What is special about Sharad Purnima?

It is the night of the maha raas. The Bhagavata Purana says Krishna saw the autumn full moon rise over Vrindavan, played his flute, and the gopis left everything to come to him. Braj therefore calls it Raas Purnima. It is also the full moon that closes the monsoon and opens the autumn, and the harvest is thanked on it.

Why do we make kheer on Sharad Purnima?

The tradition holds that the moon on this night is complete in all sixteen kalas and showers amrit, and that kheer left open beneath it gathers that nectar into itself. The Brajvasis keep the practice as part of the raas night: pots of sweet rice are set out under the open sky, covered with fine muslin so nothing falls in, and taken as prasad before sunrise.

When is Sharad Purnima in 2026?

Sunday 25 October 2026 by the general reckoning, and Monday 26 October for Vaishnava sampradayas, who keep it as Sri Krsna Saradiya Rasayatra. Both are pointing at the same moon. The Purnima tithi begins around midday on Sunday and runs until Monday morning, so the full moon that is worshipped stands over the night of Sunday into Monday.

How old was Krishna at the time of the raas?

The Bhagavata places the raas lila in his Vrindavan years, among the pastimes of his boyhood, before he leaves for Mathura. The tradition treats the question of age as beside the point. The raas is described as belonging to a night of Brahma rather than to any ordinary stretch of time, and the acharyas read it as an eternal lila rather than a dated event.

What should a devotee do on Sharad Purnima?

Keep the night rather than only the day. The traditional shape is a jagaran, a vigil: stay awake, hear or read the five raas chapters of the Bhagavata, sing, and worship the moon when it rises. Cook kheer, offer it first, set it in the moonlight, and take it as prasad before dawn. Many households also keep a fast through the day and break it with that kheer.

Where is Sharad Purnima celebrated best?

Vrindavan. The deities are dressed in white for the night, raas lila is enacted, and temples keep an all-night vigil and give out kheer that has stood in the moon. Devotees gather at the ghats along the Yamuna, and Nidhivan, which the tradition holds keeps the raas every night of the year, is at the centre of what the town believes about this one.

Sharad Purnima

Sharad Purnima is the full moon of Ashwin, the one that closes the monsoon and opens the autumn. Across India it is kept as a night of light, of Lakshmi and of the new harvest. In Braj it has another name entirely. There it is Raas Purnima, the night Krishna played his flute and danced the maha raas with the gopis of Vrindavan, and everything else about the night follows from that.

What the Bhagavata Purana says about the night

The raas is told across five chapters of the tenth canto, 10.29 to 10.33, known together as the Rasa Panchadhyayi, the five chapters of the raas. The night begins in the very first verse of the first of them.

tāḥ rātrīḥ śārada utphulla-mallikāḥ

"Śrī Kṛṣṇa is the Supreme Personality of Godhead, full in all opulences, yet upon seeing those autumn nights scented with blossoming jasmine flowers, He turned His mind toward loving affairs. To fulfill His purposes He employed His internal potency."
Bhagavata Purana 10.29.1

Two verses later the moon itself rises, and the flute begins.

"Lord Kṛṣṇa saw the unbroken disk of the full moon glowing with the red effulgence of newly applied vermilion, as if it were the face of the goddess of fortune. He also saw the kumuda lotuses opening in response to the moon's presence and the forest gently illumined by its rays. Thus the Lord began to play sweetly on His flute, attracting the minds of the beautiful-eyed gopīs."
Bhagavata Purana 10.29.3

That is the moon this festival keeps. The five chapters then move through the whole arc of the night.

Chapter	What it holds
10.29	Krishna sees the autumn moon, plays his flute, and the gopis leave their homes and come
10.30	He disappears, and they wander Vrindavan asking the trees and creepers where he has gone
10.31	The Gopi Gita, nineteen verses in which they sing to him in his absence
10.32	He returns among them, and their longing is answered
10.33	The raas circle forms, and the dance

In the dance itself Krishna does something the tradition has never stopped meditating on.

"The festive rāsa dance commenced, with the gopīs arrayed in a circle. Lord Kṛṣṇa expanded Himself and entered between each pair of gopīs, and as that master of mystic power placed His arms around their necks, each girl thought He was standing next to her alone."
Bhagavata Purana 10.33.3

And when it ended, the text says plainly how long it had lasted.

"After an entire night of Brahmā had passed, Lord Kṛṣṇa advised the gopīs to return to their homes."
Bhagavata Purana 10.33.38

A night of Brahma is not a measure any clock reaches. It is the text's way of saying that the raas does not sit inside ordinary time at all, which is why the acharyas speak of it as an eternal lila rather than an evening that once happened and finished.

