Akshaya Tritiya - Auspicious beginnings

Akshaya Tritiya is considered the most auspicious day in the vedic calendar. It falls on the third of the bright half of Vaishakh, and is considered a sacred day. It is a day bereft of all inauspiciousness. So even checking muhurthas is considered unnecessary. The word Akshaya means, that which never diminishes, hence beginnings made or valuables bought on this day are considered auspicious enough to bring luck and success. Whatever services are offered to the supreme lord Krishna or his devotees on this day receives manifold eternal benefits.

Akshaya Tritiya is also the day of the incarnation of Lord Vishnu as Parashurama. On Akshaya Tritiya, Surya and Chandra, the sun and the moon, are simultaneously at the peak of their brightness.

There is a story of a brahmana who had a very good wife and was poor. Whatever little money he earned would get spent somehow. Also he did not have children. So under the strong request of his wife he went to Vasishta Muni to know the reason for his suffering. Vasishta Muni told him that in his previous life he was very rich and also had many children. But he was very stingy; he was not even spending for his own children. This is the reason for his being poor without children. Then that brahmana asked Vasishta muni why he got a good wife. So that Muni replied that somehow with some reason, he observed the vrata of Vaishaka month for the last 5 days. So he got a good wife and also the brahmana birth. Then the Muni advised him to follow at least the last 7 days left of Vaishaka month, with devotion to Lord Krishna.

The brahmana observed the vrata of Vaishaka month for the remaining seven days. He got sons, he became rich, ultimately he got the love of Godhead and went back to the spiritual world!

It is important to hear such a story as this, so that at least by hearing this, we engage ourselves in the service of Guru, the devotees and Krishna.

Lord Krishna, states in the Bhagavad-Gita (5.12) as follows:

“The steadily devoted soul attains unadulterated peace because he offers the result of all activities to me; whereas a person who is not in union with the divine, who is greedy for the fruits of his labor, becomes entangled.”

Donating money gives one the opportunity to become free from material attachments and thus material life. Those who do not donate simply waste the money on material possessions and become attached to a materialistic life and become bonded to material life for many lifetimes.