Janmashtami greetings

 Hari Aum.

The coming two days are celebrated in the yogic calendar as 'Janmashtami', the birthday of Sri Krishna. He was born at midnight on the eighth day of the month known as 'Bhadrapada' (the sixth month of the lunar calendar). This year, this occurs on the night of September 6/early hours of September 7. ('Janma' means 'birth' in Sanskrit, and 'ashtami' means eighth lunar day).

This day is regarded as very auspicious. It is a very good day to take stock of our spiritual lives and reflect upon the direction in which we are headed.

It is a wonderful day for the renewal of spiritual vows, to reaffirm our commitment to spiritual life and to make new plans and pledges for spiritual practice. 

The birthday of Sri Krishna, who is regarded as Yogeshvara, the lord of yogis, and Jagadguru, the Guru of the universe, is best celebrated by renewing our commitment to attain the spiritual goal of life, the goal that He Himself declared is the main purpose of human existence.

I am making a mini-pledge at this time regarding my mantra purascharana practice. Recently, I slightly increased the daily malas of japa from seven to a modest nine per day. I hope and pray to be able to keep this up for the remainder of this purascharana. Although a small increase per day, it will reduce the time taken to complete the purascharana by around six months. I feel this is doable based upon my current work and home commitments (fingers crossed it stays that way). I will of course also keep up the Mother Lakshmi mantra as I had planned throughout this practice.

For those who are yet to experiment with an extended mantra japa practice, I would like to say that this is a very good time to make a start. There cannot be a better 'muhurtha' than Janmashtami to seek Lord Krishna's blessings and embark enthusiastically upon spiritual life.

As Sivananda says, 'Life is short and time is fleeting'. There will never be a perfect time to begin spiritual life and make spiritual commitments. Now or never as they say! 

With His blessings, obtained by our earnest efforts, we are all bound to succeed regardless of where we currently are in our spiritual lives. As He says in the Gita, He ensures that His devotee never perishes. He gives an assurance that He protects, preserves and augments the spiritual progress of the devotee who seeks refuge in Him.

Just to add, as usual, in celebration of this happy occasion, I am making the Kindle books that I have written on the life of Sri Krishna as described in the Srimad Bhagavatam available for free download from the Amazon website (the dates for the download are from midnight PDT on Sept 7 to Sept 11 inclusive, i.e. five days). https://www.amazon.com/stores/Vishnupriya-Devi/author/B07B95YQCV?ref=ap_rdr&store_ref=ap_rdr&isDramIntegrated=true&shoppingPortalEnabled=true

I wish all readers a very happy and spiritually productive Janmashtami. May Lord Krishna, the Master householder yogi, bless all of us with sound progress in our spiritual lives. 

Om Namo Bhagavate Sivanandaya.

Om Namo Bhagavate Vasudevaya.

Om Namo Narayanaya.

Hari Aum Tat Sat.