International society for Krishna Consciousness

Founder Acharya, His Divine Grace

A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada

Sri Sri Radhagopinath Mandir,

7 K.M. Munshi Marg, Girgaon Chowpatty, Mumbai.
E-mail: btgchowpatty@gmail.com
Grateful for the Artwork, Sloka, translation
courtesy of
The Bhaktivedanta Book Trust international.
All rights reserved
 Table of Contents

Importance of Damodara-vrata
How to observe Damodara-vrata
Benefits of offering a ghee lamp to
Lord Damodara
The Binding of Sri Damodara
Sri Damodarastakam
Other auspicious events during
the month of Kartika
The Gopi Geet
 Importance of Damodara-vrata
In the Padma Purana there is a statement that one
should perform the ceremonies for the Lord according
to oneís financial position. Everyone should observe the
different ceremonies and celebrations of the Lord by all
means. One of the most important of these ceremonial
functions is called Urja-vrata. Urja-vrata (also known as
Damodara-vrata) is observed in the month of Kartika
(October-November); especially in Vrindavana, there is
a specific program for temple worship of the Lord in His
Damodara form. In Sanskrit, dama means rope and
udara means belly. Damodara refers to Krishnaís being
bound with a rope by His mother, Yashoda. It is said that
just as Lord Damodara is very dear to His devotees, so
the month known as Damodara or Kartika is also very
dear to them. Devotees observe vows and undertake
austerities in the month of Kartika to please the
Supreme Lord. The Padma Purana records the
following statement of Suta Gosvami: If anyone fasts
and observes the Damodara-vrata according to the
rules and regulations, the Yamadutas (the messengers
of Yamaraja) run away from him. The performance of
Damodara-vrata is better than performing one hundred
great sacrifices as prescribed in the Vedic scriptures.
Kartika is the best of the months and is very dear to
Lord Sri Krishna. Srimati Radharani is the presiding
Deity of this month. Any vrata observed in this month will
yield more results and the effect of performing such
vrata will last for one hundred life times. It is said that
the pious results obtained by bathing in all the holy
places and giving various charities is not equal to even
one ten-millionth part of the result obtained by following
the vow of Kartika. Anyone who worships Lord Vishnu in
this month gets a residence in Vaikuntha. One who hears
the narration related to Lord Hari in this month becomes
free from the sufferings of hundreds and millions of
births.

How to observe
Damodara-vrata
The procedure to observe Damodara-vrata is given
below: Wake up early in the morning and take bath. The
Padma Purana says: ìOne who bathes early in the
morning during the month of Kartika attains the merit of
bathing in all places of pilgrimage.î Chant more rounds of
Hare Krishna maha-mantra. You can optionally observe
a fasting vow during this month. Gaudiya Vaishnavas fast
from urad dhal for the whole month of Kartika. In the
Skanda Purana, Lord Brahma informs Narada Muni:
ìOne should follow Kartika fast and listen to
narrations of Lord Sri Hari.î Read the 9th and 10th
chapter of the book Krishna, the Supreme Personality of
Godhead, authored by His Divine Grace A. C.
Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, which speaks about
the pastime of Lord Damodara in detail. A summary of
the pastime is also given in this booklet.
Cook varieties of vegetarian food stuffs and offer to
Lord Damodara. Perform Damodara-arati daily. You can
sing the Damodara-ashtaka and offer a ghee lamp to
Lord Damodara. The Damodara-ashtaka song is there
in this booklet, also one can recite Gopi Geet in this
month daily following the footsteps of vrajavasis. In
vraja, vrajavasis recite this throughout the month.

Benefits of offering a
ghee lamp to Lord Damodara
In the Padma Purana it is said: ìAnyone who offers a
ghee lamp to Lord Damodara in the month of Kartika will
be freed from all kinds of sins and he goes to the abode
of Lord Hari.î The glories of offering ghee-lamp is
elaborately described in the next section. You can also
offer a ghee lamp to Tulasidevi and pray for eternal
service at the lotus feet of Radha and Krishna. You may
also invite your neighbors, relatives and friends to
participate in this sacred Damodara-arati and give them
an opportunity to offer ghee lamps to Lord Damodara
and accept the prasadam of the Lord. Glories of
offering ghee lamp in Kartika month, the following
references are from the Skanda Purana (a
conversation between Lord Brahma and Sage Narada)
If one offers a ghee lamp to Damodara in the month of
Kartika, his sins of many thousands and millions of
births perish. Even if no mantras are chanted, no pious
deeds performed and no purity observed, everything
becomes perfect when a person offers a lamp during
the month of Kartika. Offering a lamp to Lord Keshava
in the month of Kartika is equivalent to performing all
yajnas and bathing in all holy rivers. When someone
pleases Lord Keshava by offering Him a lamp during
the month of Kartika, then by the mercy of the Lord, the
ancestors in the family will all attain liberation. To one
who, either at home or in a temple, offers a lamp during
this month, Lord Vasudeva gives a great result. Person
who offers a lamp to Lord Krishna during the month of
Damodara becomes very glorious and fortunate. No sins
exist anywhere in the three worlds that will not be purified
by offering a lamp to Lord Keshava during Kartika. A
person who offers a lamp to Lord Damodara during
Kartika attains the eternal spiritual world where there is
no suffering.

