Important Dates to do Sadhana in Year 2023

Jai Sri Hari Everyone ,

Happy New Year 🙂

We all are immensely grateful to Swami ji and VSFite as they have given us many opportunities to do sadhana last year(2022), the most memorable ones are with Swami ji.  Many times, we were doing back-to-back sadhana, and sometimes, our Sadhanas(multiple) overlapped. At times, I have realized I would have planned this Sadhana better if I had known some important dates before. So I thought of consolidating some of the important events (I am aware of) for the year 2023. I have followed DrikPanchang to validate all the below dates and Vedic-Panchang available on this platform to confirm the Karthik Surya Sadhana’s date.

Here are some of the important dates month-wise.

January

• Vaikunth Ekadashi – 02 Jan – An awesome opportunity to start the new year with Sri Hari’s blessings by
  • Performing Abhishekam, Yajna, Japa at Vaikunth, Sri Hari Temple in Sadhana App.
  • We can also witness this beautiful day with rituals like abhishekam performed at Sri Badrika Ashram. One can also book these events to receive prasadam on these auspicious days here.

Sharing a few among many beautiful posts on Sri Hari on this platform. The devotional loving story shared by Varun Om ji here. A beautiful blog by Mansi ji here and a lovely poem on Dev Uthani Ekadashi by Shubham ji here .

• Arudra Darshan – 06 Jan – This festival is dedicated to Lord Shiva. To be honest, I read about this auspicious day only recently from Sri Maa’s post (I am not able to find the post in Medium to link it here). I checked in Drik Panchag online and found there are two dates in the year 2023, one in January, as mentioned here and another one in December(updated in Dec month section).                         

• Sri Suktam Sadhana –  Jan 21 – Priyanka ji confirmed this date and this updated date will be confirmed by Sadhana Team in the email to all of us. I am sure many were eagerly waiting to know about dates when the Sadhana Team would enable the recording of Yajna performed by Swami ji last year. The virtual Yajna with Swami ji, the opportunity to become a patron and the detailed meaning and story behind each verse of Sri Suktam explained by Swami ji every day are boon for us. 
  The detailed (extravaganza) blog on Sri Suktam Sadhana and all possible questions that existed in any corner of space are already answered by Swami ji here.                                                                     

• Gupt Navaratri –  Jan 22 to Jan 30 – Festival of nine nights dedicated to Maa Durga, is spread throughout the year among four seasons. The first nine days in the beginning of these four seasons are dedicated to Maa. We are so grateful as we can do Sadhana of mother divine four times a year. This is also known as Magha Navaratri, as this Gupta Navaratri is observed during the lunar month of Magha. The three more Navaratri are updated month-wise below. If you have any questions/doubts about Gupta Navaratri, you might want to look at some of the FAQs already answered by our lovely family here, here and here.

          Navaratri Sadhana can be done in one of below ways

• • Bhoutik (Physically), Swami ji has beautifully explained all the steps in His blog here. Even, If you are planning to do this Sadhana Manasic, you can read this post to know more also Swami ji has answered many questions in this blog.
  • Manasic, Navarana Mantra Sadhana is available in Maa Durga Temple in Sadhana App. This Sadhana has one mantra for all nine days and can be started any day of the year like any other Sadhana in the app.
  • Manasic, this exactly matches the physical one described by Swami ji in the post, which means the day Mantra changes as we worship the beautiful different forms of Mother Divine each day. This is an additional feature which the Sadhana team enables during Navaratri.  This Sadhana is not available in Maa Durga temple (like Navarana Mantra Sadhana), one needs to click on Maa Durga Vahana Lion in the app, which visits us only during Navaratri.                                                                                                                                                                       

February

• Shivaratri- Feb 18  – Swami ji has written a blog about this beautiful night here.  On this auspicious day last year(March 1, 2022),  Swami ji launched the Sadhana App. We have got a double bonus on this day in the form of

• • Performing Abhishekam, Japa and Yajna at home.
  • Watching a virtual live event at Sri Badrika Ashram. Its available here

       An unmissable blog about the Shiva Shakti by Team Vedic Sadhana here . Swami ji has mentioned Maha Mrityunjaya Mantra here.

March

• Chaitra Navaratri –  March 22 to March 30 – The second Navaratri of the year, also called Vasantha Navaratri, is celebrated during the lunar month of Chaitra. It also marks the first day of the Hindu lunisolar calendar, also known as the Hindu Lunar New Year, according to the Vikram Samvat calendar. This day is celebrated as a New Year in some regions of India.¹

April

• Hanuman Jayanti – 06 April – This day is observed as the birth anniversary of Lord Hanuman. 

Lord Hanuman temple was introduced in Sadahana App on Sep 13, 2022. Thanks to Sandeep ji for mentioning the date and quick overview written by him here.  If you want to read about more mythological stories which you possibly might not have heard before, then you must read all posts of Keyur ji, one about Bhagwan Panchmukhi Hanuman ji here. A beautiful unmissable story of faith is shared by Sandeep ji here.

June

• Ashada Gupt Navaratri –  19 June to 27th June   – The third Navaratri of the year is observed during the lunar month of Ashada, hence the name. The Magha and Ashada month Navratri are referred to as Gupt Navaratri.

July

• Guru Purnima – 03 July – The day dedicated to the spiritual teacher, the Guru.

• • Guru Sadhana – Swami ji has explained in detail about the Bhoutik (physical) Sadhana of Guru in His book – The Ancient Science of Mantras.
  • In Sadhana App, Vedic Yajna and Japa are available. The Sadhana is not yet included and If I understood correctly, it’s in their roadmap.

                  Words fall short(literally) in defining Your compassion, Kindness, and Unconditional love, Guru Bhagwan. This ignorant have not seen anything larger than your Grace, love, kindness and compassion for all. Yet I know nothing close to the Divine you are.

गुरुर ब्रह्मा गुरुर विष्णु गुरुर देवो महेश्वरा |

गुरु साक्षात परब्रह्मा तस्मै श्री गुरुवे नमः  ||

• Shravan Shivaratri – 15 July  – There are usually 12 Shivaratri in a  year, this one is observed during the month of Shravana (Savan). Majorly many celebrate the entire Shravan month by dedicating pooja to Lord Shiva. I got to know about this event from the Mantra Sadhana booklet.

September

• Ganesh Chaturthi – 19 September – The auspicious day to start the Sadhana of Lord Ganesha, as notified last year in the app. One can do Sadhana in many ways.

• • Physically, as described by Swami ji in the book  – The Ancient Science of Mantras.
  • Manasic, Through the Sadhana App. There are three Sadhana available of Lord Ganesha, you can choose one and decide the total days and times for Japa every day.
  • If you are looking for even simpler steps, then you might want to have a look at this small booklet of Mantra Sadhana (English/Hindi) where Swami ji has mentioned minimal steps of Nitya Pooja and Sadhana here.

• Sri Krishna Janmashtami – 07 September – This festival is celebrated on the eighth tithi (Ashtami) of the Krishna Paksha (dark fortnight) of Shraavana Masa (according to the amanta tradition) or Bhadrapada Masa (according to the purnimanta tradition).²

October

• Kartik Surya Sadhana – Oct 18 to Nov 16  –  Swami ji has written a blog about this Sadhana along with answering many questions plus a discourse on it. All in one here . Swami ji has explained the easy way to find the dates every year using Vedic Panchang. I only learnt this very recently when Komal explained me in one of FAQ. Thank you so much Komal.

• Sharada Navaratri – October 15 to October 23 – The fourth, last and the most popular Navaratri of the year, observed during the lunar month of Ashvini.

• Sri Suktam Sadhana –   If I understood correctly, Swami ji mentioned that next time Sri Suktam Sadhana would be concluded on Deepawali. So, if we go 16 days back from the Deepawali date, this might fall during the last week of October month. It’s just my guess, I might be wrong here. I will better wait for Swami ji to announce the dates of this Sadhana next year. In case anyone knows, kindly share the dates. 

November

• Dipawali – 12 November – Along with performing Maa Laksmi pooja at home, we can do abhishekam of Maa through the Sadhana app.

December

• Vaikuntha Ekadashi – 23 Dec – Also celebrated on Jan2 (mentioned in January section),
• Aurudra – 27 Dec – Also celebrated on Jan 6( January section).

Source

· 1 and 2 (Subscript with the link) – https://en.wikipedia.org/

·  Sri Suktam Sadhana Date referred from Vedic Sadhana Team email sent on New Year occasion

· https://os.me/panchang/ – Kartik Surya Sadhana – Thanks to Komal Ji for teaching me how to check during one of QA

· https://www.drikpanchang.com/ – I have verified all dates except Kartik Surya Sadhana dates from this link