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Damodar Month – The Special Month of Kartika (7th October – 5th November 2025)The lunar month of Kartik is very dear to Vaisnavas. It is dedicated to the remembrance of the activities of Lord Krsna in his form as a baby in a particularly charming pastime called Damodara-Lila. Therefore, the month is also known as Damodara-masa or the month of Damodara.
Baby Krsna was very naughty, and one day, angry with his mother, Yasoda, when she got distracted from breastfeeding him, he broke a pot of yoghurt she had been churning into butter and helped himself to the butter. Next, he went into her storeroom, took another pot of butter, and, after eating plenty of it himself, distributed the rest to the local monkeys.
Mother Yasoda was angry when she found her yoghurt pot smashed. She took up a stick and went to find Krsna, who she suspected was the cause of the broken pot. He quickly ran away when he saw his mother coming to chastise him with a stick in her hand. She ran after him, finally capturing him and tying him to a grinding mortar in her courtyard to immobilise him and put an end to his mischief.
Kṛṣṇa, however, had another plan. He pushed the grinding mortar onto its side and, while still being tied to it, dragged it between two mature twin Yamal Arjuna trees in the courtyard so that the mortar became stuck. He continued pulling with great strength, toppling and uprooting the two huge trees, thereby liberating Nalakuvara and Maṇigriva, the sons of Kuvera, who had been cursed by the sage Narada to live as trees.
This pastime is poetically recounted in an eight-stanza prayer that is sung morning and evening throughout the Kartik month while devotees each offer a ghee lamp with love and devotion to their Lord and his mother Yasoda. This activity of singing the prayer of Damodarashtakam and offering a ghee lamp is open to everyone and anyone who is inclined to join in and worship Lord Sri Damodara. (Please see Krsna Book, Chapters 9 & 10 for the full account of the pastime.)
Sri Damodarastakam – The Prayer to Lord Damodara:
https://iskcondesiretree.com/page/sri-damodara-ashtakam
Sri Damodarashtakam with Lyrics:
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