1. Kartik Month celebrations – 7 October 2025 to 5 November 2025
Kartik (or Damodar) month marks an enlivening pastime of Lord Krishna in His childhood when He was tied with rope to a wooden grinding mortar – Damodara means “having a rope on the belly”.
Schedule at Sri Sri Krishna Balaram Mandir, Bon Accueil
This year, the celebrations of Kartik month will start from Tuesday 7 October 2025 and will end on Wednesday 5 November 2025.
Program is held every evening during the entire Kartik month at Sri Sri Krishna Balaram Mandir, Bon Accueil as follows:
| Date: Tuesday 7 October 2025 to Wednesday 5 November 2025 Venue: Sri Sri Krishna Balaram Mandir, Bon Accueil | |
| Time | Activity |
| 6.45 p.m | Tulsi Puja |
| 7 p.m to 7.30 p.m | Gaura Arati Offering of lamps to Lord Damodar Darshan doors close at 7.30 p.m |
| 7.30 p.m to 8 p.m | Singing of Damodarastakam prayers and Hare Krishna Maha Mantra |
| 8 p.m to 8.30 p.m | Lecture |
| 8.30 p.m | Prasad |
| 9 p.m | Darshan doors open Arati is offered to the Lord Offering of lamps to Lord Damodar |
| 9.15 p.m | Darshan doors close |
Divine Pastime of Krishna
Once on Dipavali in Goloka, as Krishna stirred from His sleep in the early hours of the day, He tottered in the direction of His mother who was busy churning butter. Mother Yasoda seeing that her child was hungry, stopped the churning and began to nurse Her little son Krishna after placing Him comfortably on her lap. As time passed by, Mother Yasoda suddenly realized that the milk pan was boiling over and quickly placed little Krishna on the floor to rush to the kitchen.
On this sudden turn of events, little Krishna grew every angry and broke the pot of yoghurt that His mother was churning into butter. Krishna then proceeded to raid the storeroom where he ate butter from many pots kept safely there. Last but not least, little Krishna got to the courtyard where while sitting on an upturned wooden mortar, He freely distributed yoghurt to monkeys.
When Krishna saw Mother Yasoda approaching, He quickly jumped fron the mortar and ran at full speed, His earrings swinging wildly. Mother Yasoda followed swiftly after Him. But soon she began to feel a rising fatigue in her legs, with beads of perspiration falling from her arms and face. Running as fast as she could, Mother Yasoda tried to close the distance between them.
Mother Yasoda finally caught up with her darling son and after much difficulty, tied up her little Krishna to a wooden grinding mortar.
Damodarastakam
(1)
namāmīśvaraṁ sac-cid-ānanda-rūpaṁ
lasat-kuṇḍalaṁ gokule bhrājamanam
yaśodā-bhiyolūkhalād dhāvamānaṁ
parāmṛṣṭam atyantato drutya gopyā
To the Supreme Lord, whose form is the embodiment of eternal existence, knowledge, and bliss, whose shark-shaped earrings are swinging to and fro, who is beautifully shining in the divine realm of Gokula, who I (due to the offense of breaking the pot of yogurt that His mother was churning into butter and then stealing the butter that was kept hanging from a swing) is quickly running from the wooden grinding mortar in fear of mother Yasoda, but who has been caught from behind by her who ran after Him with greater speed–to that Supreme Lord, Sri Damodara, I offer my humble obeisances.
(2)
rudantaṁ muhur netra-yugmaṁ mṛjantam
karāmbhoja-yugmena sātaṅka-netram
muhuḥ śvāsa-kampa-trirekhāṅka-kaṇṭha-
sthita-graivaṁ dāmodaraṁ bhakti-baddham
(Seeing the whipping stick in His mother’s hand) He is crying and rubbing His eyes again and again with His two lotus hands. His eyes are filled with fear, and the necklace of pearls around His neck, which is marked with three lines like a conch shell, is shaking because of His quick breathing due to crying. To this Supreme Lord, Sri Damodara, whose belly is bound not with ropes but with His mother’s pure love, I offer my humble obeisances.
