WHAT IS NAAG PANCHAMI ? WHY WE CELEBRATE NAAG PANCHAMI ?

    Most of us know how the festival of Naag Panchami is celebrated in most parts of the country. However, rarely does anyone know why, when and how did this festival originate. Jagadguru Shri Kripalu Ji Maharaj, out of His extreme grace and kindness, shed light on the origin of this festival.

Once, King Pareekshit was hunting in a forest. Tired and thirsty, he entered the ashram of a sage Semeeka with the hope to get some water to quench his thirst. The sage however was engrossed in deep meditation and could not hear the king repeatedly asking for water. Pareekshit, was the emperor of the entire Earth. Never in his life had he been so disrespectfully ignored. He misunderstood the sage’s silence to be a great insult to him. In a fit of fury, he picked up a dead snake and put it around the meditating sage’s neck (to insult him) and left the Ashram.

As soon as he left, the sage’s sons came back after a bath in the river and were infuriated seeing a dead snake hanging around their father’s neck. One of his son, Shringi, went into meditation, to find the offender who had committed this unpardonable offense. Realizing that King Pareekshit was the offender, he put a curse on King Pareekshit that he will die due to being bitten by a vicious snake named Takchhak, after seven days.

When sage Semeeka came out of his meditation, he learnt about the incident and the curse put on Pareekshit by his son Shringi. Sage Semeeka was shocked to hear that such a just, religious and king has been cursed to die in seven days. He reprimanded his son saying an austere must not become a victim of anger. One can lose all his hard earned religious merits, by one wrong action taken in anger. However, the sage was also aware that Shringis’s curse was irrevocable as he was “Satya Vaak Paripaalak”. Out of mercy and kindness towards the pious king, sage Semeeka sent his disciple Gaurmukh to inform Pareekshit about the curse of Shringi.

Pareekshit realized his mistake and after crowning his son Janmejaias the king, left his kingdom and family members, to retire to the forest and repent for his misdoing. There he heard a seven day discourse of Shrimad Bhaagwat Mahapuran from Swami Shukdev Paramhans. As per the curse, he was bitten by the poisonous snake Takchhak on the seventh day, but by the grace of Swami Shukdev Paramhans, he had already achieved the ultimate goal of life.

Meanwhile, Janmejai was infuriated by his father’s death. He decided to conduct a yagya, in which he incited all the snakes to come out from their burrows and fall into the yagyafire. Many snakes died like that.Eventually, Sage Narad came over and inquired about the cause of Janmejai’s ruthless actions. Janmejai narrated the entire story and indicated that he was avenging his father’s death. Narad Ji explained to him that by killing all snakes, he was transgressing against God since this was an interruption to God’s creation. He also advised him that the scriptures proclaim that one should be merciful towards everyone. Janmejai on the other hand was torturing the entire species of snakes!! He said, “if you are angry, kill that snake who bit your father. Why kill other innocent snakes”.

Then for the atonement of his sin, Narad ji suggested Janmejai to put an end to this cruel yagya and seek forgiveness by worshiping all remaining snakes. Janmejai stopped his Yagya and worshipped all the remaining snakes respectfully.

This story inspires us to control anger, be just and merciful to all creatures. Misuse of powers, especially on helpless creatures, is a great sin.

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नाग पंचमी का महत्व | What is the meaning of Nag Panchami? | with ENGLISH | Jagadguru Shri Kripalu Ji

श्री महाराज जी का पहला जगद्गुरुत्तम दिवस

 १९५७ में जगद्गुरु बनने के पश्चात १९५८ में श्री महाराज जी का पहला जगद्गुरुत्तम दिवस आगरा में मनाया गया था। आगरा में महाराज जी अपने अंतरंग भक्त मास्टर वसुदेव सहाय लवानिया की कोठी में निवास करते थे। मास्टर साहब की कोठी अत्यंत सुन्दर थी व उसमे एक विशाल भवन था जिसमे प्रायः रात भर का कीर्तन होता था।

एक बार श्री महाराज जी सत्संगियों के साथ लॉन में बैठे थे। उन्होंने एक सत्संगी की और देख कर कहा 'आज ही के दिन मुझे काशी में जगद्गुरु की पदवी मिली थी'। सत्संगियों ने सोचा की यह तो बहुत ही हर्ष का दिन है ! हमे अवश्य इस त्यौहार को उत्साह से मानना चाहिए !

