Glories of Purushottama Month from Padma Purana - Part 4

 Then King Hadadhanwa eagerly asked Sage Valmiki about Purushottama month “O sage, please tell me how should one observe this most fortunate Purushottama month, which is most dear to Lord Shri Krishna? Who is the worshipable Lord for this month? What are the processes to worship this month and observe austerities? Please tell me all these secrets.”

The great sage Valmiki replied, “O king, one should get up early in the morning thinking about the Supreme Lord Hari who is also known as the Param Brahman. Then he should finish his morning duties, take bath, do pranayama, and offer prayers to the Supreme Lord Shri Krishna. Lord Shri Krishna with His consort Shri Radhika are the worshipable Deities for this Purushottama month. One should continuously chant gayatri until the sun rises in the east. Then one should pay his obeisances and offer [Arghya] water, flowers, etc. to the sun-god, who is also known as Surya Narayana. After finishing all of these morning duties one should start worshiping Lord Hari.”

“A worshiper of Purushottama month should take a vow to remain truthful, not to speak any lie. He should remain very peaceful, and not be engaged in any violent activities. He should collect some fresh cow dung and mixing it with some water, he should purify a certain area in the shape of a circle. Within that purified circular area, he should draw an eight-petal lotus flower with the help of some rice powder. Then he should place a new pot full of sacred water collected from different holy rivers, or he can call all the different tirthas or river to enter that pot of water. The water pot may be made of gold, silver, copper or of earth, according to the worshiper's financial ability.”

“After placing the holy water pot properly, he should call: O river Ganges, Godavari, Kaveri, Sarasvati, Yamuna, etc., please enter to this sacred pot and also purify my body and mind. Then he should worship that water pot with the help of sandalwood pulp, different other scented things, flowers, etc. He should place a copper plate covered with a new yellow cloth upon that water pot. Then one should place Deities of Shri Radha Krishna upon that pot. After placing the Deities properly, one should start worshiping Them with faith and devotion.”

The great sage Valmiki continued to speak again, “He should purify the Deities by a fire sacrifice and establish Them with life though the Vedic process, otherwise the Deities made of metal remain a lump of metal only. A brahmana who is qualified with Vedic knowledge should perform these activities. First of all, he should chant Purusha Sukta, starting from “om tad visnur param padam”, followed by the vijaya mantra of Purushottama. By placing his thumb on his heart, he should chant all these mantras to establish the Deities with life. He should take a vow that I shall live for this Deity, or I shall die for this Deity. He should chant many other mantras prescribed in Yajurveda adding svaha at the end of each mantra. In this way, he should meditate upon Lord Purushottama, Shri Krishna. Then he should speak like this:

“O Purushottama! I am offering this noble seat to Shri Shri Radha Krishna. The holy water brought by me from different holy rivers, including Ganges, is for Your pleasure. O Lord, please accept this water for washing Your feet." Saying this, one should offer padya. Then one should offer acamana to the Deities. Then one should bathe the Deities with pancamrita. Again offering acamana, to fulfill one's ultimate desire and attain perfection, one should offer new yellow silken clothes to the Deities. Then he should pray, “O Purushottama, please save me from this nescience, this cycle of birth and death.”

“One should offer brahminical threads with the new cloth also. Then he should chant, “O Lord! Please accept this sweetly scented sandalwood pulp which is prepared by me in careful way.” Then he should offer sandalwood pulp to different parts of the bodies of the Deities. He should pray, “O Purushottama, please accept these scented and unbroken flowers carefully collected by me.” Then he should offer the flowers to the Deities. He should worship the different parts of body of the Lord by chanting the mantras consisting of twenty-four different names of Lord Vishnu starting from kesavaya namah. In this way, one should worship Lord Puaishottama properly.”

Then king Hadadhanwa inquired, “O sage, what should be the prescribed foods for a performer of Purushottama vrata? What should one not eat in this month? Please explain everything very clearly to me.”

Sage Valmiki said, “O King! Listen, I am now explaining everything to you in brief. In purified consciousness one should collect, wheat, rice, sugar candy, sesame seeds, ginger, green leaves, banana, cucumber, rock salt, butter, ghee, curd, mango, etc., and should cook them without oil. One should not eat meat, fish, etc., or any kinds of non-vegetarian things. One should not use mustard, or mustard oil, or any kind of intoxicant in his daily fare.”

The Sage continued, “One should prepare one's food in a purified way, in pure consciousness and one should not cook in an iron pot. One should not speak any nonsense, nor think any nonsense, while preparing prasadam. One should avoid any type of contaminated food prepared in a contaminated or improper way. In Purushottama month, one should not blaspheme the demigods, the Veda or any literature in pursuance of the Vedic version, brahmanas, the spiritual master, cows, a person who performs Purushottama vrata, the king and all other saintly people. One should try his best to please Lord Vishnu by performing various austerities to the best of his ability A worshiper of Purushottama month should follow the above rules and regulations in the month of Karttika and Magha month as well, otherwise he could not get the full benefit from performing his Purushottama vrata. If possible, one can worship Purushottama month by observing a full fast from food throughout the month. If he cannot observe full fast, he could live by drinking ghee or drinking some milk which he should collect by begging. If he cannot do this, he can simply eat some fruits. An intelligent person should take a vow according to his capacity to observe and follow it. One should not break his vow in the middle of it. If one worships the Lord in His Salagram form, offering Him one lakh of Tulasi leaves, then he will achieve such unlimited merit and success that even Lord Brahma cannot describe it.

If one worships Purushottama month in this way, he will achieve more glories than performing one hundred horse sacrifices. The performer of Vedic karma-khanda yajnas achieves Swarga-loka, but the worshiper of Purushottama achieves Goloka Dhama. All the holy places of the world come to live in the body of a person who performs Purushottama vrata.