Gaura-mandala-bhumi Yatra with Hradhanatha Swami and Sacinandana Swami

Giriraj Swami: So, we are about to hear the story of Govardhana-puja from Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. Giriraj Govardhana is described in Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam as the best servant of Lord Hari. Although He is Krishna Himself, but He also is in the mood of Krishna’s servant, just as Sri Gauranga Mahaprabhu is Krishna Himself, but He is in the mood of Krishna’s servant, in the mood of Srimati Radharani. But Giri Govardhana is also Krishna in the mood of Krishna’s servant, but not just Krishna’s servant, but the servant of Radha and Krishna and all of the other servants of Krishna. So, Giri Govardhana is extremely merciful, and He is ready to give mercy to anyone who comes to Him; rich or poor, knowledgeable or ignorant, man or woman, elevated or lowly, but He is ready to give His mercy to anyone who approaches Him.

So, now we shall request His Holiness Sacinandana Swami Maharaja to begin the story of Govardhana-puja, and Maharaja and I will alternate, or I shall say he will speak, and I will interrupt from time to time. Hare Krishna.

Sacinandana Swami: In one year, Maharaja Nanda, like in the previous times, called all the cowherd friends of Vrindavan and said, “We shall now worship Indra today, so that he continues to send showers of rains, so that the pasturing fields will be saturated with sufficient water for growth, our agriculture fields will be taken care of.” And he ordered that all the arrangements for Indra-puja were made.

Krishna, who was small at that time, saw this, and He came to Nanda Maharaja and said, “Nanda Maharaja, what is this preparation, which is done in Vraja?” “You won’t understand this, You are too small for this. It is some worship, please don’t ask.” “No, no,” said Krishna, “I want to know. Among relatives, it is not customary to have any secrets.” So, Nanda Maharaja told Him, “My dear boy, here in this village, we are cowherds and agriculturalists, we are dependent on Indra for sending us rain, and we worship him to ensure our ongoing cooperative relationship that Indra helps us.” “Oh,” said Krishna, “This is actually not correct. We are not dependent on demigods.”

And then, Krishna went into six arguments why worship of Indra deva should not be done. One of them is, “Father, the rain falls in the ocean. There was no one to do puja and worship. That is not necessary, how can you say that we are dependent on any outside agent?” And then He said, “What we are dependent on are our own good activities.” And He preached [Unintelligible 00:23:29] philosophy. He said, “Everything, which we are experiencing in our lives, is dependent on us, and the [Unintelligible 00:23:41] agents. If we do good things, good things happen to us. If we do bad things, bad things happen to us. And then in the end, Krishna said, “My dear father, let us look at it realistically. We are dependent on the Govardhana Hill, because from the hill, we derive sufficient amounts of grasses and herbs for our cows. From Govardhana, we derive water. We are dependent also on the cows, on the land, and on the brahmans. Therefore, My dear father, let us take all the ingredients which we have gathered for the pleasure of this insignificant, unnecessary demigod Indra to worship Govardhana and the cows, and let us do that.”

So, Nanda Maharaja thought, and he thought, and he thought, should he break an ancient tradition, which was founded in Vedic shastras and in the common practices of his ancestors? Should he just reject it and give it up because Krishna, his little son, who was sometimes stealing butter, said so? But Nanda Maharaja, being an unalloyed devotee of the Lord, did not have to think twice. He saw the beautiful face of his wonderful boy and he decided, “Well, if Krishna says, we will do,” and the arrangements were diverted to the Govardhana-puja.

Now, you can imagine that the talk, and also the practical consequences [Unintelligible 00:26:02] in the heart of king Indra, who thought himself an independent ruler of this universe. His false ego was so hurt. I read one commentary who said he was hissing like a snake, on whose body someone had negligently stepped. And he summoned all the clouds and the fleshes, which were employed by him during the time of universal cataclysm, or ruination, destruction, and he said, “You go to this boy, to this tract of land in Vrindavan, and you just destroy these villages, and you just show them a good lesson of who is the Lord and master of the land.” And then he began to talk about Krishna, calling Him many, many names, which he intended to be bad names.

Giriraj Swami: Sometimes we hear the stories from Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, and someone might question, “Is there any relevance to this story for us?” And actually, there is. In the beginning, when Lord Krishna was enquiring of His father, He asked, “What is the purpose of this worship? Is there any benefit we derive from this worship, or is it simply customary?” The purport is that we should not simply engage in ritualistic activities or religious performances without any benefit. If we are simply performing some ritual for the sake of performing it, without gaining anything, what is the use?

