopal ji as per the temple standard. The must-do things and the things which we can do either weekly or on Ekadashis. Also the optional things.
Any information in this regard is welcome.
Replies
Hare Krsna Mataji,
PAMHO.
What I know about deity worship at home (and that applies to Laddu Gopal seva also) is that whatever standard of worship you set in your house, you have to maintain. When the lord comes to our house in the form of deity, He adjusts as per the schedule and capacity of the householder. But when the lord appears in the temple, then everything revolves around Him and has to be as per His timings. One more thing I have heard but still to be able to apply fully is - when there are deities in the temple and you are serving in the temple, then the temple deities take precedence over the home deities. One has to give more importance to temple deities (esp on festivals).
Now how to serve Laddu Gopal ji in the house - you can start by keeping a very minimal standard and increase as and when the desire comes and the buy in is there from all the family members, instead of starting as if its a temple and then the entire routine becomes cumbersome and a drudgery for everyone. We shoudl do whatever we do with love - that is important. There shoudl be minimum one arati a day, min one bhoga a day. You can increase to 2 -3 aratis and bhoga as many times as food is cooked in the house.
Now I will tell you the ideal - do mangalarati (not necessary because the lord is a baby in your house, may need to sleep till 8.00 am like Banke Bihari Lal Ju of Vrindavan), do sandhya arati, do tulsi puja twice a day. Offer whatever you cook or eat to the lord and take only remnants of maha prasad. Keep the lord's utensils and wiping cloth, cleaning soap/ detergent/ vim bar separate and do not use for any other purpose. Shringar/ abhishek can be done daily, twice a day or once in a fornight - every ekadasi or every alternate weekend, as per convenience. Put the lord to sleep every night (approx same time every night) and you may put some laddoo and water (both covered) for night time snack if He feels hungry at night. Remove the flute and crown when you put Him to sleep. Remove whatever flowers you put during puja at sleep time. You can even get a small bed for Him to sleep in. You can tuck Him in each night and wake Him up (approx same time everday) in the morning. The clothes shoudl be as per the weather - light non jari cotton clothes for summer, grand jari clothes for ocassions, woollens for winters.
Follow your local temple - do chandan seva on akshay tritiya, continue for 21 days, do jhoolan for janmashtami, set up a separate damodar during kartik. If they are doing lotus offering in summer, jal vihar - whatever you can follow in your house, you can do as per interest, time, capacity and cooperation of family members. My firm belief is that if you fight with family members and then do seva, that seva is not accepted. Better to serve internally and with mind, rathar than pick up fights and then serve, telling yourself you are the only devotee.
When you have time, sing kirtans in front of the lord, read Bhagawatam in front of the lord. Keep on looking at Him, admiring Him, sharing with Him what you did the whole day, your thoughts and feelings, laugh with Him, cry with Him. The best part is - everything is service and He accepts everything.
Enjoy serving the lord. Love Him and make Him the centre of your life.
The most important thing I am saying at the end - give up ownership of your house. Mentally, transfer the ownership of your house to Laddu Gopal - stay in your house as if you are His servant. Keep the altar area especially clean.
Haribol,
Your servant,
Rashmi
Hare Krishna Hare Krishna
Dear Rashmi ji,
I am so thankful to you for this I can not explain. I have got what I was lookingn for
in your replies...I am reading this again and again. I need to understand everything
written and pick up some of the things that I have not been doing.
A few doubts please clear :
1. do chandan seva on akshay tritiya - what is chandann seva? like we apply
chandan during arti, is it that u meant or something else?
2. separate damodar during kartik - please help me understand this.
3. jal vihar - please explain as i am unaware of this.
i would like to share something here which you will be happy to know and that is
by the grace of the Lord, my family is religious in nature. my kids (8+ and 6+)
recite vishnu sahasranaam everyday(apart from hanuman chalisa and Shyam
Chalisa), though not the full, only 50 shloks till now, they are increasing the number
slowly. It is happening all due to the Lords wish.
Someday i wll write to you, how Ladoo Gopal ji came to our house - its was kind
of 'yada yadi hi dharmasya glanir bhawati bharata' situation. We got very
indiscliplined and by some miracle, Gopal ji came to our home on the
Janmasthami day. Started with a minimal sewa, lived like that for more than six
months and then slowly expanded his sewa. As if He took the charge of the
position of the Head of the family.
Rashmi ji, there is so much craze and wait about Janmashtami in our house. We bought His birthday dress more than one and half month back. We are already busy and nervous in Birthday preparation. I will post you pics after Janmashtami.
We had been doing several things that you have written, but still I found from your reply that there are certain scope of addition and improvement. I was eager to do more sewa, but I was kind of stuck. your reply has shown me several ways I can improve.
We are a marwari family and have hundreds of bhajans in our mother tongue which runs in the family. We try to sing before the Lord almost everyday...my children loves to sing for Him though not everyday.
i am focussing all you have written, but I have to say the last 3 paras were very heart touching. This is what is most important for Krishna ji. He is very eager for Love of the devotees.
Again, dear Rashmi ji, your reply made me very happy and enthusiatic about Krishna jis sewa. i thank you from the bottom of my heart.
Hare Krsna Mataji,
PAMHO.
I am glad my answer helped you. To answer the rest of your questions:
1) Chandan yatra begins on Aakha Teej every year and continues for 21 days. During this time, we cover the lord with a layer of chandan because He feels hot in summer, to cool Him. Radha rani's only forehead is covered with chandan. There is a wonderful pastime of Srila Madhavendra Puri in which the lord appeared in his dream and asked him to do so. It is very detailed, I am not mentioning it here. YOu can see photographs of chandan yatra in mayapur.tv or vrindavan.tv or simply do a google search on it. The shringar and darshan is amazing. It is followed in most ISKCON temples in India. In temples they change the shringar everyday. I do for my deities, but dont change the shringar everyday. I continue with same shringar for 21 days. My Krsna looks so beautiful then.
