Vrindavan, 2016.11.14 (VT): It was a double celebration for Vrajabhumi. While the temples of entire Vraja were celebrating the Rasa Purnima, the Gurudwaras of Vraja added flavor to the celebration.
Guru Nanak Jayanti was also celebrated with great fanfare in Vraja on Monday. The Gurudwaras were echoed with Shabad Kirtan. The Sikh community of Mathura celebrated the 556 birth anniversary of Shri Guru Nanak Dev.
The Gurudwaras across the Mathura District were decorated with lightings and flowers. Akhand Paath of Guru Granth Sahab and Shabad Kirtan was organized in all the seven Gurudwaras of Mathura and one in Vrindavan. Akhand Path began 48 hours before the Guru Nanak Jayanti.
This festival is also known as Guru Nanak’s Prakash Utsav that connotes to the Sikh Guru’s birth anniversary. The festival is celebrated every year on a full moon day in the month of Kartik, according to the Hindu lunar calendar – Kartik Purnima.
Guru Nanak Dev was the founder of the Sikh religion. His appearance day marked the culmination of Prabhat Pheris, the early mornImage may be NSFW.
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ing religious procession which went around the localities singing shabads (hymns).
Devotees offered sweets and tea when the procession passed their homes. The celebrations started with the two days Akhand path, in which the Guru Granth Sahib was read continuously from beginning to end without a break. The conclusion of the reading coincided with the day of the festival.
Shri Granth Sahib was also carried in procession on a float decorated with flowers throughout the city. Five armed guards, who represented the Panj Pyares, headed the procession carrying Nishan Sahibs (the Sikh flag)
Free sweets and langar (community lunches) were also offered to everyone irrespective of religious faith. Local volunteers served it with a spirit of seva (service) and bhakti (devotion). Sikh visited the gurudwaras where special programme are arranged and kirtans (religious songs) sung. Houses and gurudwaras were lit up to add to the festivities.
Guru Nanak came to Mathura during Shravan in the beginning of the 16th Century. He started his Udasis (religious tours) to spread the message of God to mankind. After each journey he came back to Punjab, settling at Kartarpur, now in Pakistan, a town he himself established after his first itinerary.
During his journey, he met many pundits, sadhus, yogis, mullahs, pirs and gadis, engaging them all in dialogue. It was after his first Udasi to the East that he came to Vrindavan and Mathura while on his way back to Punjab.
There is a Gurudwara in Mathura, Guru Nanak Bagichi that is dedicated to him. He came to Mathura on the bank of Yamuna near Masani in the month of Sawan (July – August) and saw that the Yamuna river water water was muddy. He arranged for a well to be dug to serve clean water to the local people. From Masani, Guru Nanak Dev came to Vrindavan on a tila, or high mound. He recorded whatever he saw and heard there in a pothi, which later became part of the holy book.
It is said that the mound, where Guru Nanak Dev ji stayed, was in the possession of the ancestors of Thakur Peetambar Singh who donated it to the Sikhs. The small Gurudwara on the mound, which is in the neighbourhood of Kishorpura not far from the Vidyapeeth Chouraha, was managed by Singh Sabha committee of Mathura. In 1975 the affairs of the Gurudwara came under the control of Shiromani Gurudwara Prabandhak Committee, Shri Amritsar who managed its affairs by a local committee.
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