The Rakshya Bandhan or Janai Purnima

The Rakshya Bandhan or Janai Purnima Festival

The Hindu, Buddhist and Jain festival of Janai Purnima (also referred to as Rakhsya Bandhan) takes place on the complete moon day of Shrawan. Janai refers to a sacred thread worn by men as they are available aged , and purnima means the complete moon. During this festival, Buddhists bathe in sacred streams and visit their temples, while Brahman priests offer ornamental threads to tie round the wrists of Hindus and reciprocally receive gifts. The festival observes the bond of purity and security, and is understood because the sacred thread festival.

Pashupatinath Temple is one among the foremost sacred shrines to Shiva, located on the banks of the Bagmati River, the waters offer an equivalent guarantee of release from rebirth because the Ganges. The high-altitude Gosaikunda Lake in Rasuwa District is additionally vital at this point , and many pilgrims and shamans make the pilgrimage to require a ritual dip within the icy waters.

The sacred thread may be a cotton string that's worn round the neck and across the chest by some Hindu males. it's given during an extended religious ritual called Bratabandhan, which is that the formal process of being accepted into the faith , and marks a boy’s coming aged . The thread then has got to be worn a day of their lives after this ceremony. Seen as a logo of body, speech and mind, when the knots are tied, the person wearing it's alleged to gain complete control over each of those facets of life. The chord is modified if it becomes dishonored by the wearer committing acts forbidden by the faith . 

The day before the festival, men wearing the janai cleanse themselves by shaving or cutting their hair and taking a shower . They only eat one meal of food considered to be ‘clean’ – so no meat, onions or garlic. On the day of the purnima, men typically attend take a shower , dipping themselves within the water 3 times during a river or pond. They then can break the old thread and replace it.

In the cities, the family priest will come to the house and therefore the whole family will attend as he reads stories from a holy book and performs a ceremony to purify the new thread. this is often then placed across the man’s chest. The priest is paid with food and money.

The thread tied round the hand is named doro, though it's often mentioned as janai also . On the day of the festival, men, women and youngsters have a doro (sacred colorful thread) tied around their wrist. it's believed to bring good luck and it's worn until Laxmi Puja day during Dashain, when it's removed and tied on the tail of a cow on the day of Laxmi Puja. Hindus believe that they need to cross the river Baitarni after death to succeed in heaven, and therefore the cow will help cross this river by allowing the dead to hold onto her tail, but as long as this person has tied their doro to the tail on today .

As the priest ties the thread around devotees’ wrists, he chants a mantra that declares: “I tie on you (the devotee) the raksha that was tied on Bali, the King of Demons. Therefore Oh Raksha! don't ever fail to guard this devotee, don't ever fail.” (Bhavishyottara Puran: 137/20)

The Rakhi festival is marked by the tying of a holy thread by a sister on the wrist of a brother and forms the like Bhai Tika day during Tihar for a few communities in Nepal. In return, the brother offers a present to his sister and swears to seem after her, as she presents sweets to him.

Newars celebrate this festival by cooking a special soup of various sorts of beans, called Kwati. Newar farmers also offer food items to frogs, as they believe that the frog is an agent of the god of rainfall, and making offerings helps increase the crops.

There are many legends behind the origins of the festival. Lord Ganesh had two sons, Shubh and Labh, and at some point (on Rakshya Bandhan), Ganesh’s sister visited and tied a rakhi on Ganesh’s wrist. Jealous, the sons immediately began to demand Ganesh and his two wives, Riddhi and Siddhi, give them a sister. Ganesh agreed, and Santoshi Ma (Mother Goddess of Satisfaction) was created by the divine flames that emerged from Riddhi and Siddhi.

Another story from the epic Mahabharata tells how Draupadi, wife of the Pandavas, tore a strip of silk faraway from her sari to tie around Krishna’s wrist, to prevent the bleeding from a battle wound. Krishna was touched by her action and declared her to be his sister, albeit they were unrelated. He promised to repay the debt, and spent the subsequent 25 years doing just that. Although married to 5 great warriors and being a daughter of a strong monarch, Draupadi trusted Krishna completely. He repaid the debt of affection during the Cheer-Haran (literally, “clothing-robbing”) of Draupadi, which occurred within the assembly of King Dhritarastra, when the Pandavas lost her to the Kauravas in gambling. Krishna extended her sari through divine intervention so it couldn't be removed, to save lots of her honor.

According to legend, the Demon King Bali was an excellent devotee of Lord Vishnu, who had left his house in Vaikunth to travel and guard his kingdom. The Goddess Lakshmi wished to be together with her lord back in her home, so she visited Bali disguised as a lady , to hunt refuge till her husband came back. On being asked, she revealed who she was and why she was there.

According to another legend, Rakshya Bandhan was a ritual followed by Lord Yama (the Lord of Death) and his sister, Yamuna.