DAY3 - EVENING

Hare Krishna!

WHY VRAJAVASIS AGREED TO PERFORM GOVARDHAN PUJA

During today morning’s narration, on this blessed and holy place of Sri Govardhan puja, we heard about how Krishna transformed a typical Hindu tradition that was being followed for many generations into a most pleasurable, enlivening and meaningful festival. The Vrajavasis perform Indra puja every year, as mater of duty, to Indra, for getting rain, for their crops and cows and also to give a sense of allegiance for fore-father and fore-mothers who established this tradition. So it wasn’t very exciting, it’s something they would do, for certain religious purposes.

But when Krishna told them, “Worship Govardhan Hill instead along with cows and brahmanas”, and instructing, how to do it. It was the most jubilant and ecstatic festival, for all of their hearts. What was the difference, between Indra puja and Govardhan puja, one was dry, one was over flooding with nectar the difference was simply that, one was done out of religious duty and the other was done with pure love, with bhakti, because the Govardhan puja pleased Krishna.

 

Ultimately that’s the only thing that the Vrajavasis are concerned with, “What will please Krishna?” From an intellectual perspective if the brahmanas of the Vrindavan and the cowherd men and cowherd ladies, if they wanted to refer to scriptures and scrutinize, whether they should worship a hill instead of Indra, the Rig Veda and so many Vedas that offer prayer to Indra, they would perhaps have some doubts. But they loved Krishna so much that whatever that pleases Him, was the ultimate goal of their lives, nothing else mattered.

sarva-dharmän parityajya      mäm ekaà çaraëaà vraja

ahaà tväà sarva-päpebhyo    mokñayiñyämi mä çucaù

Krishna tells that abandon all varieties of religion ‘dharma’ and just surrender to me. I shall deliver you from all sinful reactions nothing to fear.

Now Krishna is telling in the Bhagavad Gita after He had already showed us His universal form in the eleventh chapter. So after seeing that universal form most people would think, “Yes, if we surrender to Krishna we have nothing to fear. After all we have seen Bhishma and everyone else and everything else is being devoured by that form. If he protects us we have no reason to be in anxiety”. But here they didn’t identify Krishna as God. They did not identify Krishna as all powerful. They only knew Krishna as their loving son, friend, or lover. At that time Krishna was only seven years old. Now for those of you who are parents you know abilities of child that is of seven years old. What standards the seven year old be in India? Second, that means that the child is second grade, the second standard, but even this little child, seven years old, ever willing to take any risk to make you happy. That is the beauty of Vrindavan and therefore everyone is hearing this little child seven years old. They were ready to take any risk to make him happy. This is the beauty of vrindavan. And therefore the festival was absolutely joyful.

Everyone in vrindavan was united making preparations, cutting vegetables, grinding grains, milking extra milk from the cows and bringing it together and cooking it and boiling it, making beautiful decorations making mountains and lakes of bhoga, decorating the cows and the bulls and the calves, wonderful festival. Everyone was perfectly united, for Krishna’s pleasure. And ultimately why were they so happy performing this Govardhan puja? Because Krishna was happy. Specially happy! When you water the root of the tree, every part of the tree is satisfied. So for the devotees, when they satisfy Krishna, Krishna from within their heart gives us happiness. A happiness that is beyond anything of this world. Because Krishna reciprocates with the love of his devotees. It is very interesting because, today for many people the idea of demigods, some people don’t believe there are demigods. Other people, they believe but they don’t really believe. But still they believe (laughter).

VRAJAVASIS FAITH IN KRSNA

Another words when they do some demigod worship, they think you know of course he exists. But maybe he doesn’t exist. But just in case I should do it. Yes? But for the Vrajvasis, it wasn’t like that. This is the dvapara yuga, and they knew 100 percent absolutely for sure about the demigods. They knew 100 percent for sure that Indra was going to accept this yajna and that he accepted this yajna every year for generations and generations and they knew if they didn’t perform the yajna, it wasn’t just you know,  if there happens to be an Indra somewhere in the sky he’s going to be angry. They knew he will be furious! But Krishna said forget this Indra. Worship Govardhan. Not to worship, think of Indra’s position! They are taking everything that is meant for him and they are giving it to a mountain and to cows. Krishna really knows how to crush the pride of his devotees. But Krishna knows everyone’s heart. He knew exactly how Indra would react. When he innocently said let’s make mountains of bhoga and offer it to Govardhan, he knew the anger of Indra. It was such an insult. Krishna promises in Bhagavad-Gita “Kaunteya pratijanihi name bhaktah pranasyati”. “Arjuna, you declare it that I will always protect my devotee. My devotee will not perish” Krishna told Arjuna to declare it because, Krsna is more concerned with  protecting his devotee’s promise than his own. That is the nature of his love. But how does Krishna protect his devotee? We may think Krishna will protect me by protect my health and protecting my body and protecting my devotional consciousness, protecting my property, protecting my family. Krishna protects either directly or indirectly by doing what’s best for our spiritual lives. And sometimes that means putting ourselves in danger. Sometimes that means allowing us to totally fail! Yasyaham anugrhnami harishye tad dhanam sanaih. How did he protect the pandavas? When they were banished to the forest for 12 years? Is that protection? They lost everything. Krishna was asked about that. Then he said, “Sometimes, when I show my great compassion to my devotees, I will take everything away. Sometimes I take away all property, sometimes I take away all friends, sometimes everyone will go against you. And in that state you realize, what has always been true, that you have no one but me and you turn to me, with love”.

GAJENDRA IN DIFFICULTY TOOK SHELTER OF KRSNA

Gajendra was living a very comfortable life. And when he was in that pond, that beautiful heavenly abode, the crocodile sunk his very sharp, long teeth into Gajendra’s leg and squeezed with all his might, and there was nothing in Gajendra’s power to escape and he fought for many years and ultimately he was losing the battle and his family and his friends and everybody around they were all weeping and crying because they couldn’t help him. And Gajendra was completely humiliated. Here is the King of the forest and he has been totally defeated, publicly in front of everyone. That was Krishna’s protection. Because otherwise he would have lived a happy elephant life until he died. But in that state he remembered Krishna. And he surrendered his heart unto Krishna unconditionally and cried out beautiful prayers invoking Krishna and Krishna came and brought him back home back to Godhead. So please don’t think that because you are a devotee, that means you are going to suffer. If you are not a devotee, you are going to suffer too. Everyone in this material world has to suffer, one way or another according to their particular karma. Good people enjoy some and then they have to suffer, bad people enjoy some, until their karma comes and then they really have to suffer. Other bad people, they are suffering now, and they will suffer in the future.  Dukhalayam Ashashvatam , we have to grow old, we have to get diseased, we have to die. There are always going to be people who are going to be envious of us, wherever we are, whatever we do. There are always going to be people who are going to undermine us and destroy us, whether you are living as a simple person farming in the country, whether you are a king of the nation. The nature of this world… the people are envious. People want what you have; therefore, there is always potential conflict.  Conflict among family members, conflict among races, conflict among nations, conflict among religions, and essentially who knows, what’s going to happen next. There could be cyclones, there could be floods, there could be earthquakes, there could be wars and what can we do about it. Whenever there is a war, the vast majority of the population of all the warring parties, are just innocent peace loving people. They don’t even want the war, but a few people on the top decide…they need war. And who suffers, the usually people on the top are hit no way. And the innocent people, their sons have to go, get killed and fight and then their houses are being bombed. This is the world. So we should not think, that when Krishna puts his devotee in difficulty, that’s something very hard to accept. Difficulties are just the nature of the world, whoever we are. But Krishna puts us, or he allows the right kind of difficulty to come, so that he can be there to save us. Otherwise, we become complacent.

