Happy Radhastmi

[Ganeshprasad]

Pranam all

Radhastami is the holy day of appearance of Srimati Radharani, the consort of Lord Krishna. Radhastami is celebrated on the eighth day (ashtami) of bright fortnight in the month of Bhadrapada (August- September).

Radhe Radhe Radhe Shyam ko milade

Jai Shree Krishna

[Rasa1976]

Jaya All Glories to Srimate Radharani! Happy Radhastami! Jaya Gauranga! Jaya parakiya-rasa jaya svakiya-rasa!

Radhe Krishna Radhe Krishna Krishna Krishna Radhe Radhe
Radhe Shyama Radhe Shyama Shyam Shyam Radhe Radhe

[Believer]

Happy Radhashtami to one and all!

[Odion]

Happy Radhashtami, everyone!

[Ganeshprasad]

Pranam all

Radhe Radhe Radhe Shyam ko milade

This year Radhastmi falls on Monday the 5th, check for local time, may differ in other places.

Radhe Radhe Radhe Barsanevali Radhe

Jai Shree Krishna

[Jainarayan]

Namaste Ganeshprasad.

Thank you for posting the date. I would have missed it and been sorely disappointed. I will do the fast and observe the day of Srimati Radharani's birth, as I did for Janmastami. Happy Radhastami, and may the Divine Couple bless everyone.

[smaranam]

RAdhe RAdhe RAdhe BarsAnewAli RAdhe

Radhashtami is on the 4th in some places - please check VaishNav calendars.

Fast till noon only.

What does dear lovely RAdhe like ? Light pink roses, mewA (dry fruits and nuts) and rose lassi (i would say anything with rose essense).

To tell you the truth we can kid Her that She lives on "air" ("space" ?) and attention from Her Mohan (Shri KrushNa). She has no consciousness of food, but Hari leaves one-third of His plate for Her.

I have a RAdhArANi's rose shrub in the back that yields light pink roses just for KrushNa - touch wood. I pay obeissances (praNAms) to this tree as she exists, lives just for Shri KrushNa, gives beautiful pink flowers just for KrushNa. They start off as darker buds and become pastel as they bloom.

How can the flowers NOT remind KrushNa of His Beloved RAdhe ? They ARE Her.

I shall tell you a secret. That rose tree IS RAdhArANi svayam, Herself, Who does not want to take any chances and wants to make sure KrushNa is offered a pink flower. So She comes here as a tree ! If one wants to know what humility is, just look at VrushabhAnavi, Shrimati RAdhikA.

She, jagat janani, makes sure all kitchens have the food prepared just right for MadhusUdan. That all Deity dresses are made just right for Kamalnayan.
That the pujaris add rose essence to His abhishek (bath) water. That the sakhis and sakhAs keep Him engaged - stealing His bAnsuri (flute), playing indoor and outdoor games (and He lets the gopa boys win as He loses on purpose), and marvel when He calls the cows back with His madhur flute.

All about Shrimati RAdhikA - appearance, qualities, stava stotra, thousand names...


rAdhe jaya jaya mAdhava dayite
gokul taruNi mandala mahite
dAmodara-rati vardhan veshe
hari ni[sh]kuTa vrundA vipineshe

vrushabhAnu dadhi nava shashilekhe
lalitA-sakhi guNa ramita vishAkhe

rAdhe jaya jaya mAdhava dayite

karuNAm kurumayi karuNA-bharite
saNaka sanAtana varNita charite

rAdhe jaya jaya mAdhava dayite

- from Rupa Goswami's RAdhA stava stotra

H. H. LoknAth Swami Maharaj singing Radhe Jaya Jaya at New Dehli
RamyA-Devi DAsi singing Radhe Jaya Jaya
Radhika stava In Raag Desh / Des

Jai Jai Shri Shri Radhe Shyam ~

_/\_

[Jainarayan]

Namaste smaranam.

Radhashtami is on the 4th in some places - please check VaishNav calendars.

Good point. The temple near me, that I would go to, is always a day ahead. They had Janmashtami on Sunday 8/21. Their calendar shows astami @ 12N today. They show Lakshmi Puja on Tues. 10/25. But they showed Ganesh Chaturthi on 9/1. Maybe it has something to do with time in India? But IST is only 9.5 hours ahead of us (EDT). It's 8:36 pm in India.



