Facts

If you are a reporter writing an article on Janmashtami for your local newspaper or magazine, help yourself to these handy fact lists on different aspects of the festival. Please make sure to mention and/or credit Krishna.com as your source.

Culture

  • Krishna appeared on earth roughly 5,000 years ago.

  • Devotees are adamant about calling Janmastami an "appearance day" instead of a "birthday," because God comes of His own sweet will rather than being forced to take birth due to karma.

  • Janmastami takes place in August or early September, with specifics that vary according to the solar calendar. (The Vedic calendar is lunar)

  • Janmastami can also be spelled as "Janmashtami" or "Janmasthami."

  • Janmastami is a non-sectarian festival and, especially in India, persons of different faiths often participate in the celebrations.

  • Krishna is said to have appeared at exactly midnight. Thus devotees fast until midnight on Janmastami. Then a big feast is had by all.

  • Janma means birth and ashtami means eighth day – Krishna was "born" on the eighth day of the lunar fortnight.

  • The festival is usually celebrated over two days. The first day is called Krishnashtami or Gokulashtami (Gokula is the town in which Krishna was born). The second is Janmastami proper.

  • Devotees cook and offer 108 different food preparations to the Lord at midnight. This number is especially significant: there are 108 Upanishads (Vedic books of learning) and 108 gopis (cowherd devotees of Krishna who assist Him in His earthly pastimes)

  • Often, in temples, the deities of Radha and Krishna will be dressed in outfits made entirely out of flowers.

  • A public bathing ceremony called "Abhishekha" (meaning "a sprinkling") takes place, wherein the deities of Krishna and His consort Radha are bathed with fruit juices and milk products. Devotees then take a sip of the bathing mixture, which is said to cleanse away sins. The procedure of Abhishekha is very similar to the Vedic procedure for a King’s consecration.

  • Other festivities include:
    • Devotional singing
    • Full-length dramas detailing the specifics of Krishna’s appearance and activities
    • Reading of sacred texts
    • Traditional Indian dances
    • "Dahi Handi," a ceremony held in certain parts of India, most notably Maharastra. Young men and children form a human pyramid to reach a clay pot filled with butter or curds, break it and claim the prize. This practice evokes Krishna’s famous childhood pastime, wherein He and His cowherd friends stole milk products hung out of reach by their mothers.

  • Krishna also periodically appears in other forms, but Janmastami focuses on His appearance in His original two-armed form as a cowherd boy.

  • Although He is God, master of the universe, Krishna prefers to spend His time as a simple cowherd boy. After death, Vaishnavas (devotees of Krishna) aim to join Him in His celestial home of Braj, where they will assist Him in His activites, loving Him, being with Him. This truth is the essential religious spirit found in the hearts of devotees on Janmastami.

  • Puranic literature prescribes setting up a diorama of the birth scene to celebrate Janmastami. This would include the divine child in some sort of crib, as well as his mother and father and some other ladies present. The image is then worshipped with arati. The giving of gifts to the divine child is also mentioned. This presents an interesting parallel with Christianity.

  • It is also recommended that a couple who want a child themselves worship Krishna, the divine child, on His appearance day.

History

  • Krishna appeared on earth roughly 5,000 years ago. However, according to http://www.salagram.net/janmastami-whoisKrishna.html: "Historically, Lord Krishna appeared in the Dvapara yuga, on the midnight of the 8th day of the dark half of the month of Sravan, in Mathura. This corresponds to July 19th in the year 3228 BC. He exhibited His pastimes for a little over 125 years and disappeared on February 18th 3102 BC on the new moon night of Phalgun. His departure marks the beginning of the current age of corruption known as Kali." (Various respected sources are cited, including Vedic philosopher Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura)

  • The basic story of Janmastami is: Krishna was born to Vasudeva and Devaki, the cousin of the ruling King Kamsa. It was prophesied that Devaki’s eighth son would kill Kamsa. Kamsa imprisoned Devaki and Vasudeva and killed her children as they were born. Their eighth child, Krishna, appeared with all the accouterments of Vishnu, the formal deity of God. However, He shed them at his parents’ request so they could smuggle him out of jail to Gokul, where he was brought up as the child of the cowherd Nanda and his wife Yashoda at Gokul.

