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In Spiritual meaning - Celebrating a birthday is actually expressing gratitude to God for the opportunity to do Saadhanaa (spiritual practice) during the past year and praying for His grace in the coming year.

The birthday is the day to assess spiritual progress of the embodied soul: It is the “day of growth” indicating spiritual progress. For the soul to progress spiritually, purification of the subtle body and imbibing of the three components, ‘trigunas’ from Deities in appropriate proportions is necessary. The spiritual progress of an embodied soul begins at birth. Even if an individual does not undertake actual spiritual practice, due to various spiritual rituals performed on him the Sattwa component in him increases thus initiating his spiritual progress. Birthday is the day to take stock of the effect of spiritual rituals on his subtle body. From a spiritual perspective, birthday is the day to assess one’s spiritual progress and if there is spiritual progress then it signifies actual growth.

Birthday is the day to enhance one’s ability to imbibe Chaitanya: One’s Birthday enhances the ability of an embodied soul to imbibe Chaitanya (Divine Consciousness) by invoking Deities. This action raises the Sattwa component in the atmosphere and the embodied soul achieves stability of the inner mind.

An individual is born with a spiritual level which is carried forward from the past birth. Accordingly, that particular Chakra (centre) in the spiritual energy system or Kundaline is already in an activated state or a state where the journey of the spiritual energy has halted. In the Sat Yug, Tretaa Yug and Dwaapar Yug evolved individuals would be invited to bless the individual whose first birthday was being celebrated or the child would be taken to him. The evolved soul would perform the ritual of Aukshan for the child and making a silent resolve would shower unbroken rice grains on various parts of its body thus activating the Chakra of the spiritual energy system in that area, till the Chakra where the spiritual journey had halted was reached. He would touch the Chakra beyond the one where the spiritual energy flow was arrested with unbroken rice grains in the fingers. This would resume the further journey of the spiritual energy. The evolved soul progressed beyond 75% would know merely by looking at the embodied soul up to where his spiritual energy was activated. So, a mere glance at that chakra would restart his spiritual progress.

In the Tretaa and Dwaapar Yug, either the individual would visit saints or vice-versa and the saint would bestow his blessings for rapid spiritual progress. After having received blessings the embodied soul would seriously enhance his efforts to increase spiritual progress. On the subsequent birthday when the individual would go for blessings to the saint He would bless him only after assessing if his spiritual progress had occurred in the past year. Since the seeker was fully aware that his progress was a consequence of the saint’s blessing there were less chances of inflation of his ego.

Importance of Celebrating the Birthday as per the Hindu Lunar Calendar:
It is advisable to celebrate the date of birth as per the Hindu lunar calendar as on that day the benefits derived are more than if celebrated on the date of birth according to the Western calendar.

The attributes of the embodied soul born on that particular day match with the frequencies present on that date as per the Hindu lunar calendar (Tithi). When celebrating the birthday on this date, through the ritual of Aukshan and a prayer made unto the family deity, the Chaitanya generated helps the embodied soul to combat the distressing energy attacks at various levels.

Blessings and good wishes endow maximum benefit:
The frequencies of the date of birth according to the Hindu lunar calendar match the individual maximally. Since the blessings and good wishes of relatives and well-wishers bring maximum benefit to the individual celebrating the birthday as per the Hindu lunar calendar is more beneficial.

One develops the strength to combat obstacles in life: Since the frequencies in the universe on the birthday as per the Hindoo lunar calendar match the temperament of the person born on that date, the Saattwik and Chaitanya-enriched rituals done by an individual on that day leave a deep impression on his subconscious mind. As a result, he derives spiritual prowess to combat problems in his future life.

Benefits of celebrating a birthday as per the Hindu lunar calendar (Tithi) as against the date of birth as per the Western calendar.

Celebrating birthday as per date by Western calendar and Celebrating birthday as per Hindu lunar calendar
(1) Body involved Physical body only Physical body 5% and subtle body (desire, mind, intellect, ego bodies) 95%.

(2) Effects on body - Since it is related only to the physical body the embodied soul benefits from the Sattwa frequencies negligibly. As a result the covering of the embodied soul by Raj andTam attributes may not get reduced. Sattwa component of the subtle body increases.

