Pancanga Worship – 2. Sri Yamuna-Stava (Prayers to Sri Yamuna)
Pancanga method of worshiping the Yamuna
2) Sri Yamuna-Stava (Prayers to Sri Yamuna)
Before reading my below article, I would like to request my viewers to read my other article first “The Story of the Women of Barhishmati-Pura, the Apsaras, and the Women of Sutala and Nagendra”
Sri Mandhata said: “O Saubhari, O tiger among sages, please kindly tell me the transcendental Yamuna-Stava, which brings all perfection.”
Sri Saubhari said: “O noble-hearted one, please hear the Yamuna-Stava, which grants all perfection and brings the four goals of life.”
Obeisances to Sri Yamuna, who was born from Sri Krishna’s left shoulder! Obeisances to Sri Yamuna, who has a spiritual form like that of Lord Krishna! O Sri Yamuna, obeisances to you! Obeisances to you!
To a person that is lusty, foolish, polluted with many sins, and fond of quarreling with the devotees, Sri Yamuna, who is filled with many buzzing bees, gives residence in the transcendental abode of Goloka.
O Yamuna, you have a spiritual form like that of Sri Krishna. In your whirlpools, Lord Matsya appears. In your waves, Lord Kurma appears. In each drop of your water, Lord Krishna is splendidly manifest.
I offer my respectful obeisances unto you, who are playful, who are dark as a monsoon cloud, who were born from Lord Krishna’s left shoulder, who move swiftly, who are also named Viraja, who carry all waters, who break the coverings of the universe, who break great mountains and fortresses, who flow through the earth, who have beautiful shores, and who are a garland decorating the earth.
O Yamuna, when it is heard on this earth, your holy name destroys a great mountain of sin. When your name is spoken it again destroys a great host of sins. May your holy name stay in the circle of my words. In the city of your brother, Yamaraja, who is the son of the sun-god, you are known by the name Pracanda.
Sri Yamuna is a rope to pull one out of the blind well of sense gratification. Sri Yamuna is a snake to eat the rat of sin. Sri Yamuna is a beautiful crown of flowers on the usnik poems that are the hair on the head of the Lord’s universal form. Sri Yamuna gives wealth and good fortune to the people of this world. Even in Goloka, Sri Yamuna is dear, rare, glorious, and without any rival.
O Yamuna, O place where the gopis, gopas, and cows enjoy pastimes, O glory of Lord Krishna, by your shores is a great tumult of swiftly moving waves, by your shores is a great forest filled with the buzzing of bees and the calls of the peacocks, by your shores is a host of cooing cuckoos. May Sri Yamuna, who is decorated with the flowering vines of Vraja, protect me.
Even if they have as many tongues as there are hairs on their bodies or grains of sand on the beach, or even if they are as powerful as Lord Sesa, the most exalted devotees still cannot properly describe all your virtues.
A person who at sunrise hears or recites these prayers glorifying Sri Yamuna attains transcendental auspiciousness. A person who regularly hears and remembers these prayers attains the supreme transcendental abode, where the Supreme Personality of Godhead enjoys pastimes in the forests by the Yamuna’s shore.
In my next article, I will explain Pancanga Worship – 3. Sri Yamuna Sahasranama