April 14th, 2008

The Supreme Personality of Godhead incarnated Himself as Sri Rama, appearing as the son of His pure devotee Maharaja Dasharatha, the King of Ayodhya. Lord Rama descended along with His plenary portions, and all of them appeared as His younger brothers. In the month of Chaitra on the ninth day of the growing moon in the Treta-yuga, the Lord appeared, as usual, to establish the principles of religion and to annihilate the disturbing
elements.

On the day of Rama Navami, devotees fast till noon. At Iskcon Bangalore, the Deities of Krishna Balarama are adorned with the alankara of Sri Rama and Lakshmana. Lord Krishna is dressed as Rama and Lord Balarama is dressed as Lakshmana. Both are grandly decorated with ornaments, earrings, crown, a bow and a quiver of arrows.

Festivities begin the evening with a homa called Rama Taraka homa. During this homa, the Rama Taraka mantra is chanted for a minimum of 108 times. On this occasion, mystically the whole temple hall takes up the atmosphere of the holy city of Ayodhya. This makes the devotees strongly feel the advent of Lord Ramachandra. Thus all the devotees rejoice in ecstasy by performing enchanting kirtanas from Valmiki Ramayana. On this occasion, they also remember Sri Hanuman, the foremost devotee of Lord Rama and his unparalleled devotional service to the Lord. They also pray to Sri Hanuman, so that he may bless them with advancement in devotional service.

***

Millions of years ago, the Supreme Lord appeared on this planet as Ramachandra.

                                         As is stated in The Bhagavad Gita
“From time to time I come, in order to vanquish the demons and rescue the devotees.”

Click here to read an excerpt from the Srimad Bhagavatam - 1.3.22 (By Srila Prabhupada)

Click here to view a slide show of Sri Ramanavami 2008	Click here to viewa slide show Sri Ramanavami 2007