Gugga Navami 2024 । Guga Navami Festival

Gugga Navami is celebrated on Krishna Paksha Navami in the month of Bhadrapad of Vikram Sawant. In 2024, Gugga Navami will be celebrated on 27 August . On this day, snakes are worshipped all around the country. It is believed that worshipping Lord Gugga on the day of Gugga Navami protects a person from the attack of snakes, as he is considered to be the lord of snakes. The worshipping of Lord Gugga commences from the day of Shravana month Poornima i.e on the day of Rakshabandhan. These rituals are followed for nine continuous days, which is why it is known as Gugga Navami.

Gugga Birth Story

As per the legends, Gugga was the king of Maru. His mother, Bachla was the true worshipper of Lord Gokarnath. One day Lord Gokarnath visits the city of Maru with his disciples to meet Bachla. When the queen gets to know about it, she becomes happy and starts doing preparations to welcome the lord. On the other hand, the lord asks one of his disciple to go around the places and beg for food. The disciple does as directed, and reaches the palace, where he ask the queen to give him something to eat. The queen offers him lots of jewellery and expensive things. But, he denies to accept even a bit of it and ask for a wheat.

The queen says in a proud state, that the store of the palace is full of tons of wheat. How will he be able to carry all in a small bowl. The disciple asks the queen to fill the bowl completely with as much grains as possible. Surprisingly, the entire stock of grains gets fit into the bowl and still the bowl remains empty. The queen gets enlightened with the powers of the beggar and apologizes him for her behaviour.

The queen tells the beggar about her problems, and the pain of not having a child. The beggar asks the queen to meet his guru to seek the solution of her problem. Next day morning when the queen gets ready to visit the ashram, her sister Kachla gets to know about the situation and reaches the ashram before the queen. She eats both the fruits given by the guru.

But, when the queen reaches the ashram guru tells her about everything and gives her one more fruit to eat, and blesses her with a son who would be able to control snakes and will eventually become the lord of snakes. THus, she gets blessed with a son who was later known by the name of Gugga.

Gugga Navami Katha

After some time, the princess of Raja Millap was chosen as a bride for Gugga. But, the king denies the proposal, which leave Gugga disappointed. He visits Lord Gorakhnath and tell him about the entire situation. In order to help him, Lord Gorakhnath gets the princess bitten by a snake.

Raja’s vaidya could not find any solution to cut the effect of the snake poison and save the life of the princess. Thus, manifested Vasuki nag tells the king to ask Gugga to chant the mantra if he wants to save the life of his daughter. King Gugga chants the mantra to take out the poison from the body of the princess. Thus, he saves the life of the princess and eventually marries her.

Gugga Navami Puja

Gugga Navami festival is a nine day festival. On the ninth day, Lord Gugga is worshipped at gugga temple with proper rituals. After the puja, chapati and rice are then distributed among the devotees in the form of prasad. Group of devotees recite the Gugga katha by visiting different places and worship Lord Naag. This festivals is celebrated with full devotion and faith in many states of India, especially in Punjab and Haryana. It is believed that the sand of the place where the puja is performed gives relief from the fear of snakes.