So, therefore, Krishna consciousness is very practical. When we engage in devotional service to Lord Krishna, we actually feel that we are benefiting, and we can feel that we are benefiting. Sometimes, the person goes through the mountains of some ritual, they don’t really feel anything because they don’t really feel any transcendental pleasure, they remain attached to so-called material pleasures. But devotees who engage in the transcendental loving service of Krishna, they actually feel transcendental bliss, and thus they lose interest in the so-called pleasure of material existence.

One other point, sometimes when we approach persons with the philosophy of Krishna consciousness, they raise the objection, “In our families, we have been worshiping Lord Shiva, or Lord Ganesha, or Durga,” and they feel that they should not give up the worship, which has been going on in the family for many generations. But here, Lord Krishna is giving us the instructions that you need not continue some worship, even if the worship has been going on for generations in the family, unless the worship actually brings them real benefit.

And in Bhagavad-gītā, Lord Krishna criticizes persons who worship demigods, that the worship is actually meant for Him, but it is being offered in the wrong way. And at the conclusion of Bhagavad-gītā, Lord Krishna declares, sarva-dharmān parityajya mām ekaṁ śaraṇaṁ vraja, “Give up all varieties of religiousness and take exclusive shelter of Lord Krishna.” And of course, Giri Govardhana is Krishna Himself, as will be revealed later in the pastime. But He is also Krishna in the mood of a devotee. So, we can also take the instruction that we should take shelter of Krishna by taking shelter of Krishna’s devotees. And by taking shelter of Krishna’s devotees, all of our desires will be fulfilled.

Sacinandana Swami: Indra called Krishna, “You are simply a little child. On the basis of what this little child said, the inhabitants of Vrindavan committed this grave sin, for which they need to be punished.” He said, “Krishna is talkative, and then in addition to this, He is extremely arrogant.” But when he said it, Sarasvati put some other meaning in the word. When Indra said, “Krishna is a little child,” it meant, “He is innocent without pretension like a child.” When Indra said, “He is talkative,” it came out, “Krishna is the source of all the Vedas. He has talked all the Vedas by just breathing them out.” And when he said, “Krishna is arrogant,” it means, “Everyone bows down to Krishna, but Krishna is the Supreme Personality of Godhead, who is the supreme object of worship for everyone. And what his words are, [Unintelligible 00:32:34].”

So then, a tragedy happened; it began to rain and hail. The [Unintelligible 00:32:43], to make it a little bit more colorful, says that raindrops as big as elephants fell from the sky, or it came down thick as pillars, and soon, you could no longer distinguish what was high land and what was flat land. Everything became submerged by this. It was terrible. The cows first began to give protection against the rain flood to the little calves by using their own bodies, but then it became impossible. The people of the Vrindavan soon saw, “We are finished if we don’t get help.” To whom do the vrajavāsīs turn when they need help? Of course, to Krishna. “Krishna,” they called, “Hey, Govinda, Hey, Gopal, save us. We are drowning in this delouse created by Indra.” Then, Krishna performed His wonderful pastime of lifting the Govardhana Hill. He went to the Govardhana Hill, and He uprooted Him, and then He held Him with one finger.

Giriraj Maharaja?

Giriraj Swami: The little finger of the left hand.

Sacinandana Swami: And this is a very difficult task to hold a full hill on the little finger of the left hand. Prabhupada says, “He did this even without any previous experience in weight lifting.” So, He held it and invited the cowherd men, and the families, and the cows, in fact, all living entities of Vrindavan, to come under the natural umbrella, which He created. And He held this umbrella for seven days and seven nights.

It is a wonderful līlā because during these seven days, the privilege was granted to the vrajavāsīs, which was not granted before. They could see nonstop the beautiful form of Krishna. Krishna usually leaves the village of Vrindavan in the morning for cow herding and comes back late in the afternoon, and the cowherd boys, and the gopīs, and all the inhabitants, are very sad when He is pasturing the cows in the ground. But now, they could see Krishna. Therefore, for seven days, they did not feel any hunger and any thirst because the beautiful darshan of Sri Krishna was fulfilling their hunger and their thirst.

