Karttika: Lord Krishna’s Favorite Month.
A time filled with love, devotion, and gratitude.
After going through the intense summer and a humid monsoon, we in India perceive sarat, or autumn, as one of the most beautiful seasons of the year. According to the vedic calendar, Sarat falls during the months of Asvin and Karttika, of which Karttika carries special significance because it is favored by Lord Krishna.
Everyone loves certain foods, drinks, clothes, and music, and Lord Krishna is no exception. In fact, we have our likes because we are parts of Krishna, who has His own personal likes. Krishna loves butter, yellow clothing, peacock feathers, cows, flutes, and the land of vrindavan. Similarly, of all months, He loves Karttika the best.
A Month of Love
Devotional service can be performed at any time, in any place, yet devotees know well that devotional service performed during Karttika is especially pleasing to the Lord. Therefore they perform additional austerities and devotional practices during this month. Although the vedic scriptures describe in detail material benefits one may derive by performing devotional service during Karttika, pure devotees of Lord Krishna have no interest in these. rather, they are interested only in pleasing the Lord. every year, ISKCON devotees eagerly await the arrival of Karttika, when they daily sing the Damodarastakam prayers and offer heartfelt love and devotion as they circle ghee lamps before the Lord. Throughout the month they are so immersed in the childhood pastimes of Krishna as damodara that you can hear them constantly sing about them.
The Damodarastakam prayers, composed by Satyavrata muni, beautifully describe the damodara pastime, in which Yasoda binds mischievous Krishna to a grinding mortar. The prayers also give information about God, His devotees, and the science of devotional service. The essential lessons we learn from the pastime and the Damodarastakam prayers is that the all-pervading, allpowerful Lord is easily conquered by the love of His devotee and that the love-saturated devotees desire nothing except to constantly hear and glorify His pastimes.
O Lord damodara, although You are able to give all kinds of benedictions, I do not pray to You for the boon of impersonal liberation, nor for the highest liberation of eternal life in vaikuntha, nor for any other, similar boon. o Lord, I simply wish that this form of Yours as baby Gopala in vrindavana may ever be manifest in my heart, for what is the use to me of any other boon besides thisn Your supremely enchanting face, encircled by shining locks of dark-blue curling hair, resembles the fully blossomed lotus tinged with a reddish luster due to its being kissed again and again by mother Yasoda. may this vision of Your lotus face, with lips as red as a bimba fruit, remain forever in my heart. millions of other benedictions are of no benefit to me. Damodarastakam 4–5
This prayer reveals the mood of pure devotional service and the life of pure devotees the essence and the sweetness of the month of Karttika.
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