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Krishna in a golden dhoti playing the flute beside Radha, two white cows behind them and palace pillars in the background — an 1897 chromolithograph.
Krishna playing the flute to Radha — Unknown press, chromolithograph, 1897

Krishna (Laddu Gopal) · Evening to midnight

Janmashtami: the midnight birth

Bhadrapada Krishna Ashtami, Shravana by the amanta reckoning (4 Sep 2026; 24 Aug 2027)

In the simplest words

Waiting up for Krishna's midnight birth: the abhishek of baby Kanha at 12, the cradle, the butter, and the whole house singing.

Krishna arrives at midnight, in a prison, in the rain, and the whole vidhi is a welcome for that impossible guest: the fast held till his hour, the jhanki built, the abhishek at twelve, and the house singing to a newborn.

The Bhagavata (10.3) tells it: parents in chains, a tyrant waiting, and the doors opening anyway. The vigil re-lives that night in order. The day's fast is Devaki's waiting, the midnight abhishek is the birth, and the butter afterwards is Gokul's answer to fear: celebration.

Perform this puja

5 steps, one at a time, with the lamp, the mantras and the bell, on this screen.

Samagri: what you need

0/7 gathered

The vidhi, step by step

0/5 done

  1. Day vrat & jhanki

    Fast per capacity till the midnight puja (phalahar is usual). Through the evening, build the jhanki and dress the jhula.

  2. Evening bhajan & jaap

    The waiting is the worship: kirtan, the maha-mantra, the leelas retold to children.

    हरे कृष्ण हरे कृष्ण कृष्ण कृष्ण हरे हरे । हरे राम हरे राम राम राम हरे हरे ॥

    Hare Kṛṣṇa Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Hare Hare, Hare Rāma Hare Rāma, Rāma Rāma Hare Hare

    Hare, Krishna, Rama: three names woven sixteen times into one garland. Hare is read as the call to Hari, who takes sorrow away, or, in the Gaudiya reading, to Hara, the divine energy, Radha; Krishna is the all-attractive; Rama is the reservoir of joy. There is no request anywhere in the mantra. It is pure address, the practice of calling the beloved by name until the calling itself becomes the meeting.

    Source: Kali-Santaraṇa Upaniṣad

  3. Midnight abhishek

    At 12, conch and bells: bathe Laddu Gopal in panchamrit then clean water, dry with a soft cloth, dress in the new poshak.

    ॐ क्लीं कृष्णाय नमः

    Oṁ Klīṁ Kṛṣṇāya Namaḥ

    Om. Kleem. Salutations to Krishna. Kleem is the seed of akarshana, attraction: tradition says Krishna does not need to be reached so much as stopped being resisted, and the bija works on the resistance. His very name is glossed 'the all-attractive', so the mantra, in full, is a consent: draw me.

    Source: Gopāla-tāpanī / tantra bīja-mantra tradition

  4. Janma aarti & bhog

    'Nand ke anand bhayo, jai Kanhaiya Lal ki!' Makhan-mishri and panjiri with tulsi offered to the newborn, then the aarti.

    कृष्णाय वासुदेवाय हरये परमात्मने । प्रणतक्लेशनाशाय गोविन्दाय नमो नमः ॥

    Kṛṣṇāya vāsudevāya haraye paramātmane, praṇata-kleśa-nāśāya govindāya namo namaḥ

    To Krishna, to Vasudeva, to Hari, the supreme self; to Govinda, destroyer of the afflictions of those who bow: salutations again and again. The freed kings say it with their chains just off, and its promise sits in one compound, pranata-klesha-nashaya, destroyer of the sorrows of those who bow. Only the bowing is ours; the destroying is his.

    Source: Śrīmad Bhāgavata Purāṇa 10.73.16 (the prayer of the kings freed from Jarāsandha); used as a maṅgalācaraṇa before Bhāgavata recitation

  5. Jhula & lori

    Rock the jhula; a lori if your family sings one. The fast opens with the prasad, or next morning by family custom.

Note: Smarta and Vaishnava (ISKCON/Gaudiya) dates differ by a day in many years; both live in the festival entry. Dahi-handi belongs to the day after in Maharashtra's streets.

Note: Fast only as health allows. Children, elders, the ill and the pregnant keep a fruit fast or none; the vigil counts, not the hunger.

Krishna Janmashtami →