The Binding of Sri Damodara

Once when mother Yashoda was feeding her lovely son
Krishna, she noticed that the milk on the stove was
overflowing, So she put Krishna down and went to attend
to this. Left alone by His mother, Krishna became very
angry and broke the pot of yogurt kept there for churning
to make butter. He went inside his home and took butter
from the pot kept hanging from the roof and He began to
eat the butter thinking that mother Yashoda will not find
him in that secluded place. Mother Yashoda search
Krishna all over. She found her son sitting on a big
wooden grinding mortar kept upside down. On seeing His
mother with a stick in her hand, Krishna got down from
the grinding mortar and began to flee in fear. Mother
Yashoda chased Him to all corners, trying to capture the
Supreme Personality of Godhead, who is never
approached even by the meditation of great yogis. The
Supreme Lord was playing just like a little child for such a
great devotee as Mother Yashoda. Finally, Mother
Yashoda caught Krishna. Krishna was almost on the
point of crying. His eyes became restless out of fear.
Seeing that her son was fearful, Mother Yashoda threw
away the stick. To punish Him, she thought to bind Him
with ropes. She did not know that it is actually
impossible for her to bind the Supreme Lord. When she
tried to bind Him, she found that the rope was always
short by two fingers. She gathered more ropes from the
house and joined them, but still she found the same
shortage. In attempting to bind her son, she became
tired. Then Lord Krishna appreciated the hard labor of
His mother, and being compassionate upon her, He
agreed to be bound up by the ropes. Krishna, playing as
a human child in the house of mother Yashoda, was
performing His own selected pastimes. Of course, no
one can control the Supreme Personality of Godhead.
But He agrees to be controlled by His pure devotees.
Srila Visvanatha Chakravarti Thakura says that the
incident of Krishnaís breaking the pot of yogurt and
being bound by mother Yashoda took place on the
Deepavali Day. This pastime is elaborately described in
the ninth chapter of the tenth canto of Srimad
Bhagavatam.
 Sri Damodarastakam
(Found in the Padma Purana of Krishna Dvaipayana
Vyasa, spoken by Satyavrata Muni in a conversation with
Narada Muni and Saunaka Rsi)
ìIn the month of Kartika one should worship Lord
Damodara and daily recite the prayer known as
Damodarastaka, which has been spoken by the sage
Satyavrata and which attracts Lord Damodara.î
(Sri Hari-bhakti-vilasa 2.16.198)

Text One
namamisvaram sac-cid-ananda-rupam
lasat-kundalam gokule bhrajamanam
Yashoda-bhiyolukhalad dhavamanam
paramrstam atyantato drutya gopya

TRANSLATION
To the Supreme Lord, whose form is the embodiment of
eternal existence, knowledge, and bliss, whose shark-
shaped earrings are swinging to and fro, who is
beautifully shining in the divine realm of Gokula, who [due
to the offense of breaking the pot of yogurt that His
mother was churning into butter and then stealing the
butter that was kept hanging from a swing] is quickly
running from the wooden grinding mortar in fear of
mother Yashoda, but who has been caught from behind
by her who ran after Him with greater speed-to that
Supreme Lord, Sri Damodara, I offer my humble
obeisanceís.
 Text Two
rudantam muhur netra-yugmam mrjantam
karambhoja-yugmena satanka-netram
muhuh svasa-kampa-trirekhanka-kantha-
sthita-graivam damodaram bhakti-baddham
TRANSLATION
[Seeing the whipping stick in His motherís hand,] He is
crying and rubbing His eyes again and again with His
two lotus hands. His eyes are filled with fear, and the
necklace of pearls around His neck, which is marked
with three lines like a conch shell, is shaking because of
His quick breathing due to crying. To this Supreme Lord,
Sri Damodara, whose belly is bound not with ropes but
with His motherís pure love, I offer my humble
obeisanceís.