  • Most information of Krishna’s activities are garnered from the ancient Vedic texts Hari-Vamsa, Vishnu Purana, Brahma Purana, and most notably, the Bhagavata Purana.

  • Krishna is the ultimate paradox: He’s born yet unborn. He’s the ultimate supreme divinity, but he’s also the most intimate supreme divinity. He’s most transcendent, and he’s most imminent. He’s enjoying pleasure activities with the cowherd maidens, and yet he’s on the battlefield with Arjuna.

  • While Krishna worship continued on since the time of Krishna’s appearance, there was a Bhakti renaissance, or resurgence of Krishna worship, from the 11th to the 16th century. This culminated with the appearance of Shri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu in Bengal in 1486. A great saint who is believed by Vaishnavas to be Krishna Himself, Chaitanya re-established Vrindavana (where Krishna performed most of his pastimes) as a great pilgrimage site and developed Janmastami as it is celebrated today.

  • An interesting side fact is that when in 1492, Columbus sailed the blue searching for India and accidentally discovering America, Lord Chaitanya was six years old. (born in 1486)

  • Shri Chaitanya’s immediate disciples, the six Goswamis, carried on his teachings, continuing to establish Krishna worship and building many temples in Vrindavana. But then the Muslim regime invaded. The Govindaji temple previously had seven floors but the top four were destroyed by Muslim emperor Aurangzeb. Over a span of eighty or ninety years, major deities of Vrindavana were moved in bullock cars by their priests to outlying areas to protect them. Some, like Govindaji, as far as Jaipur in Rajasthan.

  • Krishna worship faced another threat when in the 19th century, British Christian missionaries traveled to India, with the goal of converting the "heathens." Upon arriving, they were amazed at the rich and complex theology that they found. Furthermore the locals, rather than converting to Christianity and replacing what they already had, with trademark Indian hospitality, just included Jesus. Somewhat disappointed at this, the missionaries returned to England, and began indological scholarship.

  • Krishna’s Janmasthan (birthplace) is still preserved in Mathura (Uttar Pradesh, India), commemorated by the Katra Keshava Deo temple. (http://us.makemytrip.com/indiabest/pilgrimage-mathura.htm)

  • It is estimated that on Janmastami, almost seven hundred thousand pilgrims pour into Mathura and surrounding towns. http://indiafairs.dgreetings.com/indian/festivals/janamashtami/janamashtami.htm

  • Many holy places and temples commemorating different activities of Krishna’s earthly appearance still exist all over India, particularly in Vrindavana and Mathura.

  • Recently, in the 1960s, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, a monk in the direct disciplic line of Shri Chaitanya, brought his teachings, and the Janmastami festival, to America and the Western world.

  • At the same time – post 1965 – Indian immigration into the U.S. began again after a lapse of about 40 years, and of course they brought their culture with them. (US Federal Census Department)

  • There are now about 930 million Hindus in the world. Some 560 million of these are Vaishnavas. (See "The Hindu Community")

  • There are 2 million Hindus in the US. (See "The Hindu Community")

  • Now, this ancient 5,000 year old festival has been brought into this modern age of technology and is being celebrated online at Krishna.com.

Significance

  • Vaishnavas revere Krishna as the single, omnipotent, supreme God.

  • According to Vaishnava theology, fifty centuries ago Krishna spoke the Bhagavad-Gita (literally meaning "Song of God"), known as "the Bible of Hinduism" to the warrior Arjuna. It covers many topics, including love, stress, self-development, creation and life after death.

  • In the Bhagavad-Gita, Krishna explains why He appears: "Whenever and wherever there is a decline in religious practice, O descendant of Bharata, and a predominant rise of irreligion—at that time I descend Myself."

  • A unique quality of Krishna is that he reciprocates his devotees’ love in very human ways. He is a son to Vasudeva and Devaki, a friend to Arjuna, a lover to the cowherd damsels of Vrindavana, a husband to thousands of wives, and more. This fact, that he responds to the distinct feelings and desires held most deeply in the heart of every single worshipper, makes him most loved as a deity.

  • There are various different meanings given for the name "Krishna": Steven J. Rosen’s "Hinduism" cites the literal Sanskrit meaning: "black" or "dark blue." Vedic Scriptures and oral tradition also define the word as "all-attractive." And several other sources also explain that the root "kr" indicates "existence" and the syllable "na" indicates "bliss." (http://www.ramanuja.org/sv/bhakti/archives/mar96/0128.html)

The Hindu Community

Population

  • There are 930 million Hindus worldwide, most of whom would celebrate Janmastami in some capacity.