POSITION IS FOR SERVICE AND NOT TO BE PROUD

So Indra is a very powerful devotee. We were discussing just this morning, not anyone can become Indra. You have to be a very responsible devotee who has really performed amazing incredible forms of service, in the past, extremely pious, someone who has performed many many many yagyas. What is a yagya? We do little yagyas and we think, “Oh! Very nice, I am purified.” But the types of Yagyas to become Indra, are not just little homas. They are very very elaborate sacrifices, that it may take years to just prepare for one. And it has to go on meticulously well, it goes on sometimes for days and weeks or months, perfectly according to Vedas. Such a person… Krishna gives such a big responsibility. You have the duty to keep everyone alive in the universe, by providing rain. That’s a serious responsibility, is it not? It’s not that, “Oh I can’t do it today, I have to chant my rounds!” He has to be there, to be monitoring everything. And he is doing it for Krishna. But there’s a problem, that wealth, power, prestige has the irresistible nature to make us proud, to think that I am better than others. And as soon as you start thinking like that, then the disease that I am the proprietor and I am the enjoyer. And this could happen in a very very subtle way.

We could be given a position, in Krishna consciousness and we may think, “This is my service”. Even if someone else can do it better, and everyone else wants that person to do it. We think no this is my service. Nothing is ours. This is Krsna’s service. What does service mean? Service does not mean I do what I want, when I want. Service means whatever makes you happy Krsna. And Krsna reveals what makes him happy through the guru, sadhu and the scriptures. So Indra is being glorified by the demigods. He has the most beautiful women all around him, dancing and making nice Prasad for him. he has brahmanas chanting mantras for him by the thousands. Chanting mantras for him, that means his names, his glories. Magnificent palaces, the palace is not his, it belongs to the post of the king of heaven. The proper consciousness is that this is a post and I am simply a humble servant performing the duties within this post, but this is not mine. This happens to most devotees unfortunately. Krsna gives power, Krsna gives facility and we think it is mine to enjoy and we become proud.

Ahankara vimudatma, due to the false ego we think we are the doer. That false pride destroys our devotional service. It corrupts the heart. Krsna doesn’t really appreciate any service that is offered with this type of false pride. We read in Caitanya Caritamrita about the leper Vasudeva. He was suffering such horrible leprosy for so many years. his flesh was decaying. There were limitless worms on his body. And if a worm would fall out, he would respectfully place it back, thinking that this body belongs to him as much as to me. Why should I deprive him of his residence. This was his mood. Lord Caitanya understood that this was his mood, that Lord Caitanya came all the way back to Kurma ksetra and embraced Vasudeva and cured him of his leprosy. Not only that, his body was completely healthy and effulgent. Vasudeva was worried, “Now people will see me that I have received such a blessing of the Lord, a miracle was made of my life. What if I become proud? Then my ability to please Krsna will be spoiled. Better I remain a leper at least my service will never be contaminated by false pride.” He couldn’t think he was better than anyone else in that condition. In fact he was thinking that every worm was beautiful than him. But now he was beautiful, no worms, effulgence. He was worried because he understood that where there is false pride, where we think we are the doer and we are clinging to our positions. If Krsna does not think you much, he will just let you continue thinking like that. And you will think I am winning. But if Krsna is very kind to you, he will take away the cause of your pride directly or indirectly. He didn’t want to take Indra’s position, because actually Indra was doing a very good job. But he wanted to award him a understanding and realization of the real purpose of life, what he was doing his work for. For Krsna. So Krsna humiliated him. He was hissing like an angry snake. He couldn’t believe what just happened. He was watching the whole thing constantly and he was getting messages constantly. Where is my puja? Every year at this time I get my puja, where is my puja now? “They already gave it to this mountain in Vrindavan.” He was furious, “They gave my puja to this mountain. They gave my offering to the cows.” He was furious. Krsna was in his heart watching, and thinking “It is working”. Indra wanted to show his almighty power. He called for the samvartaka clouds. Now none of you have seen the samvartaka clouds in this life. Because when you see them you don’t see anything else after them. Srila Prabhupada was talking about arsenic. He said that the scientists say that it does not have a taste. But how do they know, because as soon as you taste it you die. So nobody knows what it tastes like. That’s speculation.  Samvartaka clouds are reserved exclusively for universal devastation at the times of thwe pralaya where they cover the whole earth. When Samvartaka clouds rain, within a very short amount of time, the whole planet is one ocean with not a single island, except Navadwip. Godrum dvip remains even during the pralaya that is explained in the scriptures. Very powerful rains. Indra was out of control with anger.

PRIDE IS LIKE A BOIL – KRSNA SQUEEZES IT

If you have a boil on your body and if somebody squeezes it and it really hurts. If you don’t have a boil on your body you can squeeze that same part and it doesn’t hurt. But if you do have one if somebody even looks on it it hurts. So where there is pride, it is like that boil filled with that puss Indra is a ksatriay, Gita tells that for a Ksatriya, dishonor is worse than death.

So Indra sent those Samvartaka clouds and told them, “You have the power to destroy entire planets, with all of your energies I want you to focus exclusively on the village of Vrindavan and destroy the cows, the gopas and the gopis. Go now.” They were obedient . Like in military they are like the general soldiers. When the commander in chief tells to attack, they can’t say that it is not a good idea. If they don’t attack they will be killed. And in Vrindavan suddenly massive black clouds formed into the sky and they stretched practically throughout the universe, they were massive. So thick that even the sharpest axe cannot cut through them. Most clouds you can fly an airplane through. With the ’samavatta’ clouds, if an airplane tried to go through it, it would crash into it and fall to the ground. That’s how thick these clouds were. And the entire world was in pitch darkness except for Vrindaban. Because by Krishna’s own arrangements his toe nails radiated an effulgence that completely lit up the whole of Vrindaban like a soothing sun. This was the first insult to Indra. And then it started to rain. First there was thunder, very very deep thunder. Tumultuous thunder and lightning. When the rain started falling it didn’t come in drops, it came in columns like pillars. It was like millions and millions and millions of rivers falling from the sky. Can you imagine that? It’s described that it was like the trunks of banyan trees instead of drops falling at high speeds then by Indras control; it became freezing cold and not only with the torrents and torrents of rain but there was also hailstorms. Hail is when it’s so cold, the rain turns into ice, balls of ice. I’ve been to places in America where there are hails; where the ice balls that gets this big. And they come down really fast. It is really very dangerous. With my father, he used like it when this happened. Because his profession was fixing automobiles. And the hail would put dense on the automobiles and break the windshields of the automobiles and everybody would come and bring in there automobiles to get fixed. Everyone but him was in distress.

EVERYONE APPROACHES KRSNA FOR PROTECTION

So there was massive hail falling down, pillars and pillars of rain pouring down and the cows were trembling with their little tender calves. The mother cows were crying thinking how to protect my calf, and they have that loose skin below their neck like the traditional Indian cows. So they would cover their little calve with the skin from their neck and try to protect them from the rain although they themselves were totally exposed to the hails and the rain. Selfless love of a mother, let me die but let my child be protected and the bulls, they were very angry. This rain would bounce of their horn and then go on to their hump and splash in to pieces and the bull would just look up into the clouds with red angry eyes and roar. And the Gopas and Gopis could see it’s just a matter of minutes till we are all destroyed. So taking the cows in front of them they all approached Krishna.

Krishna please, Indras very angry, please be merciful and protect us. Look, look at how your cows are suffering so much, you always protect yours cows, please protect your cows and all of us too. Although they were always worried about Krishna and always thinking that they were the ones protecting Krishna, when ever there was danger that was beyond their control they turn to Krishna spontaneously. Krishna looked at them and smiled and he was thinking in his mind Indra is very angry, now I am going to make him even more angry.

KRSNA’S PROTECTION

So that Krishna’s yoga maya potency created a path way where no rain was falling and he quickly walked through that path way to Govardhan hill. Not a drop of rain touched his turban or his hair or any part of Him. Then like a playful child who would lift a tiny little insignificant mushroom, Krishna lifted the Govardhan hill. Now today Govardhan hill is 21 KM around that time 5000yrs ago it was several times bigger. When Krishna uprooted Govardhan through the ground it made a tremendous sound the earth was shaking, it was rumbling. Lifted, lifted, lifted, lifted and lifted and then stood right in the middle holding it with the little finger of his left hand. As the Govardhan hill was being lifted the dirt was falling from the sides. When the dirt was falling it fell all around the hill, so that what ever water that was coming off the umbrella of the Govardhan hill, could not get inside. It was lika a wall that stopped it. Then Krishna called out to all the vrajavasis. Now just see, Giriraj is so merciful, He has become an umbrella, to protect us from the rain. Now let us all stand under this umberella of Sri Giriraj and we will have good time together. Please come. So all the cows, all the calves, all the bulls, all the gopas, all the gopis they all came under Govardhna hill and every one crowded around Krishna to see that beautiful darshan of Giridhari, so beautiful! He was actually in 3 fold bending form, in his left hand holding the hill and his foot crossed so beautiful.  The essence of all beauty, every one simply gazed upon Krishna, their hearts completely satisfied. The gopis their eyes were like chakora birds, the chakora bird unblinkingly stares upon the beauty of the moon. The chokora bird is nourished by drinking through its eyes the rays of the moon light. Similarly the gopis of vrindavan unblinkingly begazed upon the beauty of Krishna. And how Krishna reciprocated! The gopis through their glance, they brought Krishna through their eyes into the core of their hearts and there they embraced Him. And Krishna embraced them back, in the deepest purest spiritual love, they were enjoying this rasa of intimate love with Krishna as they were simply watching that form of Giridhari. And everyone else in fact all the vrajvasis all the calves the bulls , the cows, every one they were all thinking that Krishna is only gazing on me. They were so many thousands of millions of people under that hill, Sri Giriraj but everyone was thinking that Krishna was thinking Krishna is gazing at me. He was fully satisfying everyone’s inner most hearts’ desires, except Yashoda. Her motherly parental affection it was very difficult for her to see little 7 year old Gopal standing with a gigantic mountain on the tip of his little finger. She spoke to Krishna, she said, “Krishna, you are so impudent. You have no control over senses or your mind. Why did you do this? It has been our family tradition to worship Indra for several generations, why did you have to insult him in this way? And now you have just made Indra very angry. Look what you have done. And I am looking up and your hand it is so soft and fresh creamy butter. Then I see that on top of it such a hard mountain as Govardhan. How can my motherly heart tolerate this? Then Yasoda with very intense feeling prayed to Giriraj, “O Govardan hill I will beg one boon from you. Please be merciful upon me. And as long as you are sitting on Krishna’s finger please be very soft and very light”. Hearing this Madumangala also known as Batu “Why you are in anxiety? Krishna is not in any distress. If it wasn’t for Krishna insulting Indra we do not have this opportunity of enjoying the sweet, sweet darshan of Krsna holding the hill Giriraj. Giridhari ki jai. Yasoda mayi said “You foolish boy, stop talking. How can a little boy holding such a massive hill be sweet. And Krsna smiled. He said, “Mother, don’t think like this. I am in no distress. In fact this is fun. I an having so much fun. Don’t think I am holding the hill. Giriraj is so merciful. By his mystical powers Govardhan Hill is floating in the air. And I am just holding my finger up and touching Him, there is no weight at all. In fact I am just an instrument. “ Yashoda mayi’s heartwas very worried. She said “If thats true, that Giriraj is just floating. Then prove it to me. Have Giriraj come off your beautiful butterly hand and let him fly around the sky on his own. Then I will agree. Madhumangal is a Brahmin cowheard boy and as Yasoda said this he said, “All of you saying is not correct.  The truth is by my Brahmin tejas, by my brahminical powers I am holding the Govardhan hill.” Yasoda mayi said “ My son, his face is pale, his face is suncken, there is perspiration on his face. And you are making jokes like this.” Nanda Maharaj said, “Yasodha, why are you harassing Madhumangal like this? He is encouraging Krsna.”  

KRSNA RECIPROCATES WITH EVERYONE

The brajavasis were watching this form of Gopal, Giridhari, describing the most charming darshan they were receiving. Here is Gopal who is most enchanting bluish form which is the color of a newly formed monsoon cloud. And He is standing with three bends – tribhanga. With His left hand, He is holding up the Govardhan hill and with His right hand, just to give pleasure to His devotees, He takes His flute out from His dhoti. And all the Braja vasis are watching. Please understand. Every eye was on Him only. And Gopal takes out His flute and puts it to His lips, and plays sweet beautiful melodies as He is gazing upon all of the devotees who are moving head back and forth.

Devotees’ hearts were charmed by the sweet sound of His flute. But Madhumangal became very worried. He said, “Gopal, please stop playing His flute. Because if Giriraj hears this flute, He might go into ecstasy and faint. And if He fains and fall off Your finger, we will all be crushed to death. And another thing, we have seen. When You play Your flute, liquid objects become solid. And solid objects become liquid. We have seen rocks and stones melt in ecstasy to the sound of Your flute. And Giriraj is Your best devotee. If Giriraj listens to Your flute, he might melt into ecstasy, and if he does, we will all drown to death.”

Another cowherd boy said, “Giriraj is a very elevated great soul. And will certainly be patient and control His ecstatic symptoms for the sake of all of us. So, there is nothing to fear.”

One Brajavasi spoke to Srimati Radharai. He said, “Radharani, please. You are the essence of all beauty. Please do not move Your eyebrows. Because Krishna is gazing at everybody, if he also gazes at You, if He sees You move Your eyebrows, he may tremble in ecstasy and Giriraj will fall off from His finger.” Krishna heard that, and He at Srimati Radharani. And when He saw Her, it doesn’t say in Ananda Vrindavana Champu, but it appears that She might have raised Her eyebrow. Because He did began to tremble. And when He started to tremble, His hairs started standing on end, and different ecstatic symptoms started manifesting in Him, feeling Radharani’s love and He was shaking and the mountain started moving.

So, instantly all the cowherd men took their sticks, and they put it under the hill to hold it up. Thousands and thousands of gopas – they are all holding, with all their might they are pushing. And Madhumangal laughed, He said to the older cowherd men, “what are you doing?”, He said, “Krishna doesn’t need your help. The most all of you are doing now is just scratching the bottom of Govardhan hill with your sticks. Please understand that my friend Krishna is the younger brother of the all powerful Balarama. He doesn’t need any of your help.” And Krishna was smiling. Krishna said to Madhumangal, “Why are you saying like this to them?” He said, “They are offering me loving service in their parental affection of vatsalya rasa. They are holding their sticks like that in their parental love. Why are you interfering? Let them do. Let them think like this.”

Meanwhile, mother Yasoda, it was very intolerable. For all this time, Krishna didn’t eat anything. She was saying, “Krishna, You must be hungry. Look at Your stomach, its all caved in. And Your face, it looks like a lotus flower in a slow storm of the winter. This is unbearable for me to see. Please, I have very soft creamy cakes for You to eat. Please eat them. And Your friends could eat them too.” When Madhumangal heard this, he said, “Krishna, what Your mother is saying is correct. You need to eat and so do me.” So, Yasoda mayi was saying, “Please remove Your flute from Your mouth so you need to eat and so do we”. So Yashoda mai was saying, “Please, Please remove your flute from your mouth, so I can put some food in your mouth.” In this way the lifting of Govardhan Hill was the fulfilment of all the desires of all the Brajvasis. Usually, the Gopis would meet Krishna in the evening; the gopas would meet Krishna in the day time. And throughout the night the gopas would be in separation, throughout the day, Nanda and Yashoda and the other cowherd people would be in separation and the gopis would be in separation in the day. And they would all be longing to be with Krishna. For the Brijbasis the blinking of an eye, even when they were standing in front of Krishna, seemed unbearably long. Lord Caitanya, in the mood of the Gopis, he revealed the truth, that if there is such spiritual love, even a moment seems like 12 years or more. What is a moment, nimesh? The scriptures explain the calculations of time. When you blink your eye...The amazing thing is when you blink your eye, you don’t even see any darkness. Do you? When you do it on purpose, you may somehow or other see it, because it’s not a natural blinking of eyes. But natural blinking of eyes is when you don’t even know you are doing it. It’s just happening. And it seems like there is no darkness at all, everyone is in front of you. But doing a blink, the time that the upper eyelid and the lower eyelid touch, a fraction, I think 1/12th of that or something, that’s a moment. And for the Gopis, without Krishna, even a moment was like twelve years or more. So here, in this Govardhan lila, Krishna is with all the cowherd boys, all the cowherd girls, everyone, and according to their particular rasa, he was fully reciprocating, with their love, 24 hours a day, non-stop, for 7 days. It was the most wonderful experience. For all 7 days, 24 hours a day, Krishna was joking and laughing, and making all sorts of funny remarks, and hearing funny remarks from the gopas, the cowherd boys. And nobody got tired, nobody got hungry. They were nourished, just by seeing that form of Giridhari. The cowherd boys were 24 hours a day, performing their sakhya rasa with Krishna to their full heart’s content. And the parental, vatsalya rasa, elder gopis headed by Yashoda and Nanda, 24 hours a day, Krishna was fully reciprocating with their loving motherly and fatherly affection. And for the servants like Ratraka and Patraka, they were rendering various services to Krishna. Sometimes they would fan him, sometimes they would bring things. Krishna was reciprocating with them in full. And gopis, just by his glances, and their glances at him, all of their love was being expressed and all of his love was being expressed, openly, in front of everyone. The gopis, sometimes, they would look very shy, but they were gazing upon Krishna and nobody said, “Don’t gaze upon Krishna”. With no restriction practically, they were fully reciprocating with Krishna in Madhurya Rasa 24 hours a day, 7 days.  It is explained as, outside there was lightening, and there was thunder, and there was massive rain. Under the mountain, there was another type of rainstorm. Krishna was like the dark cloud, with His Shyamsundar complexion, Ghanashyam. Ghanashyam means His complexion is like a dark rain cloud. And the gopis, their beautiful golden complexion was like lightening, and Krishna’s charming beauty was like rainstorm. And His peacock feather was like the rainbow, and His Kastubha Mani, the jewel on His chest, was like the sun. It was a storm, of ecstatic loving relationships, under Goverdhan hill. Meanwhile on top of the hill, there was another festival going on. All the animals, they couldn’t care less about the rain, and Giriraj himself He was being touched by the tip of Krishna’s little finger of His left hand. Although Govardhan hill is so massive in size, the little finger tip touching him, was energizing him with so much spiritual ecstasy. Krishna through that little finger was infusing Giriraj, with his love. And Giriraj was just absolutely thrilled, it was such a higher taste, that he was experiencing below the hill, he didn’t really cared what happened on top of the hill. It was insignificant. In BG it is said, Apuryamanam acala apratishtam..  “That a person who finds inner peace, inner happiness, the rivers of happiness and distress, of honor and dishonor, pleasure and pain, success, failure, health disease… these disease are constantly coming. Sometimes, the river is wide, sometimes the river is dry, but the ocean by the power of its own depth and volume of water is not affected”.

Similarly the ocean of happiness awakens in our heart, then whatever may come in this world is not really very significant. It is only due to forgetfulness of Krsna that things in this world are disturbing or so apparently enticing. Giriraj was in ecstasy. Krsna was like the full moon of beauty under him radiating the light of his grace and touching him with that finger.

INDRA’S ATTACKS FAIL

And Giriraj was in such happiness that Indra’s most powerful thunderbolts felt like flower petals. Those torrents of rivers of rain pouring at high speed, he was so happy that he just accepted it as a soothing refreshing bath, like an abhishek. And he became very beautiful and by his own powers he was shining with cleanliness, sweetness. Seeing this Indra was becoming more and more angry. He was directing the samvartaka clouds harder harder. Then Indra sent the most powerful winds of the universe, specifically to blow the hill off the tip of his left little finger. We have seen cyclones, we have read about them. Couple of years ago, New Orleans one of the most powerful cities in America, cyclone happened and devastated the whole city. Years have passed they still have hardly recovered. And who can stop a hurricane. Recently there was a hurricane coming to Florida and Cape Kenedy, that’s where they make the big rocket ships that they send to outer space. Billions of dollars America spends there. One of the most expensive projects. And you could imagine how the whole US army will fight to defend that place. But there was a hurricane going in that direction. What did the American president say, “Evacuate!” Everyone started and went some 100s of miles away so that they wouldn’t die and all the rockets were just sitting there. This is the power of the wind and power of nature. Even the most powerful armies in the world cannot defeat us from a wind storm and these are just typical little karmic winds. Indra was sending the winds of devastation. The most cyclonic, hurricanic, tornadic winds, blasting non-stop with all their forces. And while the winds are blasting, the rain was pouring, and millions of thunder bolts are going right on Govardhan. And Indra himself was doing everything within his own power and still nothing happened. When Krsna wants to smash your pride he does it so expertly, because of Girirajs ecstasy of being touched by Krsna’s little finger, the deers were walking around as if nothing was happening on top of the mountain. And the lions was just walking around and every now and then they would look up at the clouds and just roar as if the clouds were non-sense.

