Kurma Jayanti 2025: Celebrating Lord Vishnu’s Kurma Form

In Hinduism ‘Kurma Jayanti’ is celebrated as a sacred festival to honor the incarnation of Lord Vishnu. On this day, the Lord took a huge form of tortoise to support the ocean churning during Samudra Manthan. This appearance day is a sign of divine kindness to help the world under cosmic struggle. Many devotees observe fasting, and perform prayers to seek his blessings.

Kurma Jayanti falls in the month of Vaishakha on the full moon day. It will be celebrated on 12th May 2025.

The Story Behind Divine Incarnation

This story is well explained in hindu scriptures. To accomplish the difficult task of Samudra Manthan, it is said that all the devas(demigods) and asuras(demons) came together to help each other in churning the amrit from the ocean. To do this, a huge mountain called ‘Mandara’ was a rod and the King of all serpents called ‘Vasuki’ was used as a rod in churning the ocean.

When the churning process was going on, the mountain started to sink into the ocean due to it’s own weight. It has created a huge chaos between devas and asuras. To resolve this problem, Lord Vishnu appeared in the form of a huge tortoise -Kurma, holding the mountain on his back at the bottom of the ocean.

After the churning, a number of treasures were obtained by the ocean, such as Kamadhenu(the wish-fulfilling cow), Airavata(elephant of Indra), a pot of amrita, etc.

How Is Kurma Jayanti Observed

Kurma Jayanti is an auspicious festival observed in various places across India. Here are the rituals that are followed:

1. Early morning rituals: On the very morning of this festival, devotees take a holy bath in the holy rivers like Ganga, Yamuna, and Godavari, to gain divine blessings and grow on the path of devotion.

2. Puja ritual: On this special day, the idol of Lord Vishnu is decorated with tulsi leaves, flowers, chandan, and offered various fruits and sweets. The devotees then take a prana of the whole day **fasting and ask for the blessings of the Lord to complete it.

3. Fasting: Many devotees observe a full day of fasting without any food or water, just like nirjala fasting, some observe the fasting with fruits and water only. This is believed to bring immense blessings from the Lord Vishnu.

4. Chanting holy names: While fasting, chanting Hare Krishna Mahamantra the entire day is necessary to honor the divine incarnation of Lord Vishnu.

5. Night Kirtan: Mostly devotees perform all night kirtan, to avoid sleep and spend the time remembering krishna.

6. Charity and donation: On the divine day, like Kurma Purnima, providing the basic necessities to the people/children in need, is no less than a divine opportunity to starts a spiritual journey.

Srila Prabhupada’s teachings On Kurma Jayanti

Srila Prabhupada, the founder-acharya of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON), spent his entire life emphasizing the glories of Lord Krishna and his various incarnations. Here are a few teachings that he learned from the divine incarnation of Lord Vishnu, as Kurma.

1. Beauty of selfless services: Srila Prabhupada specifies the one quality of the Lord, selfless care. Despite being the divine himself, Lord Vishnu chooses to serve his devotees in the act of churning amrita from the ocean. He humbly took the form of tortoise and handled the weight of the mountain at the bottom of the sea.

Through this kind action of the Lord, Prabhupada wants us to learn the humbleness in the act of spiritual services for the Lord without expecting anything in return, as the Lord served his devotees.

2. Stability in Devotion: In the entire Kurma story, the incarnation of Kurma stabilizes the weight of the mountain to restart the process of churning. Prabhupada highlights another quality of the Lord here, stability, he wants us to learn the nature of stability. Even in the difficult situation, disturbed surroundings, or pressured conditions, be calm, focus on the Lord and keep focusing on devotion.

This teaching is helpful in various activities, like chanting, worshipping, and various spiritual sevas, during real world fights/unnecessary arguments, unresolved conflicts, and other negative situations.

3. Balancing energies: In the churning process of Samudra Manthan, there were devas, as a symbol of positive energy and asuras, as a symbol of negative energy, assembled together to accomplish a common goal- ’getting amrita/nectar’.

Srila Prabhupada highlights the importance of cooperating both good and bad energy inside oneself in practising krishna consciousness. He aslo used this as a lesson for individual as well as the collective spiritual growth of people.

Celebration in famous temples

Although this festival is celebrated in various places of India. Here are few temples where Kurma Jayanti is specifically observed:

1. Sri Kurmanatha Swamy Temple: This is an ancient temple in Srikakulam, Andhra Pradesh, known to be the Lord Kurma temple, and organizes huge celebrations on this auspicious day, every year.
2. Vaishnava Temples: All the Vaishnava temples, like ISCKON, worships Lord Vishnu and conducts huge celebrations and various rituals to honor the divine incarnation of the Lord.

Frequently Asked Questions:

Q.1 What is the spiritual significance of the Kurma Avatar?

Ans. 'Kurma Avatar' reflects the humbleness, stability and unconditional service attitude required in one’s life to balance oneself in difficult times.

Q.2 What are the benefits of observing Kurma Jayanti?

Ans. The major benefits of observing fasting on this auspicious day are inner peace, removal of past sins and grants devotion to one’s life.

Q.3 Is it necessary to fast on Kurma Jayanti?

Ans. Yes, fasting is the sign of pure devotion, many devotees observe the fast for elevating their devotional journey.

Conclusion

Kurma Jayanti isn’t just a story about the Lord’s incarnation to save the world, but also a gentle reminder for devotees and non-devotees to stay humble in every situation. It also teaches us to gradually progress in our spiritual journey through daily spiritual practices.

Whether one observes a strict fasting, a normal fasting with fruits and water, or no fasting at all, the ultimate purpose is devotion. If a person isn’t able to observe fasting, he/she can listen to the katha (story) of this incarnated form of Lord Vishnu.

This is a divine opportunity to learn - how to be grounded, completely humble and fully surrender in front of the Supreme personality, so that we can worship our Lord devotionally.