2) During Kartik month, the Damodar pastime was enacted by the lord and Yashoda Mayee. You can take a separate Laddu Gopal (not the one on your altar, in Cal you get enough handis with small laddoo gopal on top during a boy's birth), tie Him with moli and to an ukhal. I have a small ukhal - the fancy one, with red cloth on top, it is available very easily in burra bazar. I tie Him for the whole month. You can do beautiful flower shringar on this Damodar every day and recite Damodar ashtakam in that month twice a day while showing ghee lamp to the lord.
3) Jal Vihar - towards the end of chandan yatra, the lord has pastimes in the lake. So in ISKCON Temple in Kolkata, they make an artificial lake and fountain inside the temple in front of the altar. Then they place the small deities in that pond. After sandhya arti, everyone lines up and is given one lotus flower with chandan and tulsi and told one name of the lord. We have to say that name of the lord and leave the lotus in that pond. IT is sooooooo divine, just writing about it is bringing tears to my eyes. Since your whole family is into devotion, you can innovate and do something similar at home also.
How do you celebrate janmashtami in your house? Do you make rangoli jhankis on the floor in one room and place small clay idols at strategic places to enact the pastimes of the lord and place your laddu gopal ji on a swing in the middle and sing bhajans the whole evening in front of them, inviting friends and neighbours? We used to do taht in my childhood. We stayed in colonies outskirts of Cal - the entire colony kids would get together and do this. It was a full day occupation and such good fun.
Mataji since you are in Calcutta, I must tell you that you are the most fortunate person. It is so close to Mayapur and the congregation in Cal is very good. Have you visited our Albert Road temple (near Minto Park, Hindi High School), Mayapur? If not, you must. Please tell me where you stay (in personal mail). I will put you onto the congregation in your locality. They are very nice people and you wil be very happy to get their association. Before marraige, I was in Kolkata. That group is still my group and such a wonderful support system for me even now.
HG Ashray Gauranga Prabhuji is preaching very nicely, he just completed one batch of Bhakti Shastri last year. There are so many benefits on being in this congregation that I cannot begin to tell you. I crave for that same kind of congregation in Chennai. Sadly, we are nowhere near what Cal is now. Govinda's is very nice restaurant - the best in India right now. You must have visited.
I am also Kolkata marwari - so it is bringing so many good good memories to me.
Like they say, Hari ananta, Hari katha ananta....same way, the number of ways in which we can serve the lord is also ananta and He accepts everything and every way in which we serve Him sincerely. You children will also benefit because the congregation is more than 1000 families and children of all ages and sizes are there. They have frequent programs for children, you will be very happy.
Why am I writing so much, you may be a part of Bhakti Vriksha there already. Do tell me about it.
Haribol,
Your servant,
Rashmi
Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare
Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare
Dear Rashmi ji,
I am getting so much information from you, this is so beneficial for me...like about Chandan Yatra, Jal Vihar and Damodar pastimes.
On 15th we have planned to go to Burrabazar to do the final shopping, as the main Janmashtami market starts just 2-3 days before the festival. I just pray to get a Ladoo Gopal ji with unkhali.
Dear Rashmi ji, your mail is not only so informative about the Lord, its full of love for Him and I realised I have a lot lot to learn from you. After reading ur writing I am full of ideas and enthusiam.
Hari Bol!
We celebrate Janmashtami exactly the way you have anticipated. actually it is a whole day affair, in fact a 3 day affair as we keep the entire Janmashtami for 3 days...we simply evacuate one room for Him. please remember we live in a 2bhk flat. you can understand :)
Next day, we visit our relatives as quickly as possible to see their Janmashtami. Our relatives celebrate His birthday in a grand way.
Last year during Kartik, Lord made me do the Kartik vrat, that time I recited the Damodarashtakam after doing Mangla arti. Otherwise, thru the year we do only 2 artis.
you know Rashmi ji, we have seen the Lord smiling many a times, when all four of us are saying Mahamantra as a Kirtan. We keep singing in different ragas and styles. All of us, confirmed from each other and all of us agreed He was overjoyed.
Hari Bol!
There is one grief that I have in my heart that is in Kolkata, the place where I stay now is far away from the main city. there is no Hari Bhakti - infact there is no bhakti. If you see the temple in our complex, tears will come to your eyes seeing the ill maintained idols of the Lord. People here do puja on a weekly basis. Sunday morning, the flower shop is closed as there are no takers - but there are long queues in the meat shops. I feel very hurt seeing there is no devotion in the atmosphere. We look odd-one-out kind of here. I miss satsang too much, except when I go to our in-laws place in Rishra.
We have visited the Minto park temple a couple of times and Mayapur Dham 3-4 times. This time, we had plans to visit Mayapur after Janmashtami, but there are some changes in the plan. We are going to Jaggannathji Puri.
We had been to Govindas several times :) , our favourite place.
Please let me know about the congregation , you have mentioned. (but i will just remind you that minto park is too far from our place). Something closer to us will be very helpful and practical. I had been to Iskcon temples just as a casual temple visitor,but i am not aware of the other temple activities like preaching, the congregation that u mentioned, Bhakti vriksha, or the other activities.
I am very much thankful for the time and effort you gave in writing such a helpful and informative reply.
Hare Krishna.
please help me know where do I learn more about Ladoo Gopal Sewa.