  • According to the 1996 Britannica Book of the Year, there are some 560 million Vaishnavas worldwide. Vaishnavism claims the largest number of followers among the various sects in India.

  • There are 2 million Hindus in the US. (According to the Hindu American Foundation)

  • After a large Hindu migration to America at the turn of the 20th century, there was a 40 year lapse. Indian immigration into the U.S. then began again post 1965, and of course they brought their culture with them.

    • Professional

  • More than 87% of Indians in America have completed high school while at least 62% have some college education. As much as 58% of Indian Americans over the age of 25 hold a bachelor's degree or higher.

  • High levels of education have also enabled Indian Americans to become a productive segment of the U. S. population, with 72.3% participating in the work force.

  • Of these work force participants, 43.6% are employed in managerial and professional specialties.

  • Two Indian Americans - Har Gobind Khorana of Massachusetts Institute of Technology and late Subrahmanyan Chandrashekhar of University of Chicago - have been awarded the Nobel Prize, in medicine and physics respectively.

  • Some successes are well known, such as Vinod Khosla, co-founder of Sun Microsystems, and Sabeer Bhatia, who founded HotMail and sold it to Microsoft for $400 million. The number of Indian American New Economy millionaires is in the thousands. Massachusetts' Gururaj Deshpande, co-founder of a number of network-technology companies, is worth between $4 billion and $6 billion.

    • History

  • Prior to 1965, Hindu immigration to the US was minuscule and isolated. In those earlier days, traders were primarily the only ones who bothered to set foot in the USA.

  • The Bellingham Riots in Bellingham, Washington on September 5, 1907 epitomized the low tolerance in the USA for Indians and Hindus. Despite such events, they continued to work and stay until the Immigration and Nationality Services (INS) Act of 1965 was passed.

  • This opened the doors to Hindu immigrants who wished to work and start families in the United States. It included preachers as well, who spread awareness of the religion among a people that had little contact with it.

  • In September of 1965, an elderly Indian sadhu named A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada arrived in New York. After a short time, he acquired a troupe of followers, and founded the International Society for Krishna Consciousness. Other Indians of a Hindu faith, such as Chinmoy and Maharishi, started preaching missions that inspired many Americans to accept a Hindu belief system. Today, the most visible of the Hindu preachers appear to be those who sing the Hare Krishna Mahamantra, i.e., the Gaudiya Vaishnavas, as well as other Vaishnavas, and those of a Shaivite faith. Today, numerous sadhus and Gurus live in or visit the United States.

  • Many Hindu communities exist, from close knit communities of mainstream Hindus living near one another, to planned communities such as Vedic City, Iowa, and several farm communities owned by ISKCON.

    • Hindu Temples in United States

  • Many Hindu temples were constructed in United States. They are very popular with the Indian-American communities in the country. Prominent temples include The Hindu Temple near Malibu, California. Built in 1981 and located in Calabasas, it is owned and operated by the Hindu Temple Society of Southern California.

    • Status

  • The Hindus of America in modern times enjoy both de jure and de facto equality under the laws of the United States. Generations of Hindus, both of South Asian, as well as European ancestory, have lived and worked in the USA, raising families, buying homes, and making roots, rendering their culture and spirituality an integral part of the multi-faceted diamond that is the American Experience.

    • Awareness

  • Hinduism being a minority religion, there is little awareness about it among the general public. Many misconceptions, stereotypes exist and are sometimes further perpetrated by otherwise responsible entities (such as schools, school books, encyclopedic articles). It is widely perceived in America as a polytheistic religion with caste and worship of the cow as its defining features. Those familiar with the religion will note that it is not polytheistic, worship of the cow is rare and that the caste system is over-emphasised and exaggerated in the American conscience.

    • Scholarship

  • Hinduism studies in American Universities has been under the spotlight recently for its shoddy scholarship. With the increasing Hindu population in the country, gross errors & misrepresentations that may have passed through easily before are being caught and highlighted. An influential figure in the academy, Wendy Doniger, Professor of History of Religions, University of Chicago, has come under severe criticism for her work and that of her students.