Prayer to Acyuta
Prayer to Acyuta · acyuta prārthanā, “the prayer to the unfalling one”
The prayer to Acyuta is the prayer with which the keeper of the Māsa-Nakshatra vrata honours Bhagavān Acyuta on the nakshatra of each month. Bhagavān Śrī Kṛshṇa gives it to Yudhishṭhira in the Uttara Parva of the Bhavishya Purāṇa.
The setting
Yudhishṭhira said that losing aiśvarya once gained hurts more than never gaining it, and asked for a vrata by which there is no loss of aiśvarya or lineage and no separation from what is dear. Śrī Kṛshṇa told him to worship Bhagavān Acyuta on the twelve nakshatras of the twelve months, beginning with Kṛttikā in Kārtika, Mṛgaśirā in Mārgaśīrsha, Pushya in Pausha and Maghā in Māgha, offering khicaḍī for the first four months, saṃyāva for the four from Phālguna and pāyasa for the four from Āshāḍha. Taking pañcagavya, the vratī does arcana of Nārāyaṇa and prays.
The prayer
The printed Hindi meaning: “Acyuta, salutation to you again and again. May my pāpas be destroyed and my puṇya grow. May my aiśvarya, wealth and the rest be undecaying, and may my children never perish. As you are beyond the highest, brahma-bhūta, and beyond that too the Acyuta Paramātmā, so make me acyuta, unfalling. Aprameya, destroy my pāpas. Purushottama, Acyuta, Ananta, Govinda, Ameyātman, fulfil all my longings and be gracious to me.”
After the prayer
At night the vratī takes the prasāda of Bhagavān Acyuta. When the year is complete and Bhagavān Acyuta awakens, a copper vessel full of ghee is given to a brāhmaṇa with “अच्युतः प्रीयताम्”, “may Acyuta be pleased”. After seven years a golden image of Acyuta is set up, with a silver image before it of Sāmbharāyaṇī, the brāhmaṇī who was his supreme devotee.
Source: Bhavishya Purāṇa, Uttara Parva, Chapter 107
Sources
- Bhavishya Purāṇa, Uttara Parva, Chapter 107