Text Three
itidrk sva-lilabhir ananda-kunde
sva-ghosam nimajjantam akhyapayantam
tadiyesita-jnesu bhaktair jitatvam
punah prematas tam satavrtti vande

TRANSLATION
By such childhood pastimes as this He is drowning the
inhabitants of Gokula in pools of ecstasy, and is
revealing to those devotees who are absorbed in
knowledge of His supreme majesty and opulence that
He is only conquered by devotees whose pure love is
imbued with intimacy and is free from all conceptions of
awe and reverence. With great love I again offer my
obeisanceís to Lord Damodara hundreds and hundreds
of times.
 Text Four
varam deva moksam na moksavadhim va
na canyam vrne ëham varesad apiha
idam te vapur natha gopala-balam
sada me manasy avirastam kim anyaih

TRANSLATION
O Lord, although You are able to give all kinds of
benedictions, I do not pray to You for the boon of
impersonal liberation, nor the highest liberation of eternal
life in Vaikuntha, nor any other boon [which may be
obtained by executing the nine processes of bhakti]. O
Lord, I simply wish that this form of Yours as Bala Gopala
in Vrindavan may ever be manifest in my heart, for what
is the use to me of any other boon besides this?

Text Five
idam te mukhambhojam atyanta-nilair
vrtam kuntalaih snigdha-raktais ca gopya
muhus cumbitam bimba-raktadharam me
manasy avirastam alam laksa-labhaih

TRANSLATION
O Lord, Your lotus face, which is encircled by locks of
soft black hair tinged with red, is kissed again and again
by mother Yashoda, and Your lips are reddish like the
bimba fruit. May this beautiful vision of Your lotus face be
ever manifest in my heart. Thousands and thousands of
other benedictions are of no use to me.
 Text Six
namo deva damodarananta visno
prasida prabho duhkha-jalabdhi-magnam
krpa-drsti-vrstyati-dinam batanu
grhanesa mam ajnam edhy aksi-drsyah

TRANSLATION
O Supreme Godhead, I offer my obeisanceís unto You.
O Damodara! O Ananta! O Vishnu! O master! O my
Lord, be pleased upon me. By showering Your glance of
mercy upon me, deliver this poor ignorant fool who is
immersed in an ocean of worldly sorrows, and become
visible to my eyes.

Text Seven
kuveratmajau baddha-murtyaiva yadvat
tvaya mocitau bhakti-bhajau krtau ca
tatha prema-bhaktim svakam me prayaccha
na mokse graho me ësti damodareha

TRANSLATION
O Lord Damodara, just as the two sons of Kuvera-
Manigriva and Nalakuvara-were delivered from the
curse of Narada and made into great devotees by You
in Your form as a baby tied with rope to a wooden
grinding mortar, in the same way, please give to me
Your own prema-bhakti. I only long for this and have no
desire for any kind of liberation.
 Text Eight
namas te ëstu damne sphurad-dipti-dhamne
tvadiyodarayatha visvasya dhamne
namo radhikayai tvadiya-priyayai
namo ënanta-lilaya devaya tubhyam

TRANSLATION
O Lord Damodara, I first of all offer my obeisanceís to
the brilliantly effulgent rope which binds Your belly. I
then offer my obeisanceís to Your belly, which is the
abode of the entire universe. I humbly bow down to
Your most beloved Srimati Radharani, and I offer all
obeisanceís to You, the Supreme Lord, who displays
unlimited pastimes.
 Other auspicious events
during the month of Kartika
*Bahulastami commemorates the appearance of
Shyama kunda and Radha kunda.

*The Deepavali festival takes place on the dark-moon

night in the month of Kartika.

*Go puja and Govardhan puja are celebrated after

Deepavali

* The disappearance anniversary (tirobhava

divasa) of His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta
Swami Prabhupada is observed two days after
Govardhan puja.

*Gopastami is celebrated on the bright fortnight eighth

day.

*Utthana-ekadasi is also the disappearance day of

Srila Gaura Kishora Dasa Babaji. The last five days of
Kartika are called Bhishma panchaka.

*Utthana-dvadasi takes place the day after ekadasi in

the waxing fortnight of the moon in Kartika.

* The Rasa-yatra, or rasa dancing of Krishna takes

place on the full-moon night of Kartika.

