My dear Diksha, Siksha, Sheltered, Aspiring disciples and well wishers,
Please accept my blessings. All glories to Srila Prabhupada.
The month of Vaisakh started on 7th of April 2012 and will last till 6th of
May 2012.
Krishna says that of all months, Kartik is the best, but some of the Puranas
say that better than Kartik is Magha and better than Magha is Vaisakh. In
any case, Vaisakh is a special month to do some services like charity, japa,
bathing and rising early and worshiping the Lord. It is especially a blessed
month for doing charity and in general to increase one’s devotional service.
Of course if someone is already chanting sixteen rounds and attending mangal
aratik everyday and is generally fully engaged in devotional service, then
they get all benefits of all the months every month but if someone is not
fully vegetarian or not chanting or not chanting all sixteen rounds, then
this is a good month to chant some extra rounds, or give some extra charity
or do something extra. For example, they can commit to attend mangal artik
for a certain period this month.
Of course, already more than a week of Vaisakh month has passed but we can
still take advantage of this month even if we observe one, two, or three
days. Whatever we can do would be beneficial. If we can observe for two
weeks, that would be really great.
Please see how you can increase your devotional service during this Vaisakh
month. Especially holy are days like Narasimha Caturdasi or the Purnima
immediately after it. Then there is the third day of the rising
moon, which is known as Akshaya Tritiya, or the indestructible tithi(day).
Akshaya Tritiya is the beginning day or the anniversary of Treta yuga and it
is said that any devotional service or charity you do on that day will last
forever! So please take all the mercy that is available on that day. If
you’re not already getting the full mercy, then this is an opportunity to
try to increase your devotional service and get some extra mercy.
While some things give you hundred plus times the benefit, some things give
you much more or even millions of times the benefit.
Your well-wisher always,
Jayapataka Swami