I am not against the people of India who celebrate Valentine’s Day with much vigor and enthusiasm. But do we need to buy butter-milk from outside when we have plenty of curd with us?
Even at the age of 45, I am highly romantic man at heart and I would be the last person on this planet to go against anything that opposes Romance. But hey; why do we need to celebrate ‘Valentine’s Day’ when we can afford to be indigenous and celebrate Lord Krishna’s birthday i.e. ‘Gokulashtmi’ as Global Lovers Day!
Do please note that St. Valentine was not a lover himself. All he did was to help the young couples in love to elope and get wedded. Being a catholic priest he simply could not be involved in a romance as the Cannons of Roman Catholic Church debars the priest and clergy from getting involved in romantic pursuit. Even wedding for priests is strictly forbidden.
As for Lord Krishna; he was a supreme epitome of ‘Love’. He was the most perfect and ideal ‘Lover Boy’ wholly drenched with aura of passion. To the date there hasn’t been a single historical, religious or mythical idol or icon who has to his credit any love songs penned for them. But Lord Krishna is ofcourse an exception. Since ages innumerable romantic songs have been written on him by renowned saints and poets that include Surdas, Meerabai, Chaitanya, Mahaprabhu, Sumitranandan Pant, Rashmirathi Dinkar and last but not least by a Muslim-Sufu Saint, Raskhan who was an ardent devotee of Lord Krishna. Even Bollywood has not remained behind in setting to music a large number of romantic songs on Lord Krishna.
Unlike other Avatars, Prophets, Saints, Sufis, Jinas, Incarnations who carved for themselves most serious and somber images; Lord Krishna stands an odd-man out and most unique as an unparalleled personality excelling in nearly all fields.
Not only was he looked upon as supreme romantic and erotic figure but besides that he is esteemed and recognized as a greatest strategist (could Pandvas have won the war against the mighty Kauravas sans Krishna’s war strategy?). An unmatched Philosopher; Geeta, his sermon to Arjuna, has been duly acknowledged by world renowned English philosophers like Bovce, Carlyle, Toynbee and Betrand Russel. Carlyle even went to the extent of lauding Geeta as ‘The Empire of Thoughts’.
Above all, Lord Krishna is revered as a ‘Godhead’ not only by the billions of Hindus in India and abroad but also by a large number of foreigners that include a vast percentage of Europeans (ISKCON is a good examples with its temples in most part of the world).
So don’t you think it’s more apt to celebrate ‘Gokulashtmi’ as Global Lovers Day and not Valentine’s Day?
Comments
13 comments | Add your comment »
Harsha
Jun 7th, 2007 at 10:06 am | #
I believe that marketing plays an important role. Trump up the event and if you are able to get yourself an audience then voila! you have your own desi valentine’s day. Although I guess it’s not as simple as it sounds.
Anonymous
Jun 7th, 2007 at 10:44 am | #
Because we already celebrate another event on Gokulashtmi.
Celebrating two events on the same day doesn’t make much social or commercial sense.
Indians on average are prudes. Why didn’t we start celebrating some kind of a lover’s day before the Western countries? Arguably – Krishna was born before St. Valentine. And love songs about him were written well before too.
Only when we see a western celebration gain prominence, do we get *envious* and wake up. F the borders and the history and the race. F your envy. Just embrace the celebration because love is a good thing to celebrate. Or atleast, let others embrace it.
You can give your loved one a rose on Gokulashtmi. And let me give a rose on 14th Feb without crying “western values are destroying Indian values.”
I love Valentine
Jun 7th, 2007 at 10:52 am | #
“So don’t you think it’s more apt to celebrate ‘Gokulashtmi’ as Global Lovers Day and not Valentine’s Day?”
In one word: No.
Reason? Momentum.
Valentine’s Day already has momentum on its side. Billions of people already celebrates it.
To make Gokulastmi prominent – first you have to make people stop celebrating Valentine’s Day and then start celebrating Gokulastmi as the lover’s day. Too much work. And for what?
The purpose is the same: celebrating love. So why is the change of date needed?
Your argument makes as much sense as the argument to change “Indian Airlines” to “Indian” did. (Read: it makes no sense at all.)
SHANTANU
Jun 7th, 2007 at 11:07 am | #
Couple of points: Harsha makes a point that I completely agree with. We don’t market well enough for our youth to take to our indigenous icons/festivals. The young always need a ‘cool’ness factor associated with everything they do. And this isn’t an India-specific thing. However, we also have a tendency to over-react when people try to make our Gods and religious symbols accessible to others. I am pretty sure we will have the goons on a rampage if the young began using religious symbolism/gods to celebrate an Indian version of Valentine’s Day.
