[Advaita-l] Sal Mubarak!

[Jaldhar H. Vyas]

On Wed, 18 Oct 2017, KAMESWARARAO MULA via Advaita-l wrote:

> Diwali starts new year for Gujarat & Rajasthan and Vikram samvat starts 
> from tomorrowand special day

To be precise the Gujarati/Marwadi new year starts from the day after 
Diwali, today Kartika Shukla 1.  Thus this calendar is called Kartikadi 
Vikrama Samvata.  In Maharashtra (and some other places) they also use 
Vikrama Samvata as the era but Chaitradi.

On Thu, 19 Oct 2017, KAMESWARARAO MULA via Advaita-l wrote:

> It is celebrated in the name of ‘Goverdhan Puja’ in Northern India as
> Krishna lifted the ‘Goverdhan Parvat’ with a single finger and saved all
> his followers under thatfrom enemies.

The enemy was Indra.  As related in 10th Skandha of Bhagavata Purana, the 
villagers of Vraj used to make offering to Indra.  Krshna Bhagavan 
suggested they should make them to Mt. Govardhan instead.  This made Indra 
angry and began torrential rains which would have flooded the people out 
of house and home.  So Krshna Bhagavan lifted up the mountain to give 
them shelter as you wrote.

This is a particularly important utsava for the Pushti Margiya Vaishnavas 
(followers of Vallabha) as their principal deity is Krshna as 
Govardhananathji.  (Due to Muslim depredations, He is now located at 
Nathdwara in Rajasthan.)  The cultural influence has spread outside the 
sampradaya and all the Gujarati mandirs commemorate the event with 
"Annakuta"; making a "mountain" of different food items.


Best wishes to all Advaita-l readers for V.S. 2074 (Saumya nama 
samvatsara.)

-- 
Jaldhar H. Vyas <jaldhar at braincells.com>