(3)
itīdṛk sva-līlābhir ānanda-kuṇḍe
sva-ghoṣaṁ nimajjantam ākhyāpayantam
tadīyeṣita-jñeṣu bhaktair jitatvaṁ
punaḥ prematas taṁ śatāvṛtti vande
By such childhood pastimes as this He is drowning the inhabitants of Gokula in pools of ecstasy, and is revealing to those devotees who are absorbed in knowledge of His supreme majesty and opulence that He is only conquered by devotees whose pure love is imbues with intimacy and is free from all conceptions of awe and reverence. With great love I again offer my obeisances to Lord Damodara hundreds and hundreds of times.
(4)
varaṁ deva mokṣaṁ na mokṣāvadhiṁ vā
na canyaṁ vṛṇe ‘haṁ vareṣād apīha
idaṁ te vapur nātha gopāla-bālaṁ
sadā me manasy āvirāstāṁ kim anyaiḥ
O Lord, although You are able to give all kinds of benedictions, I do not pray to You for the boon of impersonal liberation, nor the highest liberation of eternal life in Vaikuntha, nor any other boon (which may be obtained by executing the nine processes of bhakti). O Lord, I simply wish that this form of Yours as Bala Gopala in Vrndavana may ever be manifest in my heart, for what is the use to me of any other boon besides this?
(5)
idaṁ te mukhāmbhojam atyanta-nīlair
vṛtaṁ kuntalaiḥ snigdha-raktaiś ca gopyā
muhuś cumbitaṁ bimba-raktādharaṁ me
manasy āvirāstām alaṁ lakṣa-lābhaiḥ
O Lord, Your lotus face, which is encircled by locks of soft black hair tinged with red, is kissed again and again by mother Yasoda, and Your lips are reddish like the bimba fruit. May this beautiful vision of Your lotus face be ever manifest in my heart. Thousands and thousands of other benedictions are of no use to me.
(6)
namo deva dāmodarānanta viṣṇo
prasīda prabho duḥkha-jālābdhi-magnam
kṛpā-dṛṣṭi-vṛṣṭyāti-dīnaṁ batānu
gṛhāṇeṣa mām ajñam edhy akṣi-dṛśyaḥ
O Supreme Godhead, I offer my obeisances unto You. O Damodara! O Ananta! O Vishnu! O master! O my Lord, be pleased upon me. By showering Your glance of mercy upon me, deliver this poor ignorant fool who is immersed in an ocean of worldly sorrows, and become visible to my eyes.
(7)
kuverātmajau baddha-mūrtyaiva yadvat
tvayā mocitau bhakti-bhājau kṛtau ca
tathā prema-bhaktiṁ svakāṁ me prayaccha
na mokṣe graho me ‘sti dāmodareha
O Lord Damodara, just as the two sons of Kuvera, Manigriva and Nalakuvara, were delivered from the curse of Narada and made into great devotees by You in Your form as a baby tied with rope to a wooden grinding mortar, in the same way, please give to me Your own prema-bhakti. I only long for this and have no desire for any kind of liberation.
(8)
namas te ‘stu dāmne sphurad-dīpti-dhāmne
tvadīyodarāyātha viśvasya dhāmne
namo rādhikāyai tvadīya-priyāyai
namo ‘nanta-līlāya devāya tubhyam
O Lord Damodara, I first of all offer my obeisances to the brilliantly effulgent rope which binds Your belly. I then offer my obeisances to Your belly, which is the abode of the entire universe. I humbly bow down to Your most beloved Srimati Radharani, and I offer all obeisances to You, the Supreme Lord, who displays unlimited pastimes.
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Download a copy of Damodarastakam:
In the month of Kartika one should worship Lord Damodara and daily recite the prayer known as Damodarastaka, which has been spoken by the sage Satyavrata and which attracts Lord Damodara. (Sri Hari-bhakti-vilasa 2.16.198)