*During the month of Kartika, Maharaja Ambarisa

worshiped the supreme personality of Godhead, Hari, in
Madhuvana after observing a vow for one year.
 The Gopi Geet
(The Gopisí Songs of Separation SB 10.31
Summary)
This chapter relates how the gopis, overwhelmed by
feelings of separation from Krishna, sat down on the
bank of the Yamuna and began praying for His audience
and singing His glories.
Because the gopis had dedicated their minds and very
lives to Krishna, they were beside themselves with the
transcendental pain of separation. But their crying, which
appears like evidence of misery, actually shows their
exalted state of transcendental bliss. As it is said, yata
dekha vaisnaver vyavahara duhkh/ niscaya janiha sei
paramananda sukh: ìWhenever one sees a Vaisnava
acting unhappy, one should know it for sure that he is
actually experiencing the highest spiritual bliss.î Thus
each of the gopis began addressing Lord Sri Krishna
according to her individual mode of ecstasy, and they all
prayed for Him for His mercy.
As the pastimes of Krishna spontaneously arose in
the minds of the gopis, they sang their song, which
relieves the agony of those suffering from the burning
pain of separation from Krishna and which bestows
supreme auspiciousness. They sang, ìO Lord, O lover,
O cheater, when we remember Your smile, Your loving
glances and Your pastimes with Your boyhood friends,
we become extremely agitated. Remembering Your lotus
face, adorned with locks of blackish hair smeared with
the dust of the cows, we become irrevocably attached to
You. And when we remember how You followed the cows
from forest to forest with Your tender feet, we feel great
pain.î
In their separation from Krishna the gopis considered
a single moment an entire age. Even when they had
previously seen Him they had found the blinking of their
eyelids intolerable, for it blocked their vision of Him for a
fraction of a second.
The ecstatic sentiments for Lord Krishna that the
gopis expressed may appear like symptoms of lust, but in
reality they are manifestations of their pure desire to
satisfy the Supreme Lordís spiritual senses. There is not
even the slightest trace of lust in these moods of the
gopis.

TEXT 1
gopya ucuh
jayati te ëdhikam janmana vrajah
srayata indira sasvad atra hi
dayita drsyatam diksu tavakas
tvayi dhrtasavas tvam vicinvate

TEXT 2
sarad-udasaye sadhu-jata-sat-
sarasijodara-sri-musa drsa
surata-natha te ësulka-dasika
vara-da nighnato neha kim vadhah

TEXT 3
visa-jalapyayad vyala-raksasad
varsa-marutad vaidyutanalat
vrsa-mayatmajad visvato bhayad
rsabha te vayam raksita muhuh
 TEXT 4
na khalu gopika-nandano bhavan
akhila-dehinam antaratma-drk
vikhanasarthito visva-guptaye
sakha udeyivan satvatam kule

TEXT 5
viracitabhayam vrsni-dhurya te
caranam iyusam samsrter bhayat
kara-saroruham kanta kama-dam
sirasi dhehi nah sri-kara-graham

TEXT 6
vraja-janarti-han vira yositam
nija-jana-smaya-dhvamsana-smita
bhaja sakhe bhavat-kinkarih sma no
jalaruhananam caru darsaya

TEXT 7
pranata-dehinam papa-karsanam
trna-caranugam sri-niketanam
phani-phanarpitam te padambujam
krnu kucesu nah krndhi hrc-chayam

TEXT 8
madhuraya gira valgu-vakyaya
budha-manojnaya puskareksana
vidhi-karir ima vira muhyatir
adhara-sidhunapyayayasva nah

TEXT 9
tava kathamrtam tapta-jivanam
kavibhir iditam kalmasapaham
sravana-mangalam srimad atatam
bhuvi grnanti ye bhuri-da janah
 TEXT 10
prahasitam priya-prema-viksanam
viharanam ca te dhyana-mangalam
rahasi samvido ya hrdi sprsah
kuhaka no manah ksobhayanti hi

TEXT 11
calasi yad vrajac carayan pasun
nalina-sundaram natha te padam
sila-trnankuraih sidatiti nah
kalilatam manah kanta gacchati

TEXT 12
dina-pariksaye nila-kuntalair
vanaruhananam bibhrad avrtam
ghana-rajasvalam darsayan muhur
manasi nah smaram vira yacchasi

TEXT 13
pranata-kama-dam padmajarcitam
dharani-mandanam dhyeyam apadi
carana-pankajam santamam ca te
ramana nah stanesv arpayadhi-han

TEXT 14
surata-vardhanam soka-nasanam
svarita-venuna susthu cumbitam
itara-raga-vismaranam nrnam
vitara vira nas te ëdharamrtam

TEXT 15
atati yad bhavan ahni kananam
truti yugayate tvam apasyatam
kutila-kuntalam sri-mukham ca te
jada udiksatam paksma-krd drsam
 TEXT 16
pati-sutanvaya-bhratr-bandhavan
ativilanghya te ënty acyutagatah
gati-vidas tavodgita-mohitah
kitava yositah kas tyajen nisi

TEXT 17
rahasi samvidam hrc-chayodayam
prahasitananam prema-viksanam
brhad-urah sriyo viksya dhama te
muhur ati-sprha muhyate manah

TEXT 18
vraja-vanaukasam vyaktir anga te
vrjina-hantry alam visva-mangalam
tyaja manak ca nas tvat-sprhatmanam
sva-jana-hrd-rujam yan nisudanam

TEXT 19
yat te sujata-caranamburuham stanesu
bhitah sanaih priya dadhimahi karkasesu
tenatavim atasi tad vyathate na kim svit
kurpadibhir bhramati dhir bhavad-ayusam nah
 Published by
(Balaramanand Das)
Back to Godhead
The Magazine of the Hare Krishna Movement
Founded in1944 by
His Divine Grace
A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada