Pushti Sanji

Pushti Sanji is the fortnight of Vraj's evening art. It begins after Bhadrapad Purnima and runs through the dark fortnight of Bhadarva — the fifteen days of pitru paksha, ending on Sarvapitri Amas. Sanjhi takes its name from sanjh, evening: in Vraj the gopis would gather at dusk and lay out exquisite designs of flowers and petals, keeping a vrat with the wish of attaining Shri Krishna as their own — and Prabhu, unable to stay away from anything made with such love, would come to behold the sanjhi.

In Pushtimarg havelis this leela is relived daily: through the fortnight a fresh sanjhi is decorated before Thakorji each evening — of flowers, carrying the bhav of Shri Swaminiji; of kel (banana) leaf, carrying the bhav of Shri Chandravaliji; and in other materials besides — followed by bhog, aarti and kirtan. At Nathdwara a magnificent sanjhi of the chaurasi kos of Vraj — its forests, kunds and leela sthals — is created in Kamal Chowk and revealed at Sandhya Aarti darshan through all fifteen days.

In the worldly calendar the pitru fortnight is a pause — no weddings, no new beginnings. Pushtimarg fills that very fortnight with beauty made for Prabhu. That is the quiet teaching of Sanjhi: there is no season in which seva stops, and no evening that cannot become Prabhu's evening. The bhav is the gopis' own: to make something lovely with one's own hands, fresh every day, for no reason except that Prabhu will come and look and be pleased. Nothing is kept; tomorrow's sanjhi will be made anew — because love does not hoard its offerings.

Sanjhi also lets a Vaishnav dwell in Vraj without leaving home: petal by petal, its kunds, groves and leela places take shape before Thakorji, and the heart walks the chaurasi kos in bhavna. To sit before a sanjhi darshan is to learn that seva can be art — and that art, offered, becomes seva.