2024 Balaram-Jayanti | Appearance Day of Lord Balarama on 19th Aug. 2024
Date: August 03, 2024
Balaram-Jayanti, or the auspicious appearance day of Lord Balarama, the elder brother of Lord Sri Krishna, is celebrated on the full-moon day of Shravana (August), which falls on the 19th August in 2024. We honor lord Balarama with a half-day fast, till noon, and celebrate his birthday with an Ekadasi feast.
Lord Balarama is Krishna’s elder brother and His appearance day takes place on the full moon day (purnima), two weeks before Krishna Janmastami. Krishna and Balarama were the darlings of Vrindavan/ Vraja. Together They would spend the day enjoying the company of the cowherd boys in the forests of Vraja. Their wonderful pastimes are related in the tenth canto of Srimad-Bhagavatam, which Srila Prabhupada also translated as The Krishna Book. Lord Balarama is also considered the original spiritual master and His worship is therefore most important for Vaishnavas.
Lord Balarama appeared as the son of Rohini and Vasudeva. He is also known as Baladeva and Sankarshana. He gives us the required spiritual strength to cross over the hurdles in our journey of self-realization. Devotees fast till noon and pray to Lord Balarama to bestow the spiritual strength needed to practice spiritual life.
Balaram-Jayanti | Appearance Day of Lord Balarama on 19th Aug. 2024
Hare Krishna dear devotees, friends of Krishna and nondevotees. International Hare Krishna Movement is inviting you to Srila Prabhupāda’s temple in Mainhausen, Germany to celebrate this auspicious day Balaram Jayanti and to get some special mercy for spiritual progress from Lord Balarama.
„Lord Balarama is the eternal companion of Sri Krishna. He came as Lakshmana with Rama and later as Nityananda Prabhu with Caitanya Mahaprabhu. He is the original spiritual master, and any one desiring to make spiritual progress must first get the mercy of Lord Balarama. Directly we can’t approach Krishna, only through Balaram we can approach the supreme lord Krishna. The spiritual master represents the true representation of Balaram. Thus by following the instructions of the spiritual master and by pleasing him we can get the grace of Krishna.”
Although Lord Baladeva appeared before the birth of Lord Kṛṣṇa and is therefore Kṛṣṇa’s worshipable elder brother, He used to act as Kṛṣṇa’s eternal servitor. In the spiritual sky all the Vaikuṇṭha planets are predominated by the quadruple expansions of Kṛṣṇa known as the catur-vyūha. They are direct expansions from Baladeva. It is the singularity of the Supreme Lord that everyone in the spiritual sky thinks himself a servitor of the Lord.
(CC Adi 6.76, Translation and Purport)
Baladeva is an expansion of Kṛṣṇa, and from Baladeva the next expansion is Saṅkarṣaṇa; thus Saṅkarṣaṇa is kalā, but Baladeva is svāṁśa. There is no difference, however, among Them. This is very nicely explained in the Brahma-saṁhitā (5.46): dīpārcir eva hi daśāntaram abhyupetya. With one candle one may light a second candle, with the second a third and then a fourth, and in this way one can light up thousands of candles, and no candle is inferior to another in distributing light. (Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 3.21.32)
Please come and enjoy this beautiful day full of pastimes times about Lord Balarama, kirtan and prasadam in the association of devotees. As mentioned herein, everybody is very welcome. For more info please conatct this number: +4917628112250.
Your servants from Germany.
All glories to Srila Prabhupāda!!