Where Radha stands in the raas

In chapter 30, when Krishna slips away, the gopis find the footprints of one companion he has taken with him, and say something the whole tradition has read closely ever since.

anayārādhito nūnaṁ bhagavān harir īśvaraḥ

"Certainly this particular gopī has perfectly worshiped the all-powerful Personality of Godhead, Govinda, since He was so pleased with Her that He abandoned the rest of us and brought Her to a secluded place."
Bhagavata Purana 10.30.28

Vishvanatha Chakravarti Thakura, commenting on the word aradhita, says the text has been keeping her name hidden and here lets it slip:

Śukadeva Gosvāmī has tried with all endeavor to keep Her name hidden, but now it automatically shines forth from the moon of his mouth. That he has spoken Her name is indeed Her mercy, and thus the word ārādhitaḥ is like the rumbling of a kettledrum sounded to announce Her great good fortune.
Vishvanatha Chakravarti Thakura, on Bhagavata Purana 10.30.28

The gopis are not jealous when they find the prints. They are glad. That is the note the whole night is written in.

A night our own lineage keeps twice over

Jagadguru Shri Kripalu Ji Maharaj appeared on Sharad Purnima, in October 1922, at Mangarh. His own organisation puts the two together plainly: this is the night on which Radha and Krishna gave the gopis the bliss of the maha raas, and it is the night he chose to come.

He taught that what the gopis had was nirhetuki prema, love without any motive in it, wanting neither heaven nor liberation nor any sign, only Krishna's happiness. That is what the raas is a picture of, and it is why this site is kept in his lineage.

How Braj keeps the night

The deities are dressed in white for Sharad Purnima, the colour of the moonlight. Raas lila is enacted. Temples keep an all-night vigil, and the kheer that has stood out under the moon is given as prasad at midnight.

Banke Bihari holds a jagran with raas lila through the night. The ISKCON Krishna Balaram Mandir and Radha Raman keep the vigil and distribute moon-blessed kheer. Devotees gather along the Yamuna at Keshi Ghat and the ghats around it, where the whole river runs silver.

And at the centre of what Vrindavan believes about this night is Nidhivan, the grove where the tradition holds the raas continues every single night. After the evening aarti the gates are closed and nobody stays inside. In the Rang Mahal a bed is made each evening, with water, paan and sweets set beside it, and by morning the offerings have been used. Nidhivan keeps every night as raas night. Sharad Purnima is the night the rest of Braj joins it.

The kheer in the moonlight

The best known practice of the night, and the one nearly every household keeps.

Kheer is cooked, offered, and then set out under the open sky through the whole night: on a terrace, a courtyard, a rooftop, anywhere the moon reaches it. The tradition holds that the moon on this night is complete in all sixteen kalas, its full complement, and that it showers amrit, so the kheer standing beneath it gathers that nectar and becomes it.

Two practical things devotees pass down. Cover the vessel with fine muslin, so it is open to the moon but nothing falls in. And take it before sunrise, because the tradition holds the night is what does the work.

Kojagari, and the other names of the night

Beyond Braj the same full moon carries other names, and they are worth knowing because a reader will meet them.

Kojagari Purnima comes from ko jagarti, "who is awake?" Lakshmi is said to move through the world after midnight asking exactly that, and to bless the households she finds keeping the vigil. That is why the night is kept awake in Bengal, Assam, Mithila and beyond, with Lakshmi worshipped through it.

It is also Navanna Purnima, the new-grain full moon, when farmers offer the first of the harvest in thanks. In the Vaishnava calendar the same day closes the third month of Chaturmasya and opens the fourth, the month of Kartik.

All of these are the same moon, seen from different windows.

Keeping it at home

The shape of the night is simple, and it is a vigil rather than a ceremony.

Fast through the day if you wish to, on milk and fruit. Worship the moon when it rises. Then stay awake: hear or read the five raas chapters, 10.29 to 10.33, which is the most direct way anyone can enter this night. Sing. Cook kheer, offer it first, and put it out under the moon.

Break the fast with that kheer before dawn, and if you are near Vrindavan, spend the night there instead.

Where this sits in the Radha Krishna year

Sharad Purnima follows about six weeks after Janmashtami and Radhashtami, and closes the monsoon that Jhulan Yatra opened. It is the last of the great Braj nights before Kartik begins. For the whole cycle, see the festivals of Radha Krishna.