If today is indeed Radhashtami, I won't be prepared by noon.

Fast till noon only.

Aw rats! I had coffee and water this morning, but nothing else.

But I guess it's not the minutiae, rather the devotion that counts.

[smaranam]

Namaste smaranam.

Good point. The temple near me, that I would go to, is always a day ahead. They had Janmashtami on Sunday 8/21. Their calendar shows astami @ 12N today. They show Lakshmi Puja on Tues. 10/25. But they showed Ganesh Chaturthi on 9/1. Maybe it has something to do with time in India? But IST is only 9.5 hours ahead of us (EDT). It's 8:36 pm in India.

Namaste TouchedByTheLord

I am not well versed in these lunar tithi calculations - YajvanJi is the right person to ask i suppose. There are 2 things to consider : nakshatra and lunar tithi for the local place - longitude.

From what i understand, the local sunrise and sunset times have to capture the lunar tithi at the particular longitude. (The solar time zones IST, EST, CST are just for our daily operational convenience.)

So, given this, ekadashis for instance, are often a day earlier in the western hemisphere acc. to the VaishNav calendars.

Janmashtami is a special case: VaishNav calendars emphasize on the Nakshatra - RohiNi nakshatra has to be in the "sky" wherever you are, when KrushNa is born - at midnight. This happened on 21st Aug in the western hemisphere this year.

The Hindu Temple where i live, however, always has Janmashtami abhishek on the day (evening) after Gokulashtami (TWO days after the VaishNav Janmashtami). I always thought that was strange.

The reason is: these temples consider the local tithi of ashtami and not RohiNi nakshatra. 5300 yrs ago when Shri KrushNa was born, both conditions were true at the same time. This is what i was told. This coincides more with your calculation of being 9.5 hrs behind India. So, ashTami on east coast USA should be about 9.5 hrs after ashTami starts in India by this logic.

However, there is some remaining discrepancy to be figured out - about the Gaurabda calendars. This post gives the impetus to do just that.

JAi Shri KrushNa
praNAm

[Jainarayan]

Namaste smaranam, and thanks.

I did figure out, after much agonizing and overthinking when and how Janmashtami falls. Asking my co-worker when his family was going to celebrate it helped. And of course now I know Radhashtami is exactly two weeks later.

Now I can see why all the confusion and discrepancies.... global locations, and as you said 5,300 years intervening. A lot of astronomical motions and positions can change in that time. I have to hand it to the astronomers and astrologers who chart all this.

I did my own little version of Radhasthami devotion. I did the fast, picked some pink roses from my front yard, offered sweets, lights, incense, and prayers to Sri Sri Radha Krishna. I was happy to be able to do it. This is my first "round" of holy days; by next Janmashtami I will have gone through a full yearly cycle.

Namaste TouchedByTheLord

I am not well versed in these lunar tithi calculations - YajvanJi is the right person to ask i suppose. There are 2 things to consider : nakshatra and lunar tithi for the local place - longitude.

From what i understand, the local sunrise and sunset times have to capture the lunar tithi at the particular longitude. (The solar time zones IST, EST, CST are just for our daily operational convenience.)

So, given this, ekadashis for instance, are often a day earlier in the western hemisphere acc. to the VaishNav calendars.

Janmashtami is a special case: VaishNav calendars emphasize on the Nakshatra - RohiNi nakshatra has to be in the "sky" wherever you are, when KrushNa is born - at midnight. This happened on 21st Aug in the western hemisphere this year.

The Hindu Temple where i live, however, always has Janmashtami abhishek on the day (evening) after Gokulashtami (TWO days after the VaishNav Janmashtami). I always thought that was strange.

The reason is: these temples consider the local tithi of ashtami and not RohiNi nakshatra. 5300 yrs ago when Shri KrushNa was born, both conditions were true at the same time. This is what i was told. This coincides more with your calculation of being 9.5 hrs behind India. So, ashTami on east coast USA should be about 9.5 hrs after ashTami starts in India by this logic.

However, there is some remaining discrepancy to be figured out - about the Gaurabda calendars. This post gives the impetus to do just that.

JAi Shri KrushNa
praNAm