In seven days, Indra, the samvartaka clouds all the wind gods, everything that happened, they could not remove or even move a single grain of dust or sand from the ground of Govardhan. Even a little baby can blow on the ground and the dust will move. All the powers of these divine people could not move a single grain of dust from its original place. They could not uproot a single blade of grass. And there is trillions of blades grass on Govardhan. And there were millions of trees on Govardhan Hill. Indra could not separate one single leaf, not even a baby leaf from a tree. And the innocent deers who are so gentle, they were just dancing around like they usually do. The samvartaka clouds were so exhausted they came to Indra and fell at his feet and said “We are going home. We give up. There is nothing we can do to affect the Vrajabasis.”

But Indra kept trying and he personally put his energies on his elephant carrier Airavata. And in the end after 7 days and 7 nights, Indra saw underneath the hill everyone is laughing. Everything but he is in bliss and on top of the hill, Govardhan looks like he just had a fresh bath. Indra’s pride was annihilated. Because everyone is watching. And when his pride was sufficiently crushed, he finally really devastated. He was trying to devastate Krsna. But Krsna devastated him.

LORD CAITANYA CRUSHES PRIDE OF KESHAVA KASHMIRI SIMILARLY

Here in Mayapur, Keshava Kashmiri came. He was extremely proud. He was considered the topmost scholar in the entire planet earth. He was Digvijay, he travelled all around the country and challenged people. Every time he challenged them,  he would defeat them so soundly that all the scholars of the land had to sign a statement “I have been defeated by Keshav Kashmiri, I surrender to him”.

He was so proud because he was so smart. And wherever he went, there was a procession. He never went anywhere alone just walking around. It was below his dignity. Sometimes he did. But when he would come into a particular place, there would be Brahmins chanting mantras, he would be carried by four men on a decorated palanquin, there would be musicians playing instruments, and there would be all sorts of propaganda, Keshav Kashmiri is coming and thousands and thousands of  people would be coming just to see this Digvijay Pandit. He was very proud. By Lord Caitanya’s yoga maya potency he induced Keshav Kashmiri to take one day to just walk alone along the banks of the Ganga, and there he happened to just see little Nimai who is at that time a teacher of grammar. And when Keshav Kashmiri saw the beauty of Nimai Pandit, his heart deeply moved. And Nimai, he had already been told about him. Previously earlier in the day when Keshav Kashmiri first came to the town, Nimai stood and said “the great Digvijay Pandit the Keshav Kashmiri is coming”and he has all the processions of Brahmins and musicians and he carried on a palanquin and they say that he can answer any question, and he can defeat any scholar and he knows all the scriptures. In fact it is known quite widely that the goddess Saraswati had made him her very favourite! And every time he opens his mouth the divine goddess of learning and wisdom speaks through him.

And Lord Caitanya,  Nimai he said something very profound. He says “a great person is like a tree which is filled with fruits”. A person who actually has good qualities is like that tree, with many fruits. Because of the fruits of the good qualities, the tree always bows down to everyone. But a tree that has no fruits stands up very straight. Similarly if a person is actually blessed by the lord, if a person is actually great, with good qualities – amanina manadena then he will offer all respects to others and not expect respect oneself. Krsna does not for very long tolerate false pride in everyone or anyone. Very soon his pride will be crushed. 

So that night when Kesava Kashmiri saw little Nimai, Nimai offered all respects. He is only a grammar teacher. Kesava Kashmiri has learnt grammar, the most basics lessons in Sanskrit. Kesava Kashmiri had mastered every subject of Sanskrit and beyond. He said yes you are that Nimai Pandit, that grammar teacher I heard about. He said well you’re such a great Pandit; please compose a poem glorifying mother Ganga. He said it very respectfully and loving, Nimai. So Nimai heard the Kesava Kashmiri reciting over a 100 verses, original. It’s not that he composed them sometime before and had them memorized. Can  you imagine in what appears to be perfect Sanskrit, prose and poetry with deep meaning just standing there on the bank of the Ganges without any warnings at all that you were suppose to do this and composing a 100 verses and they were just coming out of his mouth without a single hesitation. He didn’t have to stop and say let me just think for a second.  It just flowed like the Ganga; the glories of Ganga flowed from his mouth like the Ganga flows. And all the students, their mouths were open, they were gasping. They were so impressed. They were thinking how can anyone do this. Nimai Pandit said that was very good now please explain to us the good qualities and the faults of your poetry. Kesava Kashmiri said, “Faults, my poetry has not faults”. And then Nimai began to point out particular points nobody else except him in the entire world could possibly detect because they were so utterly subtle. It sounded beautiful but Nimai through logic found discrepancies in them. And when He explained to them, Keshav Kashmiri guess what happened, something that has never happened in to this man in his entire life.

His mind went blank. He couldn’t think of anything. He challenged him, these are the problems, please explain. Why did you make these mistakes. He could not say a word. He just stood there. He was trying to speak, he was trying to speak of something but nothing was there. He just stood there and all the children started to laugh. Nimai said no, no, no, do not laugh. He said you must be very tired Keseva Kashmiri that’s why you are not answering my questions. Because after all you just composed all those 100 verses like the raging wind, hence you must be very tired, so please go home and study your books and tomorrow we will discuss.  Take nice rest. This is how nice Nimai was.  He defeated him but he maintained his dignity in front of everyone else. That night Keseva Kashmiri was in his room and every night he would worship Saraswati. He was crying, Saraswati have I made any offense to you, you always on my tongue, whenever I call for you, you’re on my tongue to give the most celestial words for me to speak. Today there was nothing there, what offense did I make. Have you abandoned me goddess Saraswati. He were so disturbed, he laid down and went to sleep. And goddess Saraswati appeared to him and she told him that this is a secret I am about to reveal to you. Nimai Pandit is the Supreme Personality of Godhead, he is the cause of all causes, he is the source of all sources, he is the ultimate guru of the entire existence and whatever power I have, I have gain only for him, I worship him I surrender to him. If you are really my follower you should give up your false pride and you should surrender to Nimai pandit, the supreme Lord. Then only your life will be perfect. Other wise all this mundane knowledge will get you no where. Kesav Kashmiri woke up the next morning, went right to Nimai’s house and fell at his feet  did dadavats, prostrated obeisances. And Nimai said “Panditji what are you doing? With folded hands he revealed his heart. The goddess sarawati has revealed to me your true identity and Nimai explained to him that knowledge itself is only of value, if it helps us to develop the qualities of a pure devotee, otherwise knowledge is a disturbance. And this holds true for devotees also. We may study in MIHE, or VIHE or we may be doing our Bhakti Shastrys at RadhaGopinath Mandir or Pune studying all the wonderful and amazing courses for preaching or studying the scriptures on our own, we may memorize so many shlokas, we may master so much philosophy and logic, we may be able to conquer others in debate. But Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu is telling us knowledge has its real value, if it helps us to develop the qualities of a pure devotee.

trinadhapi suni....one who is humble like blade of grass, more tolerant than a tree, one who offers all respect to others and expects none in return that person can  chant the holyname constantly.

These qualities of knowledge are supposed to awaken within our hearts. Not only is our philosophy meant to defend against opposing philosophies that come from other people in their world but knowledge is meant to conquer the anartha of false ego, which is our  that is within our heart.

And Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu was in Varanasi before the mayavadi sannyasais headed by Prakasananda Saraswati  and these men were powerful scholars like no one today. And Sri Caitnay Mahaprabhu he came into the room where they were sitting he sat on a lower platform in the place where all ofthem had already washed their feet. But he manifested his Brahman effulgence and they were attracted because they bhahmavadis and mayavadis. He is a sannyasi, they said you are a swamiji what are you doing sitting in that low dirty place come up and sit with us. And Caitanya Mahaprabhu said I am not worthy of sitting with you are very learned great sannyasi schlors I am very small. his humility melted their hearts. Prakasananda saraswati came down from his raised platform, picked up Lord Caitanya by the hand and brought Him to sit beside him. Then Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu describes such a profound philosophy that totally transformed the hearts of all the Mayavadis, and they all became devotees. Try to understand the way the Lord stage this – is the very foundational basis of real knowledge is our character, is the qualities that we possess. And the foundational characteristics of a vaisnava is simplicity, humility, forgiveness, tolerance, and a very sincere eagerness to serve the Lord, to serve the devotees, to serve people in general, to serve all living beings, and to chant the holy names.

Hare Kåñëa, Hare Kåñëa, Kåñëa Kåñëa , Hare Hare

Hare Räma, Hare Räma, Räma Räma, Hare Hare

 

Kesave kasmiri, he said to Lord Caitanya, “Do You know how can I understand that You are the supreme personality of Godhead? You completely destroyed my pride without even embarrassing me in front of everyone else. How is that possible? All the other students are there. You did it in such an expert way, that you destroyed my pride and protected my dignity. Who else could do that?” Caitanya Mahaprabhu said, “Real knowledge is to understand that I am the servant of the servant of the Lord and to always chant the holy names in that spirit.”

Kesava kasmiri, without saying anything to anyone, he left all of his property, all of his wealth, all of his followers, all of his students, everyone behind and he just disappeared and left Navadwip all alone filled with ecstatic love. By the mercy of Lord Caitanya, he had attained perfection of knowledge.

bahünäà janmanäm ante jïänavän mäà prapadyate

väsudevaù sarvam iti sa mahätmä su-durlabhaù

After many births of cultivating knowledge, one finally comes to that point of perfection of surrendering to Krishna knowing that He is the cause of all causes and all that is.

What is the use if you have so much knowledge if you cannot even cooperate with other devotees. Cooperation takes forgiveness, takes tolerance, takes respectfulness, but it pleases guru and pleases Krishna. Whatever knowledge, whatever austerities, we perform, if we are not cooperating, that is so displeasing to guru and Krishna. That is factually undoing all the things you are trying to develop. From a spiritual perspective, all your austerities, Krishna doesn’t care about them, guru doesn’t care about your austerities, he doesn’t care about your knowledge, if you can’t cooperate with other devotees. The foundation of bhakti is good character. Prabhupada said in one interview, that philosophy has little or no value if it does not produce good character.

So, Indra, he was so deeply insulted. By this time, finally he gave up. There is nothing he could do. He drove away on his elephant. And he was devastated. What just happened. I have been totally defeated. And it became nice and sunny out, clear weather, and Krishna is smiling, and He said to the Brajavasis, “Now the rains have stopped. And the sun is out, and we had a wonderful festival for the last 7 days, together. Now you could all go home and take all your property and cows and your calves with you”. The Brijbasis didn’t want to leave, this form of Giridhari was so beautiful. And when we look at the form of Giridhari, holding up the Govardhan hill or any particular darshan of Lord Krishna, his beauty is every increasing. Even if you have the most beautiful painting or the most beautiful whatever, and it’s just the nicest thing you have ever seen, how long can you look at it, before you want to look at something else? Even if the most beautiful person you know, the person you dream about, if they are standing before you, you could look at them for some time, but then you get bored, you want to look at something else, because it is the same old thing. Yes? It’s the same. But Krishna’s beauty is ever increasing, it’s never the same. Every moment, Krishna is increasing his beauty, every moment you see Krishna, it’s a totally new experience, like you have never seen it before. Now those 7 days at Goverdhan Lila, He is only shaking his head sometimes, and glancing and moving His eyes and smiling. But yet for everyone who was looking at Him, it was a totally new experience at every moment. Their eyes were drinking in the nectar, their hearts were flooding with gratitude and love and Krishna’s heart was over flooding with love for them. Some of the Brajbasis may have been hoping, “Indra, let him just keep doing this forever. We never want to see this darshan stop”. All the Brajbasis’ inner most desires were perfectly fulfilled in that festival of love.

VRAJAVASIS WONDER ABOUT WHO KRSNA IS

Then Krishna told them, “Now you must all go home”. So they all smiling, they left. The cows left. But then all the cows ran back, because they couldn’t give up the beautiful darshan of Giridhari. Gopal, Srinathji, with his head and his eyes, He herded all the cows outside from under Goverdhan Hill. And then how He did it, is by his own mystical ways. He placed Giriraj down very gently; exactly the same place from where He picked it up, like a little boy puts the mushroom back on the ground. And then he was walking around to inspect, to see, if any damage was done from the rains in Vrindavana. As Krishna was walking, soon after they approached Nanda Maharaj. They said, “Nanda Maharaj, we want to ask about your son. Your son is such a tender, vulnerable boy of 7 years old. And here is Goverdhan hill, huge mountain with peaks that sometimes touch the clouds. That’s what it was like in those days. And He held it up with His little finger for 7 days. How is that possible? It was like an umbrella that protected us from the rains. And we saw so many other incidences that are just very inconceivable for us to understand. When He was just a baby, the gigantic she demoness putna, came to kill Him and He sucked the milk from her breast and sucked her very life from her body and when He was only about 3 or 4 months old Sakatasura, that demon who came as a cart and with one little kick from his lotus foot he killed him. And when he was only one year old, Tranavarta came as a massive whirl wind, he took Krsna high in the sky. Krsna assumed a weight and brought him down to the ground. He was finished. Then when he was with the calves and cowherd boys in Kadiravana, they went to a lake to drink some water, and the demon bakasura appeared as a massive bird and he swallowed Krsna. And then Krsna became so hot in his throat due to his effulgence that he vomited Krsna out. And with his sharp beaks he tried to stab Krsna to death and Krsna grabbed the top part of his beak and lifted it with his hand and then he put his foot at the bottom part and he ripped his beak and ripped his whole face open. Baksura tore him in half. And there was Kaliya,  this gigantic snake. He had Krsna in his coils for several hours and then Krsna slipped out and danced on his hoods and defeated him and sent him away from Vrindavan into the ocean. And today Indra the king of heaven sent massive torrential storms that are meant to destroy the universe at Vrindavan and little Gopal lifted, Govardhan Hill and held it with his little finger effortlessly. In the west there is someone called the mighty Atlas, it is from a Greek. One of the Greek Myths, where Atlas holds up the Universe. Have you ever seen that. There is famous ancient paintings of Atlas holding up the world. And he is really struggling and straining. But Krsna is lifting up the hill and he is smiling. He can lift the planets through his gravitational forces. He doesn’t have to hold it up, all he has to do is to wish that it stays in its orbit. The cowherd men were saying, ”Today we saw him, effortlessly lifting Govardhan hill for 7 days. How does he do it? Please tell us Nanda Maharaj. Krsna is so wonderful. He is attracting our hearts. Please tell us who he is?” and Nanda Maharaj said “I will dispel all your confusion. Please listen carefully. Krsna had a name giving ceremony that was kept very secret in the cowshed and there Garga Rsi performed and at that time he told me very great secrets about Krsna. He said this new born child Krsna has taken birth in many ways in different times. He comes to reestablish the principles and he comes to annihilate the miscreants and to protect the devotees. He has come in the Satya Yuga in a white color, to establish meditation as the yuga dharma. He has come in red color to establish the performance of yajna. He also comes in a beautiful golden complexion in kali yuga, to establish the yuga dharma, of the congregational chanting of holy names:

Hare Krsna Hare Krsna Krsna Krsna Hare Hare/ Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare

And now He has come in this beautiful dark complexion. He has come to give the greatest pleasure to all the residents of Vrindavan. And He will protect you from all dangers and he will attract your hearts with divine love. He is as good as Lord Narayana. Please protect Him nicely.

