PATNA: Several cultural and educational institutions celebrated Janmashtami, the birth of Lord Krishna, here on Wednesday. This year, some of the families and organizations will also celebrate Janmashtami on Thursday.
Chief minister Nitish Kumar congratulated the people on the occasion. In a message to the people of Bihar, Nitish said: “This festival is a symbol of love, universal brotherhood and communal harmony.” He also hoped that Bihar would soon become a developed state with peace, love and prosperity all around.
City’s famous Mahavir temple geared itself up for the Janmashtami celebrations that started at 6 am and continued beyond midnight.
“Prasad” was distributed among 500-odd “bhaktas” who had gathered to sing “bhajans” and “kirtans” here on Wednesday evening. The idols of Lord Krishna were bathed and offered new clothes. The temple was decorated with flowers.
Sanskrit verses and “paath” from the text of Bhagavad Gita were recited, said Kishore Kunal, the chairman of the Bihar State Religious Trusts Board. “Nowadays, few people can recite prayers in Sanskrit. A few priests of Mahavir temple did the rendition. For a change, the DGM of the Punjab National Bank agreed to sing bhajans’ for us,” he added.
“Slokas from “Dasham Skanda” of Bhagavata Purana were recited by our pundits,” Kunal said.
Shakti Dham Mandir, located on the Bank Road, had also made full preparations for the Janmashtami celebrations where the main highlight was the “jhanki” depicting the different stages of Krishna’s life. Children dressed as Lord Krishna, Radha, Yashoda, Devaki, Vasudeva, Kansa and others enacted different episodes from the life of Lord Krishna like “makhan-chori”, “matka-phor” and “Krishna Leela” etc.
For the past 47 years, Krishna Agencies have also been organizing Krishna jhankis every year at the Jamuna Apartment, said Sudhir Gupta.
The schools in the city also celebrated the festival with toddlers. Kids aged between two and five years took part in a fancy dress competition held at the Tender Hearts International school. Children also danced on the tune of devotional and film songs.
Eurokids school, Gardanibagh, also celebrated the festival. Schoolchildren posing as Sri Krishna and Radha attended the programme. Kids celebrated Krishna Janmashtami by cutting cakes and distributing toffees. Those who took part in the function included Raksha, Lavanya, Vidushi and Ishita as Radha and Atharv, Nilabh, Ainesh, Naman and Utkarsh as Krishna.
School director Raj Kumar Suman, Eurokids manager Vishal Singh and principal Shweta Shrivastava participated in the colourful function.
A “matka-phor” competition was organized at the TEFL play school, Bhattacharya Road. The scene from Krishna’s birth was enacted by the kids.
Patna Central School also organized a cultural programme at the new Bypass road to mark the occasion. At least 110 children dressed themselves as Lord Krishna. The founder of the school, Acharya Shri Sudarshanji Maharaj, also addressed the students.
Patriotic songs, parodies, and folk songs were sung on the occasion at Sanskriti School. The programme began with Ganesh Vandana. A drama on environment “Save the trees” was also organized on the occasion.