Jayantī Vrata

Jayantī Vrata, simply known as Jayanti Vrata, Sanskrit: जयन्ती व्रत, Telugu: జయంతీ వ్రతం, Hindi: जयंती व्रत.

The Jayantī Vrata is the fast kept on a jayantī, the birth-anniversary of Bhagavān Vishṇu or Bhagavān Kṛshṇa. The Brahma Khaṇḍa of the Padma Purāṇa (Chapter 4) gives it. There Brahmā answers a question from Nārada about the Jayantī vow. He names six Jayantī dates that carry special merit (puṇya), and he calls Kṛshṇa Janmāshṭamī the foremost of them.

The vow destroys the pāpa (sin) of seven previous existences.

The six Jayantī dates

Brahmā names six especially meritorious Jayantī tithis:

  1. Kṛshṇa Janmāshṭamī. This is the most prominent. Brahmā declares it equal to a crore of yajñas and to myriads of tīrthas (holy places).
  2. The auspicious ninth day of the bright half of Caitra, which is Rāma Navamī.
  3. The fourteenth day of the dark half of Māgha.
  4. The fourteenth day of the bright half of Caitra.
  5. Durgāshṭamī in Āśvina, the eighth day of Āśvina.
  6. The twelfth day of the bright half of Śrāvaṇa.

Brahmā also says that the eighth day of the bright half of Bhādrapada, the Kṛshṇa-Rādhāshṭamī, is sacred. It is especially important when it falls in conjunction with the Sun. He further declares that no vow in all the Vedas or Purāṇas is equal or superior to the vow of Kṛshṇa-Rādhāshṭamī.

The merit of the Jayantī fast

Brahmā lists what a fast on a Jayantī day is equal to:

  • giving a thousand cows every day;
  • giving a thousand bharas of gold at the time of an auspicious solar moment;
  • giving thousands of black antelope-hides and hundreds of sesamum-cows;
  • giving thousands of crores of daughters in marriage;
  • giving the whole earth with its oceans;
  • building wells and ponds in a temple;
  • serving one’s mother, father and guru;
  • bathing in the Gaṅgā, the Narmadā or the Sarasvatī;
  • performing śrāddha for the pitṛs (ancestors) on the amāvāsyā (new-moon day).

By the grace of Bhagavān Kṛshṇa, a single Jayantī fast destroys the pāpa earned deliberately or unknowingly, within half a watch.

How the vrata is kept

  • Fast completely on the Jayantī day.
  • Keep awake through the night.
  • With the senses controlled, worship Vishṇu with devotion. Offer sandal, flowers and food.
  • Give a present to a brāhmaṇa.
  • Listen to the Purāṇa of Vishṇu, or read it aloud.
  • Honour a suppliant on the day sacred to Vishṇu. This frees a crore of one’s family members.

The vow should be kept every year. A man who keeps it together with his wife on the Rādhā-Kṛshṇāshṭamī day, in both fortnights of Bhādrapada, reaches the nearness of Vishṇu.

What follows if it is not kept

  • A man who eats on a Jayantī day goes to a great naraka (hell).
  • A hundred and one family members, before and after him, fall into a terrible naraka.
  • A man who is against the Jayantī vow and has no virtue goes to naraka without doubt.
  • A man who does not keep the vow is born as a cruel asura (demon).

Yama is afraid of those who fix their mind on the Jayantī vow with devotion.

Those who kept it before

Brahmā tells Nārada that the Jayantī fast was kept in the past by these:

  • Kārtavīrya
  • Karṇa
  • the wise Kumāra (Kārtikeya)
  • Sagara
  • Dilīpa, the descendant of Kakutstha
  • Gautama
  • Gārgya
  • the wise son of Jamadagni (Paraśurāma)
  • Vālmīki
  • the good son of Draupadī

Sources

  • Padma Purāṇa, Brahma Khaṇḍa, Chapter 4