Thursday, 1 March 2018
Phālguna · bright fortnight (śukla) Caturdaśī · Maghā
☀About the day
- Lunar month
- Phālguna
- Tithi at sunrise
- bright fortnight (śukla) Caturdaśī · until 08:58
- Nakṣatra
- Maghā
- Sunrise · Sunset (Ujjain)
- 06:49 · 18:30
Holikā Dahana
✦Significance
The bonfire on the eve of Holī: the burning of Holikā and the deliverance of the child-devotee Prahlāda. The fire takes the winter’s dead wood and the year’s ill-will together; in the south the same full moon is Kāma-dahana, the burning of Desire by Śiva’s glance.
📜The story from the scriptures
Bhāgavata Purāṇa 7.2–10; Viṣṇu Purāṇa 1.17–20; Nārada Purāṇa (Holikā)
Hiraṇyakaśipu, lord of the asuras, had won a boon that he could be killed neither by man nor beast, by day nor night, indoors nor out, on earth nor in the sky, by no weapon. He forbade the worship of Viṣṇu — yet his own small son Prahlāda, taught by Nārada in the womb, sang only of Hari. The boy was thrown from cliffs, trampled by elephants, bitten by serpents, given poison; nothing harmed him. At last the king’s sister Holikā, who had a boon that fire could not burn her, sat in a blazing pyre with the child on her lap. Prahlāda called on Nārāyaṇa; the boon deserted her who used it for harm, and she burned while he sat unscathed. Soon after, from a pillar struck at twilight, Viṣṇu came forth as Narasiṃha — neither man nor beast — and on the threshold, on his lap, with his claws, ended the tyrant’s rule.
🪔Regional traditions and folklore
The pyre is built over weeks around a central pole. In Braj the priest of Phalen walks through the embers; in Gujarat and Rajasthan new grain — wheat ears and green gram — is roasted in the fire and shared; mothers carry infants around it for protection. Tamil Nadu and Kerala sing the lament of Rati for Kāmadeva, burnt to ash for disturbing Śiva’s meditation and restored as the bodiless god of love. Bengal and Odisha keep Dola Pūrṇimā, swinging Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa, and it is the birthday of Śrī Caitanya.
🔥Pūjā and havan
After sunset, in the pradoṣa hour with the full moon running: the pyre is worshipped with water, kumkum, turmeric, raw thread wound three or seven times, coconut, new grain and cow-dung garlands, then lit; families circle it three times, offering grain and praying that inner evils burn with it. The ash is taken home as a protective tilaka the next morning.
ॐMantras and japa 2
उग्रं वीरं महाविष्णुं ज्वलन्तं सर्वतोमुखम् ।
नृसिंहं भीषणं भद्रं मृत्युमृत्युं नमाम्यहम् ॥
ugraṃ vīraṃ mahā-viṣṇuṃ jvalantaṃ sarvato-mukham | nṛsiṃhaṃ bhīṣaṇaṃ bhadraṃ mṛtyu-mṛtyuṃ namāmy aham ||
Meaning: I bow to Nṛsiṃha — fierce, heroic, the great Viṣṇu, blazing, facing every direction, terrible yet auspicious, the death of death.
Benefit: The king of mantras — the protection Prahlāda knew; recited for fearlessness and the defeat of every harm.
ॐ नमो नारायणाय ॥
oṃ namo nārāyaṇāya ||
Meaning: Salutation to Nārāyaṇa, the refuge of all beings.
Benefit: The eight-syllable mantra — the Upaniṣad says one who recites it attains full life, prosperity and the abode of Viṣṇu.
📖Scriptural references 3
- Bhāgavata Purāṇa 7.5–8
- Viṣṇu Purāṇa 1.17–20
- Śiva Purāṇa, Pārvatī-khaṇḍa 17–19 (Kāma-dahana)
Pūrṇimā — the full moon
✦Significance
The full moon — the day of fullness, when the mind’s own planet is complete. It is the customary day for the Satyanārāyaṇa vrata, for charity, for honouring the guru and for a bath in sacred waters; each month’s full moon carries its own festival.
📜The story from the scriptures
Skanda Purāṇa, Revā-khaṇḍa — Satyanārāyaṇa-vrata-kathā
Nārada, grieved by the sufferings of people in the Kali age, asked Viṣṇu for a simple remedy, and the Lord taught him the worship of Satya-Nārāyaṇa — Truth itself as God. The kathā’s five chapters tell of a poor brāhmaṇa of Kāśī, a woodcutter, the merchant Sādhu and his daughter Kalāvatī, and King Tuṅgadhvaja: each prospered by keeping the vow and honouring its prasāda, and each stumbled on forgetting a promise made to the Lord — for truthfulness is the vow’s real offering.
🔥Pūjā and havan
In the evening: a kalaśa and an image or picture of Viṣṇu under a canopy of plantain stems; offerings of tulasī, fruit and the prasāda of roasted wheat flour, sugar, ghee, milk and banana (sapāda-bhakṣya); the five-chapter kathā is read aloud and the prasāda shared with all. Arghya is offered to the risen moon.
ॐMantras and japa 2
ॐ नमो नारायणाय ॥
oṃ namo nārāyaṇāya ||
Meaning: Salutation to Nārāyaṇa, the refuge of all beings.
Benefit: The eight-syllable mantra — the Upaniṣad says one who recites it attains full life, prosperity and the abode of Viṣṇu.
ॐ नमो भगवते वासुदेवाय ॥
oṃ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya ||
Meaning: Salutation to the blessed Lord Vāsudeva.
Benefit: The dvādaśākṣara — by this mantra the child Dhruva saw the Lord within six months; recited for devotion, protection and liberation.
📖Scriptural references 1
- Skanda Purāṇa, Revā-khaṇḍa (Satyanārāyaṇa-kathā)