(3) Effects on the spiritual energy channels (Naadee) - Even after Aukshan the Sattwa component in the subtle body does not grow as much as required; mostly the sun channel and at times the moon channel gets activated. However this does not benefit the embodied soul spiritually.

After a Tithi begins, every moment an embodied soul derives ‘Saattwik frequencies matching his subtle body, which are necessary for purification of the body. As a result of Aukshan the Sushumnaa channel in the embodied soul gets activated. If the spiritual level of the embodied soul exceeds 60%, the Sushumnaa channel remains active throughout the day.

(4) Effects on the attitudes of an embodied soul
As the Sattwa component in an embodied soul does not increase, his extroverted attitude does.
As the Sattwa component in an embodied soul grows, so does his introverted attitude.

Method of Birthday Celebration:
There are as many temperaments as there are people and so also the corresponding number of paths of spiritual practice.’ This is one of the basic tenets in Hinduism. Based on this, the methods of performing religious rituals also vary. Though the methods vary, the benefit of the ritual is the same, which is all methods endow the Divine principle. Thus one can decide the method as per convenience. Following are the two methods for celebration of a birthday.

Method 1
(A) In the first year of life every month, and thereafter every year on the date of birth as per the Hindu lunar calendar one should bathe after an oil massage. This should be, followed by application of Tilak of Kumkum (vermilion) on the forehead.

(B) With the resolve to do activities to increase one's age, a fistful of rice is placed on a wooden seat or platform in 17 small heaps in the name of the family deity (Kul Devtaa), lunar asterism at birth (Nakshatra), parents, Deities Prajaapati, Soorya, Ganesh, Parshuraam, Raam, Hanumaan , Shasthi Devtaa, Sages Maarkandeya, Vyaas, Kripaachaarya, Ashwathaamaa, Bali, Prahlaad and Vibheeshan. The corresponding deity is invoked in each heap and their ritualistic worship with 16 substances is performed. The Shashthee Devataa is offered a sacrament (Naivedya) of curd and rice which is later fed to a cow or any other animal. The other Deities are offered sugar cubes (Khadee Shakkar) or ‘Pedaa’ (a sweetmeat) which is then distributed as holy sacrament.

(C) With a prayer, a drink made from a cube of jaggery, a fistful of sesame seeds and half a cup of milk is partaken of by the one celebrating the birthday.

(D) Relatives and friends are invited for a meal. Offering of food and other items should be done on this day as much as possible.

(E) Avoid receiving money or gifts on this day.

Method 2
(A) On the birthday, after an oil massage, have a bath with clothes on (bath taken in this way is symbolic of forgetting the past, with a prayer to the God for constantly remaining in the present.) When bathing the spiritual emotion should be that ‘The pure and holy water of river Gangaa is purifying my body and mind’.

(B) Wear new clothes after the bath.

(C) Offer obeisance (Namaskaar) to parents and elders in the family.

(D) Perform the ritual of ‘Abhishek’ (ablution with liquids like milk and water) or ritualistic worship of the family deity wholeheartedly.

(E) Ritual of ‘Aukshan’: The ritual of ‘Aukshan’ is performed on the one whose birthday is being celebrated. Both, the one performing it and the one on whom the ritual is being performed, should harbor the spiritual emotion that, ‘Through our medium, God Himself is performing this ritual and bestowing His blessings on us.’ At the end of this ritual unbroken rice grains (Akshat) are sprinkled on the head of the one on whom ‘Aukshan’ is performed after venerating one’s family deity or deity of worship.

(F) A gift is presented to the one celebrating his birthday with the following perspective. As one’s duty a child is given a gift to express appreciation. While gifting an adult, one should not have a sense of doership. When one gifts something without expectation, after a while one forgets about it. The gift given on a birthday should be such. If doership or expectations are harbored in the mind when gifting then a give and take account is created between the two. When the one receiving the gift has the attitude that it is the holy sacrament (Prasaad) that he is receiving with God’s grace, then a 'give and take account' is not created.

(G) Clothes worn when bathing should be given away, without any expectations. This offering should be made to one who is deserving hence it is advisable to give it to a devotee of God or to the one serving in the mission of betterment of the nation and righteousness, instead of a beggar.

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