Jalabhishek & Panchamrit Abhishek

During the Sawan Mas or the month of monsoon, a lot of devotees can be seen in temples devoted to Lord Shiva. Devotees bring water from various holy places and pour it on Lord Shiva’s idols in these temples. The month of monsoon is considered to be a symbol of devotion towards Lord Shiva. Devotees bring water from far off places. They are usually barefoot and receive appreciation from all the people around them. All the ways leading to Haridwar can be seen crowded with these people during the month of monsoon. Cheers and chants of Bam-Bam bhole can be heard all around. The journey for collecting water for Jalabhishek should begin on an auspicious day. Kawads should consider an auspicious date for beginning their journey. The position of Moon should be analyzed before going on the journey. For example, the sign of the direction in which you want to travel should be favorable. The Moon sign on the right hand side of the direction will be auspicious. The Moon sign on the left hand side is usually inauspicious and causes troubles.

IMPORTANCE OF JALABHISHEK-

It is believed that the glory of Lord Shiva can be seen during the month of Shravan. Reciting Gayatri mantra, Mahamrityunjaya mantra, panchakshar etc gives beneficial results to the devotees. Shravan month begins when the shravan nakshatra forms yoga with poornima tithi. During this month, devotees establish a shivalinga and perform jalabhishek with milk and gangajal. Lord Shiva is very fond of shivalinga jalabhishek and whoever does it, is blessed with all pleasures of life.

Jalabhishek of Shivalinga has been considered very fruitful. Many things are used to perform jalabhishek and each of it gives different results to the devotees. For instance; offering water gives rain and cold, abhishek with milk and ghee gives the pleasure of child, abhishek with sugarcane juice provides wealth and prosperity. Kushodk banishes the causes of disease, and honey provides fortune and financial stability. It is believed that a person attains results equivalent to that of ashwamedh yagna by visiting jyotirlinga during this month. There is a very popular legend in respect to the jalabhishek of Lord Shiva during this month. As per the legend, during the battle between Devas and Demons while churning the sea for amrit, a lot of poisonous substances started coming out of the sea. Due to these poisonous elements the whole universe started burning with immense heat leading to destruction in all the three worlds. To prevent the destruction, devas

After drinking the poison Lord Shiva's face and body started turning blue and his body's temperature increased unbearably. Lord Shiva did this during the Shravan month. To calm his body temperature all the devas started pouring gangajal over his body. Since then the tradition of jalabhishek took place during the month of Shravan month. Water is poured on Lord Shiva during the whole Shravan month, especially on Mondays to get his blessings.

PANCHAMRIT ABHISHEK/KRISHNA ABHISHEK

You can worship him in a simple way because only reverence matters but if you want to do abhishek here is a proper way.

Abhishek = Making the beloved deity sit on the throne in the temple of the house. Take the sculpture of "Baal Gopal" or "Laddo Gopal" or Child krishna. and gather all the following necessary material

• Panijeeri with lots of dry fruits.
• Desi Butter mixed with Mishri.
• You can also buy a Thali for 56 bhogs .

We usually start the day after a shower/traditional clothes wearing tilak. First offer the preparations for the day's feast like curd, milk, butter, fruits, sugar, honey, tulasi /saffron /cardamom holy water, nuts etc. My dad usually do the Abhishek. He first prepares the deity /consorts with simple cotton white clothes, keep them on a large plate(pref. silver), apply sandal paste / turmeric on the deities , get 5 small cups of liquids you want to bathe the deities with, he uses a sieve plate holding above their heads, empty one cup of milk first for example, then wash the deity again with holy water, thus continue with all 5 cups and water alternatively. Finally dry the dieties and dress them up with Silk/New clothes (small pieces or stitched) and decorate with ornaments, flowers. You can sing bhajans or slokas whatever you know. As the preparations take a whole day, start during siddha or amrita yoga in the Morning , we start to prepare the complete food for the feast like the sweets, savories, special meal while reciting the slokas. When we were young, though we help in the preparations - feast, kolam / decorations.

