Janmashtami – Appearance day of Lord Sri Krishna

The Janmashtami festival is celebrated on the eighth day (Ashtami) of the Krishna Paksha (dark fortnight) of the month of Shravan (August–September) in the Hindu calendar. This weekend is going to be a very busy, exciting and happy time of the year. This is the biggest event of the year organised by ISKCON- Melbourne. Thousands of people visit the temple and there is a continuous prasadam distribution that will be happening all over the weekend. I do little bit of volunteer work at the temple. There will be cultural programs, children activities, dramas and other events. Luckily, this year Janmashtami happens to come on the weekend and the temple authorities decided to conduct the program for two days. Probably, the highlight of the whole program will be the mid night darshan, when a number of devotees fill the temple room and pay their respects to Lord Krishna. The atmosphere will be electrifying, with hundreds of devotees singing the Kirtans glorifying Lord Krishna who made his appearance 5000 years ago in Mathura,India. Just like Sun rises every day and sets in the evening, Lord Krishna makes his appearance and disappearance in one universe and goes on to do the same thing in other universes for the pleasure of his devotees.

A verse from Bhagavad Gita Chapter 4, text 6 the Lord says

ajo 'pi sann avyayatma
bhutanam isvaro 'pi san
prakrtim svam adhisthaya
sambhavamy atma-mayaya
Translation:- Although I am unborn and My transcendental body never deteriorates, and although I am the Lord of all sentient beings, I still appear in every millennium in My original transcendental form.

If you are in Melbourne, do visit the temple. It is actually, amazing to see so many people coming from all parts of Melbourne. It’s a time to catch up with lot of old friends and some of them come only once a year, on this day and do as much service as they can. Of course, there are number of service opportunities for someone interested. Overall, I can assure you that it will be a spiritually rewarding experience and the best weekend break you can get.