Now after hearing this from Garga Muni, Nanda and Yasoda understood who Krsna was. But everytime they look at Him, everytime they would hear His name, everytime they would think of Him, their motherly and fatherly love would become so overwhelming that they would completely forget about the words of Garga Muni. When Krsna opened his mouth and mother Yasoda saw the entire Universal creation within His mouth and belly, at first she was thinking that I have scolded this little boy thinking that he is my child, but now I know who He is. But then when Krsna smiled she thought, “What am I thinking? Garga Muni may have said all this, that He is as good as Narayan, but what does Garga Muni know. When Krishna is hungry he cries and only I can pacify Him by giving food. When Krishna is scared when there is thunder in the sky, he comes running to me with tears in his eyes; he has to sleep next to me.  because he is so afraid. So what does Garga muni know? I know who Krsna is and Krsna knows who I am. That’s all I need to know”. This is the Brajvasis. Even though Nanda Maharaja revealed this to the Brajvasis, still because of their love for Krsna, they couldn’t just keep that thought that Krsna is the Supreme Lord Narayan in their heart. May be he is a great Yogi. But even that he is a great Yogi, those thoughts would come sometimes when he does something very great. But then as soon as he looked at them and they looked at him, he was just Krsna. He was just Gopal, Our beloved. How is it they ask Nanda Maharaja that he can do super human things, but at the same time he can run and cry when is afraid, and he will steal butter when he was hungry. And then when he is caught he will tell lies. He will say “I didn’t do it”, how can the absolute truth tell lies? Therefore he cannot he the absolute truth. That’s the highest understanding. The next understanding until you become completely perfect, is the absolute truth, whatever he speaks is absolute truth. And what may appear to us a lie is actually the truth. How could Krsna steal anything when everything belongs to him? So, all the cowherd men were very happy to hear this, they were very satisfied in their heart. Everyone was satisfied, except Indra. Now he realized that Krsna is God. Because he is the king of the Heavens. He is a demigod, the only possible person that could defeat him is God himself. And I tried to destroy God and his devotees and his cows (he laughs). Indra was bereaved in anxiety. He really made an aparadha. So he went to Brhaspati and he also went to Lord Brahma and asked “What can I do? What can I do to atone for this offence?” and they told him, “When you make an offence to the Lord, only if a devotee prays to the lord to forgive you, will you be forgiven. Go to Surabhi. Krsna loves his cows”. So he went to Surabhi, the mother of Surabhi cows. Now here is the king of heaven with his crown and he is coming off his magnificent throne and he going to a mother cow, and explains his situation. And she says “come, we will go”

INDRA SURRENDERS

So Krishna sees Indra coming down to Vrindavan and Indra is watching Krishna same a seven year old boy just walking around looking at things and Krishna completely ignored looking at Indra as if he was an insignificant blade of grass He didn’t even look at him. He did it for Indra’s benefit.  And Surabhi approached Krishna and Krishna lovingly looked at Surabhi and she said “Indra had made serious offence and he regrets it from his heart. He has come to you to beg forgiveness and to surrender. Please accept him”. Because Surabhi asked Krishna to forgive him and accept him, Krishna turned to Indra. This is a common thing. Kaliya was a very poisonous asura. Krishna is about to destroy him but when the Krishna’s devotes the naga pathnis prayed to Krishna “Please forgive him. He is humble now. He wants to surrender to you”. Because of the prayers of wives of kaliya, by devotees, Krishna accepted Kaliya. Kaliya became a great devotee. In fact some times when Garuda is busy doing some thing Krishna goes some where riding on Kaliya. He has become Krishna very personal carrier, because devotees prayed for his deliverance. Jagai and Madai, Sri Chaitanya Maha Prabhu had his Sudarshan chakra shining at brothers head, about to sever the heads of these two brothers, but it was the devotee, original guru Lord Nityananda Prabhu who prayed to forgive them, “give them bhakti”. Lord Chaitanya said, “Because you are dear to Nityananda Prabhu, I forgive him here I give you pure bhakti just chant the holy names and never do this offences again”.

The mother cow, she is not in a very prestigious position, Indra is in most prestigious position. But he humbled himself to beg her for help and due to her prayer Krishna accepted Indra. When Indra offered prayer Krishna isn’t listening to prayer until Surabhi appeared on his behalf. A place in Vrindavan is called Surabhi Kunj, where Surabhi approached Krishna, out of mercy to Indra. Indra presented eloquent Sanskrit prayers, praising the lord for his supreme position, expressing his own ignorance, his own envy, anger, greed and ego. He is begging forgiveness. Krishna forgave him. For Krishna the whole event is a big fun, because actually Indra didn’t offend any one.

We should all be thankful to Indra. One of the most beautiful pastimes, that has ever been performed by the Supreme Personality of Godhead in the history of all the universes is Govardhan puja. And all the Brajavasis, the loving pastimes they all shared with Krishna for those seven days were highlights of their whole lives. They never forgot. They never forget. Such intimacy! This is Krishna consciousness – transforming an apparent danger, transforming what may appear to be curse into something wonderful. And we could all do that. If our hearts transform, and we look for the proper positive opportunity, we can change difficult situations into glorious situations. Oftentimes emergencies bring devotees together, like they have never been united before. Because they need each other. When things are just ordinary, unfortunately, our tendency is we take each other for granted. Have you had that experience? When there is really an emergency, we need each other. Then we really appreciate each other. And we really help each other to focus on Krishna. Because there is no other shelter. That is one of the great lessons of Govardhan puja.

Krishna forgave Indra, and Indra returned to his abode. But first, Indra wanted to establish, for all the other demigods to see that, “Krishna, you are the real Indra.” Indra is Lord. Indra was thinking he is the Supreme Lord. Now I want to establish for everyone that You are the Supreme Lord. You are my Lord, and You are everyone’s Lord.

So, his elephant Airavata brought water from the akasa-ganga – the celestial Ganges of the heavenly worlds, to do abhishek for Krishna, to coronate Him as the Lord of all Lords. And there was a beautiful ceremony. The wives of the rishis, Ananta sesha, Lord Brahma, Lord Siva, the four kumaras, Narada muni, Vayu and Agni, Surya, all the great rishis, are assembled just near Govardhan hill, and they performed coronation ceremony for Krishna. Surabhi bathed Krishna with her pure ambrosial milk. Indra performed His abhishek with the akasa-ganga waters, they performed arati with celestial paraphernalia, and Surabhi and Indra proclaimed Krishna’s name to be Govinda, one who gives pleasure to the earth, to the cows, and to the senses. And that place today, where that coronation of Krishna, is called Govinda kund.

The devatas all left with the rishis.  And the cowherd boys came and they saw Krishna sitting there. And when they saw all this paraphernalia – divine camaras from heavenly planets, and divine arti paraphernalia, plates and all these things, and they all started in a very playful, joking way, they were offering aratis to Krishna, fanning Him, and doing this and singing His names and His glories - As play. And when the demigods looked down and saw them, how the gopas were worshipping Krishna with their Paraphernalia.