There is a list of following items which are used for all the Abhisheks

• Do Achamana. 
• Do Sankalpa. 
• Pray for Panchdeva and offer a flower for Dhyanartha. 
• Do Avahanam(Call him in the sclupture) do not need to Ahvahanam in Bana Lingam and Shalagram.then offer flowers as Asana. 
• Offer water for Padya (for washing feet) 
• Offer water for Arghya(for hands) 
• Offer water for Achamana. 
• Make him bathe with water. 
• Offer water for Achamana. 
• Make him bathe in milk again with water. 
• Make him bathe in curd again with water. 
• Make him bathe in Ghee again with water. 
• Make him bathe in honey again with water. 
• Make him bathe in sugar again with water. 
• Make him bathe in Panchamrit(solution made of milk,curd,ghee,honey,sugar and YaMuna water(only here)(Commonly Gangawater) 
• Make him bathe in the water mixed with sandal wood. 
• Make him bathe in water again. 
• With the help of any jug just pour the water or milk continuously on him by chanting his Strota with the sound of bell. 
• Make him sit on the Asana(Craddle). 
• Offer him clothes. 
• Offer him Upavastra. 
• Offer him Janeu.(if it is a Goddess,offer her things like Bindi,bangles,vermilion etc.) 
• Apply Sandal paste. 
• Offer Akshata(unbroken rice). 
• Offer ornaments and gems. 
• Offer flowers and garland. 
• Offer grass and other things like Bilva patram or Brasil leaves or whatever ur deity likes. 
• Sprankle scent or other incense. 
• Show him Dhoop and Deepak.
• Offer him Naivedya(Prasadam).
• Offer him fruits. 
• Offer him Paan.
• Offer him Dakshina(money or whatever it is of the same order) 
• Do his Aarti.(here Arti kunja bihari ki, ki girdhar krishna murari ki) 
• Do his prayer.also read his sooktas and other prayers after the Aarti. 
• Offer flowers as Pushpanjali. 
• Do his Parikrama(move around the sclupture) 
  
• Pray him to forgive u if u have done any mistake in Pooja. 
• Have his offerings and distribute among all. 
• If it is Parthiv sclupture(sculpture of soil) just take and deposit it in the river. 

• If anything is missing in ur Pooja,do it creating image in ur mind and say "manasa parikalpayami" 
• You can do all the Abhishek in ur heart by imagining it if u can't gather all these things. 
• He wants love so whatever u do do with love. 
• Women should not perform this if they are menstruating but they can take the prasad.
• Do it with proper Shlokas.But u don remember them.just say his name put OM before it and offer. as "om namah shivay" "i am offering Vastras" like this.  wash ur hands with water if u sneeze between the pooja.

Shankh is used for bathing deity idols.It is widely used in ISKCON temples. Other uses of shankh are sprinkling water during Aarti, for offering Gangajal, for offering Pachamrit bath to the deities. The shankha is a sacred emblem used as a trumpet in Hindu ritual,and in the past was used as a war trumpet. As a symbol of water,it is associated with female fertility. Shankha's significance is traced to the nomadic times of the animists who used the sound emanating from this unique shell to drive away evil demons. Lord Shiva flung a trident towards the demons, burning them instantaneously.Their ashes flew in the sea creating conchs. The sound of the shankha symbolises the sacred Om sound.Vishnu holding the conch represents him as the God of sound. Brahma Vaivarta Purana declares that shankha is the residence of both Lakshmi and Vishnu, bathing by the waters led through a shankha is considered as like bathing with all holy waters at once.Sankha Sadma Purana declares that bathing an image of Vishnu with cow milk is as virtuous as performing a million yajnas fire sacrifices,and bathing Vishnu with Ganges river water frees one from the cycle of births.It further sayswhile the mere sight of the conch shankha dispels all sins as the Sun dispels the fog,why talk of its worship? Padma Purana asserts the same effect of bathing Vishnu by Ganges water and milk and further adds doing so avoids evil,pouring water from a shankha on one's own head before a Vishnu image is equivalent to bathing in the pious Ganges river.

Benefits Of Abhishek-

Abhishek is a religious ceremony of holy bath given to a deity. The word abhishek means a sprinkling. Abhisheka is literally, wetting around. An Abhishek is the bathing part of a puja that usually is done with sacred water. In puja, a deity is called, seated, greeted, bathed, dressed, fed and praised. The bathing of the deity is the ABHISHEKA part of the puja. During an elaborate bathing ceremony a deity is bathed not only in water, but also with milk, yogurt, butter milk, honey, clarified butter, sugar, and all kinds of fruit juices. After this bathing, the sacred image is dressed, ornamented, fed and praised with hymns accompanied with bells, drums and other instruments. Offering Sugar cane juice, for example, help please the Goddess of wealth; Laxmi. The various other offerings have different meaning and gives different results to the devotee. Offering honey may bring riches and financial gains, milk would help a person attain a baby boy, ghee is offered to expand your family lineage and have a fulfilling life, offering Ganga water would help devotees to attain Moksha, and pure water Abhishek would help remove troubles from one's life and fulfill special wishes. Thus, one should be aware of the type of Abhishek you wish to offer and the kind of blessings you wish to gain. Offering Abhishek is of grave importance and has a lot of prominence in Hindu culture. It pleases the almighty, brings peace of mind and makes one realize of the purpose of life. One becomes more open to embrace life and the realities associated with it.