सत्संगियों ने मिलकर श्री महाराज जी का एक सुन्दर आसान बनाया और उसको फूलों से सजाया। सारे सत्संगियों की विनती से श्री महाराज जी उस पर विराजित हुए। इसी उपलक्ष पर श्री महाराज जी के एक प्रचारक श्री प्रियदर्शी जी ने 'जगद्गुरु आरती' की रचना की। महाराज जी की प्रथम आरती भी इसी दिन से प्रारम्भ हुई। आरती के पश्चात उनका पूजन हुआ।

सत्संगियों ने सोचा की इस उपलक्ष में अपने गुरु को क्या भेंट दे.. हमारे पास है ही क्या उनको देने लायक ? हरि एवं गुरु को एक ही चीज़ प्रिय है - निष्काम प्रेम के आँसू। यह सोच कर सत्संगियों ने रात भर करुणा पूर्वक कीर्तन किया जिसमें श्री महाराज जी स्वयं उपस्थित थे। बीच बीच में उनके दिव्य भावावेश अवस्थाओं के भी दर्शन प्राप्त हुए। इस प्रकार श्री महाराज जी का प्रथम जगद्गुरु दिवस मनाया गया

After receiving the title of Jagadguruttam in 1957, the first Jagadguruttam Diwas was celebrated the following year in Agra. Shri Maharaj Ji primary residence in Agra was the home of Master Vasudev Lavaniya. Master Ji's home was a large mansion where Shri Maharaj Ji would often conduct all night keertans.

Once on 14th January in 1958, Shri Maharaj Ji was sitting in the lawn with many devotees. He casually looked at a devotee and said, "You know, last year on this day I recieved the title of Jagadguruttam in Kashi". All the devotees were ecstatic to hear that today was that auspicious day. They all thought of celebrating in a grand fashion!

The devotees built a beautiful large throne of flowers and requested Maharaj Ji to be seated. A preacher of Shri Maharaj Ji, Swami Priyadarshi Ji, composed the Jagadguru aarti (the one we sing today) and offered it at His lotus feet. This was also the very first time Maharaj Ji's aarti was sung.

After aarti, Shri Maharaj Ji's poojan was done. Then all the devotees thought of offering something to Maharaj Ji as a gift, but what can us material souls offer? God and Guru are only pleased by selfless love. Thinking this the devotees performed an all night sankeertan, shedding tears of love. Shri Maharaj Ji was overjoyed!

Jagadguru Shri Kripalu Ji Maharaj.

 

• There is only one God, who is known by various names such as God, Brahman, Ishwar, Bhagwan, Khuda, Allah, Ahurmazda and so on. God is the supreme divine entity who is almighty, omniscient, omnipresent, all-pervading and an unfathomable ocean of bliss.
• All the living beings are inseparable and eternal parts of blissful God. Thus, the inherent nature of all living beings is to constantly desire happiness.
• The mundane or material world is exists for the welfare of your material self and senses. The happiness of the senses experienced in the world is not YOUR happiness. The Vedic scriptures explain that you are not the body; you are the divine soul. So "You" or "I" or the "self" refers to the soul. We accept this fact only at the time of someone's death, when we realize that the person has gone yet his body still remains here.
• The only way to attain true happiness is to love God wholeheartedly, with exactly the same quality of relational love we would express towards our spouse, parents, or children.
• God is formless, yet He descends in many human forms with all his divine powers to deliver the material beings. It is impossible to love a formless God.
• All-merciful God has given us freedom to love Him in His personal form as a master, friend, son, beloved or husband.
• The most complete, best and easiest way to love God as taught by us is explained in the book Philosophy Of Divine Love by Jagadguru Shri Kripalu Ji Maharaj.

pichla bigara sab govind radhe, guru ki sharan gahi agala bana de

All our births prior to this one have been spoiled. During those lifetimes, our actions, karma were wrong. We performed both good and bad actions and both of these bind the soul in maya. We did not practice devotion, the action that would have freed us from maya. This didn’t happen just once or twice. This human form, which could have enabled us to progress spiritually, was received by us uncountable times. Instead of advancing, our situation became even worse. Why? God has given the greatest power of knowledge to the human form. No other life form has this great asset. As a result, we can understand the philosophy of the Vedas and other scriptures. If we were to give a lecture to an animal, what would people say? “That person has gone fully mad! He’s trying to speak to animals!”

Leaving aside the celestial gods, the human form has the greatest capacity for knowledge. The celestial gods have other greater powers, but they do have the ability to perform new fruit-yielding actions, karma which would enable them to advance spiritually. Instead they are only subject to the consequences of their past actions performed in a human birth. What does this mean?

Let’s say you saved 100,000 rupees in the bank. You stopped depositing money and little by little you started withdrawing it. Every month, without any tension, you took out 10,000 rupees. After 10 months you went to the teller at the bank and he said, “Guard! Remove this man from the bank!” You said, “Wait a minute! You have respectfully been giving me 10,000 rupees every month for the last 10 months.” “Yes, well now your account is empty. What have you come to take? You are wasting my time!” Similarly, someone who enters the celestial abodes only enjoys the consequences of good actions they earned in a human birth. Those consequences eventually come to an end and then he must leave.