Festive Talk

Lets Talk About Janmastami

Deepak N. Kotecha, an Optometrist by training and a devout Hindu.

I am delighted to share my thoughts briefly on Janmashtami, These can also be found in my new book ‘Hindus Awake’.

Janmashtami is celebrated by Hindus worldwide as the ‘birth’ of Lord Krishna. On the surface, Shri Krishna descends to alleviate the pain and suffering of His devotees and to re-establish dharam and righteousness by eliminating evil forces in society, the so-called “asurs” such as Maharaj Kans.

The deeper significance of Janmashtami is that Shri Krishna really needs to be manifested in our heart to help us root out the evils within us that has emerged from our attachment to Maya, or material creation. These ‘demons’ such as moha (attraction and attachment), kamnas and vasnas (desires for material gratification) lobha (greed), and so on are extremely powerful and impossible to completely root out without Krishna’s help and mercy.

On Janmashtami hence, the Supreme Lord Shri Krishna descends as Himself in the form of Nanda Nandan Shyam Sunder Ladoo Gopal for the pleasure of His devotees and to grant them moksh, or true salvation.

This is from my new book ‘Hindus Awake!’ which was inspired by my 4 year old son and was never meant to be published. My wife and family thought these thoughts may be useful to others as well.

The book is the first in a series of three, and focuses on basics of Hinduism and the “why” aspects of Hindu beliefs rather than the “what” which we are all likely very familiar with. It is written as a narrative in a conversational style of English (with all its conversational and grammatical faults) straight from the heart to keep it original, personal and easily readable.

They represent a middle-aged father’s rambling conversation (albeit one-sided) to his children in their tender baal-avastha to teach them about Hinduism, to spark their spirituality and devotion with a clearer understanding.