And they saw the innocent simple pure love, the totally unmotivated unconditional love that they had for Krishna and the way they were chanting and the way they were worshipping him, all the demigods Brahma, Siva, Narada, Indra, they were all thinking we have no real love for Krishna in comparison to the cowherd boys. Their love is so sweet and so pure and so real and motives, but our love is mixed with so much reverence and formalities and motives. But their their love is purely freely from the heart. They don’t care if Krishna is god or not god, they love Krishna andwill give their lives a million times every moment simply because He is Krishna. Then the older vrajvasis came, Nanda and Yadhoda they heard thos too and they asked where did this magnificent paraphernalia come from? Whats happening? Then madhumangal and some of the other cowherd boys Subal and Sridama they explained you won’t believe what we just saw, what did you see. There were all these unbelievable people worshipping Krishna, little Gopal. There was one person who was riding on  a massive elephant and his whole body was covered with eyes. He was bathing Krishna and so body was standing offering prayers to him who had five faces and five mouths. Its mahadev. And he saw somebody else with crowns on his head and he had four heads. He was offering an Arati and offering prayers. And you know what else we saw, a taking cow. She was talking to Krishna. And the cowherd men they were thinking these children, what do we understand about what they say. Then Yashoda Mayi came and then she began to offer the arati and Nanda Maharaj and all of them and they all proclaimed Krishna you are our Indra, you are the Lord of our lives, the love of our hearts. This is a brief summary of Sri Govardhan puja..

CAITANYA MAHAPRABHU AND GOVARDHAN

Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu when he was in Vrindavan he came to Govardhan hill and as soon as he saw the first stone of Giriraj the king of all mountains, Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu in the mood of Srimati Radharani ran to that stone and embraced Him, embraced Him with so much devotion and affection and his eyes were streaming tears of love. This is described in Sri Caitanya caritamrita. Becasue Govardhan is Krishna. His body is Krishna’s body there is absolutely no difference. Govardhan silas need no pranapratistha or installations. He is always Krishna. But our acaryas warn us that we must never remove any Govardhan sila from Govardhan hill unless we are paramahamsas great great devotees or unless its specifically under the orders and blessings of the acaryas. Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu was seeing Krishna’s three fold bending form he was seeing all of Krishna’s opulences in each of the silas of govardhan hill. And he did the parikrama of Giriraj, following in the footsteps of his paramguru Madhavenrda Puri in great ecstasy. One  Sannyasi gave as a gift to Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu a govardhan sila. When Lord Caitanya was living in puri dham, He wore that sila over his heart around his neck.

 

Kaviraj Goswami tells that the shila was constantly wet with the tears of Lord Caitanya’s love Radha Bhava Duti… In the mood of Radha’s love He felt Krishna personally in that Shila and sometimes in His deepest moments of divine ecstasy he would hold Giriraj to His heart. He would hold him to His forehead and He would cry. It was the most precious thing of His life, was that Govardhan Shila. And seeing Raghunath Das Goswami’s pure and genuine humility, his deep service attitude, his attachment to the chanting of the holy names, serving the vaishnavas, hearing about Krishna and his profound austerities... Raghunath Das Goswami performed his austerities, for essentially 2 reasons. One He as so humble, he didn’t think himself worthy of just taking  regular prasad, he considered it was more befitting to him to eat, the Prasad that was considered old, rotten garbage that the cows would spit out. That was his humility. And also he performed that severe austerity, so that he would not be in any way distracted by any forms of sense pleasure, so that he could focus 100% of his attention in meditating on Krishna, Radha and Krishna...through serving the vaishnavas, through serving the servants of Lord Caitanya, through hearing about Krishna and through chanting the holy names. “Hare Krishna Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna Hare Hare, Hare Rama Hare Rama, Rama Rama Hare Hare”. Seeing the sincerity of Raghunath Das Goswami, Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu, presented to him, through Svarupa Damodar Goswami, that Govardhan Shila and a Gunja Mala. And Raghunath Dasa Goswami was thinking, “By giving me this Govardhan Shila, Lord Caitanya is giving me the residence at Govardhan Hill. And by presenting to me this Gunja Mala, my Lord is giving me eternal loving service to Srimati Radharani”. Raghunath Das Goswami, was the most humble devotee. He would not even talk to Lord Caitanya directly, it was always through other people, because he felt himself so unworthy. He wouldn’t approach Lord Nityananda directly. He would offer obeisances from a distance; Lord Nityananda would go and pick him up. He would offer obeisances to Lord Caintanya from a distance and devotees would say, “There is Raghunath”. And He would pick him up. That was the nature of Raghunath Das Goswami. Seeing those qualities, Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu, gave him eternal residence at Govardhan and made him the prayojana acarya of our sampradaya, who taught us the highest perfection of realizing the gopis love for Krishna. Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu, has come to give us that gift. We are hearing Govardhan Lila, Caitanya Mahaprabhu is giving us the opportunity to participate in our original spiritual bodies, in these unlimited divine pastimes.

SRILA PRABHUPADA AND GOVARDHAN

Srila prabhupada, in his last days, he requested the devotees, to take him on a parikrama of Govardhan Hill. His body was so emanciated, he had lost so much weight, the doctor said, “To put him on a bullock cart and go around the Govardhan Hill, so bouncy, there is not a possibility that he could survive. He will die”. Prabhupada said, “That will be wonderful, take me, I want to go to Govardhan Hill and do parikrama”. There was a dispute among devotees, some were saying we should take him and others were saying that if we take him, he will die. Srila Prabhupada’s dear God brother Krsnadas Babaji came to visit Srila Prabhupada and Srila Prabhupada said about those devotees who were dissuading him from going, “Babaji see how much they love me”. And he decided not to go. Just by Srila Prabhupada will he did go and most of all he showed us how sacred Govardhan hill is for all the vaishnavas. Krsna lifted Govardhan hill to protect his devotees, to give loving pleasure to His devotees. For the Vrajabasis he protected them from devastations and gave them the highest bliss. For Indra, another devotee, he protected him by smashing his false pride and giving him another bliss of humble devotional service and to all of us he lifted the Govardhan hill to protect us by revealing that he is the only shelter. And Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu has taught that shelter of Sri Giriraj, who will always protect, empower and enthuse his devotees,  is within his holy names. If the Vrajabasis had said casually, Krsna if you want to help us, that’s alright, Krsna would not have done that. But they came to Krsna in single minded total absorption that “Krsna only you can save us. Krsna we are yours, please give me your shelter.” And if with the same sincerity we approach Krsna’s holy name, Srimati Radharani’s holy name, then Krsna will perform his Govardhan pastimes for us also and protect us from the onslaught of material existence and in this spirit let us very loudly offer our gratitude to Krsna by chanting the holy names:

Hare Krsna Hare Krsna Krsna Krsna Hare Hare/ Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare

When Krsna came out from Govardhan and after putting it down all His friends embraced Him congratulating Him, “Well done, well done!” And the gopis stood a little distance and just gazed upon Him and He gazed back and in doing so they thanked Him from the heart of hearts. And Yasoda Mayi began to massage Krsna’s finger thinking that it must be very sore from lifting the hill. This is the love of Vrindavan.

Thank you very much!