19 August Hayagriva Jayanti

According to Hinduism, there is a tradition of celebrating Hayagriva Jayanti on the full moon day of the month of Sawan every year. According to ancient beliefs, Lord Vishnu assumed the form of Hayagriva on the day of Hayagriva Jayanti. According to the scriptures, the Hayagriva avatar of Lord Vishnu is considered to be one of his 24 incarnations. Once when the evil demons held all the Vedas and Brahma hostage, Lord Vishnu came in his Hayagriva avatar and protected the Vedas and Brahma and reestablished them. The Hayagriva form of Lord Vishnu is considered to be the god of knowledge and wisdom. Worshiping the Hayagriva avatar of Lord Vishnu on this day leads to victory over enemies.

Importance of Hayagriva Jayanti: –

Talking about the importance of Hayagriva Jayanti, Lord Hayagriva’s head is similar to that of a horse or Haya, so he is known as Hayagriva. Lord Hayagriva is known as a protector god for all his devotees who took his Hayagriva avatar to remove the atrocities and evils happening in this world. In the Hayagriva avatar of Lord Vishnu, his horse-like head is considered a symbol of attaining higher education and knowledge. Worshiping this avatar of Lord Vishnu with devotion on the day of Hayagriva Jayanti helps a person to achieve great heights in his life.

Description of Hayagriva avatar of Lord Vishnu: –

If we talk about the Hayagriva avatar of Lord Vishnu, then his Hayagriva form is depicted as Lord Vishnu. Lord Vishnu in his Hayagriva form has a human body, horse head, white complexion and white clothes and sits on a white lotus seat. In Hinduism, Janeu Sanskar is also celebrated by many people on the day of Hayagriva Jayanti. According to the belief, on this day the old sacred thread is replaced with a new one and on this day, Brahma Ji is also specially worshipped.

Mythological story of Hayagriva Jayanti: –

According to the mythological story of Hayagriva Jayanti, once Lord Vishnu started laughing at Goddess Lakshmi. Seeing this, Goddess Lakshmi felt that Lord Vishnu was making fun of her beauty. Goddess Lakshmi became very angry on seeing this and cursed Lord Vishnu that his head should be separated from the body. As soon as the Goddess cursed, Lord Vishnu’s head got separated from the body and fell down. After that, seeing all this, on the suggestion of Lord Brahma Ji, the creator of the universe, Devshilpi Vishwakarma Ji put the head of a horse on Lord Vishnu’s body. From that time onwards, Lord Vishnu’s Hayagriva form was born. From then till the present time, the festival of Hayagriva Jayanti is also celebrated in Hinduism. Lord Vishnu protected the Vedas in his Hayagriva form:-

According to ancient stories, once both the demon brothers Madhu and Kaitabh stole all the Vedas from Brahma Dev due to which religious activities like worship, havan and yagya etc. stopped in the entire universe. Brahma went to Lord Vishnu to solve this problem. On hearing this from Brahma, Lord Vishnu took the form of Hayagriva. In this form, Vishnu went to Patal Lok to free the Vedas from demons like Madhu and Kaitabh. After reaching there, he killed the demons and freed the Vedas from them and handed over the Vedas back to Brahma. In this way, Lord Vishnu protected the holy Vedas from these demons by taking the form of Hayagriva.

Hayagriva Jayanti Puja Vidhi:-

Take a bath in the morning and wear clean clothes.
While worshipping Lord Hayagriva, sit facing east and north.
Before worshipping Lord Hayagriva, first worship Lord Ganesha.
To worship Ganesha, bathe Ganesha and offer him clean clothes. Also worship Ganesha with devotion with fragrance, flowers, incense, lamps and Akshat.
Now to worship Lord Hayagriva, bathe Lord Hayagriva with Panchamrit and clean water or Ganga water and offer him clean clothes.
After dressing Lord Hayagriva, offer him jewellery and garlands and apply tilak on him.
While applying tilak to Lord Hayagriva, chant the mantra given by Lord Vishnu, ‘Om Namo Bhagwate Vasudevay Namah’.
After this, take rice and flowers in your hand and recite mantras and meditate on Lord Hayagriva while expressing your wishes.
Finally, conclude your puja by performing Aarti of Lord Hayagriva.
Mantras to be chanted during Hayagriva Jayanti
Meditation Mantra