About Month of Kartika

Welcome and introduction to Kartika

0:00Namaḥ oṁ viṣṇa-pādāya kṛṣṇa-preṣṭhāya bhū-tale śrīmate bhaktivedānta-svāmin iti nāmine namaste sārasvate deve gaura-vāṇī-pracāriṇe nirviśeṣa-śūnyavādi-pāścātya-deśa-tāriṇe paschatya desha tari.

0:15Hare Krishna, dear devotees, all followers of Śrīla Prabhupāda, members of the International Society of Krishna Consciousness. I'm very happy to congratulate you with the approaching

0:32of Kārtika Māsa. This is the most important month of the year.

0:39We all know how important it is because Gauḍīya Vaiṣṇavas, especially for Gauḍīya Vaiṣṇavas, Gauḍīya Vaiṣṇavas, they take special Vratas, special vows to celebrate this month. This month is called Ūrja.

1:02This is another name of Kartika. Kārtika or Kṛttikā is the name of Śrīmatī Rādhārāṇī, but her other name is Urja, and therefore this month is sometimes called Ūrja-vrata or the vows of this month are called Ūrja-vrata.

1:22Ūrja means energy. This is especially, especially powerful months of the year in which we can feel

Purpose of taking spiritual vows

1:37the helping grace of Śrīmatī Rādhārāṇī. Why do we give special attention to certain days of the year or certain periods of the year?

1:53Because in these days the special energy is working, and we are trying to use this energy for advancement in our spiritual practices. Śrīmatī Rādhārāṇī is called Ūrja because she is the original energy of the Lord.

2:16She is Ādi-śakti. And being Ādi-śakti, being the śakti of His grace, His love, His mercy. She is especially easily pleased in this month, and when she is pleased, Krishna is automatically pleased.

2:34Therefore, by tradition, Gauḍīya Vaiṣṇavas they give special vows, they chant more rounds, sometimes they increase drastically the number of the rounds for one month. They also reject certain uh kinds of food.

3:02Like for example it is prohibited to eat and during Kārtika Māsa, tomatoes and even potatoes are not so good, which is bad news, and eggplants.

3:18There are so many other restrictions, but the main point is of course not to follow the restrictions. It's important, but not that important.

Lessons from churning the ocean

3:28The main point is to increase our positive input into the spiritual practices. It's not a coincidence that on this day, on this month, we also celebrate Kṣīrābdhi Maṅthana-līlā.

3:53The līlā about churning of the milk ocean by demons and demigods, described in the Eighth Canto of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. This whole līlā of mantana or churning milk ocean is the metaphor of our spiritual practice.

4:15By metaphor, I don't mean that this Lila didn't take place, it did take place, but this whole Lila is supposed to teach us uh how to conduct our spiritual practices.

4:30Uh while we are churning milk for a long time there is no results, but ultimately the result of churning comes, there is no doubt about it.

4:43In a similar way, when we chant the holy name, we may have an impression that nothing is happening, but in reality something very significant is happening, and by the end of this churning, one after another, the

4:59beautiful gifts were appearing from the milk ocean. Of course, the first gift of the churning or the first result of the churning was poison, and that's also a problem of our sadhana.

5:17But as we know, Lord Shiva drank the poison.

5:23In a similar way, the senior devotees, vaiṣṇavas, our spiritual masters, sometimes have to drink the poison which comes on the surface as a result of our spiritual practice, in the form of negative emotions, crises of faith which we have, so and so forth.

5:45But then after this very amazing fruits of our spiritual practices will come.

5:55And the main point of this līlā is, of course, not to be tempted by the temporary fruits of our spiritual practice, but always be focused on the final and the most important fruit of our spiritual practice that is love of God,

6:17which is symbolized in this līlā, is amṛta. Only love of God can make us really immortal. No material amṛta have this effect. And real amṛta is premāmṛta, the amṛta of prema.

Festivals celebrated during Kartika month

6:39And again it's not the coincidence that we are celebrating this līlā or commemorating this līlā in this month, and by the end of this month, particularly on trayodaśī and Dhanvantari, God, manifestation of God with a big pot of amṛta comes out to reward those who were engaged in spiritual practice.

7:22And we know that there are so many other festivals connected with this month.

7:29Rāsa-līlā took place on this in this month's, uh, Govardhana Lila, Damodarabandhana Lila, all these, uh, līlās, beautiful līlās, Bahulāṣṭamī līlā, all these līlās are the integral part of our celebration of Kartika.

Meaning of offering lamps and prayers

7:58And they all help us to meditate on the particular aspects of Krishna Leela and in this way deepen our connection with the holy name and with the Lord.

8:10And of course we are chanting beautiful Damodarāṣṭaka prayers the whole month and offering the lamps to the deity which is significant.

8:25This is the ritual which helps us to remember that in our heart the lamp, the light of Brahman has to be ignited.

8:40That ultimately we are by offering this lamp or this light to Krishna, we are reminding Him, please ignite the real light of Brahman within our heart. So, all this makes this month very special for us,

9:03and we would be very foolish or just inattentive if we would miss this wonderful opportunity to increase our dedication and to increase our devotional service.

9:22So let's do it and for sure the fruits of these vows will come to us. There is no doubt about it. Thank you very much. Śrīla Prabhupāda ki jaya!