Ira Trivedi talks to mid-day.com about how she became a Krishna bhakt at the age of 10, adopting the yoga life and how she celebrates Janmashtami every year
Ira Trivedi and Madhu Mantena
Ira Trivedi is a yogini and Krishna bhakt. On Janmashtami, Ira took mid-day.com through the rituals she practices on Janmashtami, how she infuses it with her yoga practise and how she became a Krishna bhakt. For Ira, Krishna Janmashtami is no less than a birthday celebration. In place of a midnight cake cutting, she along with her closed ones bring in the festival with kirtan and bhajan at home.
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The Well, it actually begins the evening prior to Janmashtami, because we always bring the birthday in. So, the celebration begins the evening prior, continuing, if possible, to midnight. On Janmashtami and even the day prior is filled with a lot of cooking because Bhagwan loves good food. Who doesn't, right? On birthdays, you want to have delicious food. So, we always prepare a few special items for Krishna that he loves. Makhan, a lot of mithai; all of his favourite foods. A lot of shingar is done on that day. Bhagwan loves shingar. So dressing Bhagwan up, decorating the temple, that's typically how I celebrate Janmashtami," she shared.
Idol worshipping:
Ira Trivedi also revealed that she would earlier visit temples but not much now. "Now that I find temples very, very crowded, it's difficult to go there. But sometimes I'll sneak in and just observe because even the temples are so beautifully decorated. Bhagwan is dressed up so beautifully, the atmosphere can be wonderful. But I always try to create my temple at home doing the same things." she said before sharing her thoughts on idol worshipping.
It is a topic that has been debated time and again. So where does Ira stand on that?
"I do feel that idol worship brings a certain sense of sanctity into our lives, but not over idol worship. I know someone who does really long rituals every day and they use litres of orange juice and milk. I think to myself that those litres of orange juice and milk that are being used could have been given to a hungry person. So I believe doing idol worship in moderation as that makes more sense to me when there's no wastage. There should be a lot of thought behind whatever that you're doing," she opined.
Becoming a Krishna bhakt:
For Ira, her journey of following Lord Krishna began when she was as young as 10. "It started with me in 10th standard actually, when I myself got a balkrishna. So it's a practice of bhakti where you keep Krishna with you at home and you treat Krishna like a living deity. So every morning, um, there is bhog. In fact, there's bhog three or four times a day. Whatever we're cooking at home, we first offer it to God so that it becomes sacred, it becomes prasad. The shringar that happens every day, bathing and dressing of Krishna and putting him to sleep every night. Waking up in the morning with a prayer, going to bed with a prayer. So that bhakti became part of our day-to-day lives.
And even if I'm eating at a restaurant, um, I'll always imagine that I'm offering this food to Bhagavan before I'm having it myself. So in that way, you end up thinking about the Lord at least 24 times a day, you know, at least 20 times a day. That's like every hour of the day.
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