But I would also make another point: Does it really matter? What exactly is Indian? India has absorbed a lot of stuff from the invading Moghuls and the British. I would say that India has florished over the ages by being open to ideas and absorbing good things from other cultures. Our kababs, the language we blog in, were all foreign, but now I would say they are as much Indian as anything else that pre-dates them.
BTW, by this logic, should Sakshi be seen wearing salwar-suits more than jeans?
Saakshi O. Juneja
Jun 7th, 2007 at 11:20 am | #
Shantanu – I would love to wear salwar-suits but I totally U-G-L-Y in them.
Annoy and I love Valentine – Boss, pls use one name tag na…it’s boring to have so many comments one after the other by a single commentar that too using different Ids.
shadows
Jun 7th, 2007 at 1:50 pm | #
Simple.. I will celebrate both Valentine day and Gokulashtami. Problem solved. Dono culture bach gaye..
Now now .. both of them should not fall on the same date !
Patrix
Jun 8th, 2007 at 1:15 am | #
I didn’t know we should have to choose between Valentine’s Day and Gokulashtami. Harsha nails the reason behind success of Valentine’s Day.
BTW Sakshi, I know its your blog and all but frankly the opinions of MA are diametrically opposite to the tone of your blog. I usually skip the posts by MA. Get MA a sub-blog, I say.
Maverick
Jun 9th, 2007 at 2:24 pm | #
If Patrix avers that he skips my post then how come he’s passed a caustic comment on it? Is it that my post has hurt him where it hurts most?The very beginning of the post mentions that I am not against people celebrating Valentines,but I have merely suggested as an attempt to transform apers like Patrix to be indigenous.
As mentioned in my post its only about few years back that Valentines day got the momentum with the Indian news,but initially it was celebrated by few that could be counted on fingertips.Likewyse Gokulashtami may have very few followers as lovers day in the beginning,but it might grip and sway the minds of the youths of world a decade from now.We only have to make a start.
Remember that Krishna is not an icon that belongs to Hinduism alone,in fact he is a globally accepted phenomenon.The word Hinduism is not found in any of the Hindu scriptures.
Abhinav
Jun 9th, 2007 at 7:18 pm | #
MA,even I have not read any of your previous posts prior to valentines day one.That does not mean I am an aper.First of all,your previous posts were about blacks,dalits and Israel.If I had to read about politics,I know a few blogs and I already have my opinion about such heavy subjects and I decided to skip them.And to a certain extent,I agree with Patrix,your posts absolutely changed the tone of this blog.And the reason I read the Valentine’s day post was because I feel the same thing about it.I just read it and passed a comment.That is that,I am not an aper.
Secondly,you are contradicting yourself.
“If I love a person, I don’t need a particular day to express my loving sentiments to him/her”
When you don’t like the idea of loving someone on a particular day,then why would you suggest that we should celebrate gokulashtmi?Isn’t it the equivalent of V Day?I know why.Sarcasm.
Patrix
Jun 9th, 2007 at 8:52 pm | #
Maverick (or MA),
Ah! aren’t we clever? Now I have read enough such posts in the blogosphere that after reading the first few lines, I know where the author is coming from (and going to). So I rather not waste my time.
And as Abhinav pointed out, your earlier posts on Dalits and Blacks was enough to give me an insight on your writings so I prefer not to read anymore. As I said, this is Sakshi’s blog so she is free to ask anyone else to write on it but if I tend to see posts that aren’t suited for Sakshi’s blog I am free to ignore them, right?
Am not even commenting on the whole Valentine-Gokulashtmi debate coz I frankly find it a non-issue.
ab
Jun 11th, 2007 at 3:26 pm | #
this is all crap cant bealive it
shadows
Jun 13th, 2007 at 2:32 pm | #
>>>> Now I have read enough such posts in the blogosphere that after reading the first few lines, I know where the author is coming from (and going to). So I rather not waste my time.
========
LOLzz..
haha…
about meerabai
Jun 23rd, 2007 at 1:17 pm | #
Just wanted you to know there’s a new site out dedicated to presenting the spiritual implications of Mirabai’s life and teachings at
http://www.gitananda.org/mirabai/mirabai.html
or
http://www.gitananda.org