Giriraj Swami: One thing carefully of the pastime of Krishna lifting Govardhana Hill. Some questions may come to mind, which have been answered by the acharyas. One question is that so much rain was falling on Vrindavan, even if Krishna held Govardhana Hill like an umbrella to protect the residents of Vrindavan from the rainfall, what would stop the rain from accumulating on the ground and flooding them underneath the umbrella of Govardhana Hill? So, Lord Krishna summoned His Sudarsana chakra, which can burn like millions of suns, and the Sudarsana chakra was simultaneously evaporating the water, so that it wouldn’t flood the residents of Vrindavan under the umbrella.

Another question that could be raised is that Govardhana Hill is only about seven miles long, it is just a medium sized hill, so how could the whole cowherd community of Vrindavan fit under Govardhana Hill? So, here also, the acharyas give the answer that Govardhana Hill was in such ecstasy, being held by the little finger of the left hand of Lord Krishna, that He expanded. One of the ecstatic symptoms is that one's body becomes elongated. So, Govardhana Hill was in so much ecstasy having the opportunity to serve Lord Krishna and His devotees, and being directly held up by the lotus hands of Vishnu, that His body elongated and expanded, and thus He was able to give shelter to all the residents of Vrindavan.

Sacinandana Swami: At this time, Giriraj was in ecstasy, becoming elongated, the cowherd men of Vrindavan developed a certain mood. This whole līlā is meant to destroy pride. In fact, Vaishnavas who suffer from the problem of pride, it’s a common disease of the conditioned soul, are encouraged to listen to this līlā, so our own pride is destroyed.

Let us hear what happened. The cowherd boys, the cowherd men thought, Krishna is lifting this. He is a little boy. We are very strong also. Let us help Him. They took the sticks, which are commonly used for herding the cows, and began to push them up and hold it, almost like this, [Unintelligible 00:39:35]. So, Krishna saw what was going on in His pure devotees. He is an expert in destroying pride. Maybe He has done it already in some of our own cases, if we can remember it. He is an expert. He takes this pride away, and what He did here is He shifted by His mystic potency a little portion of the weight on the sticks of the cowherd men, and when that happened, they were pushed down and crashed to the ground. Krishna smiled. He took responsibility for holding the whole mountain. It did not crush down and hurt anyone, but the weight itself came and smashed them, and they understood, Oh no, Krishna is very unusual in His exhibition of strength. He is very, very powerful. And then this disappeared again, this expression of Krishna’s strength, and they just looked at Him with loving eyes.

After seven complete days and nights, Indra, the fool, had his pride efficiently crushed. He came personally on his elephant Airavata to observe the brutal operation which he had started, and he saw that Krishna was happily holding the mountain and the vrajavāsīs had no problem. And then, after seven days, it took a long time, he was really puffed up, he went up and understood, “Maybe, I made a mistake here.” And he ordered the clouds, he said, “Go away. This is magical. This is mystical. I made a mistake. Just disappear. Please. Quick. Quick. Quick.” And then, Krishna was telling His cowherd men, friends, gopīs, and everyone, “Please now leave the mountain.” And then He placed it back on the place where it previously was. And then He said, “My dear inhabitants of Vrindavan, let us now circumambulate the mountain, and let us worship Giriraj Govardhana, because He is non-different from Me.”

How this is so, it’s a subject matter which our learned commentators would soon comment on. But there is a beautiful detail to be observed. After He had put the hill down, His friends came down and started to massage His left arm to give Him relief, and they gave Him refreshments. I think the gopīs offered curd, which was mixed with tears of ecstasy. So, Krishna said, “Now, let us circumambulate Govardhana, who is non-different from Myself.” This is a very important story, and we will now be enlightened about the continuation.

Giriraj Swami: So, Lord Krishna and the residents of Vrindavan began to circumambulate Govardhana Hill. Lord Krishna also ordered the residents of Vrindavan to prepare. They had prepared so many items for the sacrifice to King Indra, and He wanted the items to be offered to Govardhana Hill. But Govardhana Hill, actually. . . Although there were literally mountains of rice, laḍḍu, samosas, and other items, but within a moment, Giri Govardhana ate everything, and He began to ask for more. “Aniyor, aniyor, aniyor. Bring more, bring more, bring more.” So, again, the vrajavāsīs cooked, and whatever they could prepare, they offered to Govardhana Hill. And again, within a moment, He finished everything. And again, He began to cry, “Bring more, bring more. Aniyor, aniyor.” So again, the vrajavāsīs went to cook, and this time, whatever they had in their houses, they prepared, there was nothing left. And they offered everything they had to Govardhana Hill, but again, Govardhana Hill finished everything and was calling for more.

So, the vrajavāsīs were really in anxiety because they had offered whatever they had to Govardhana Hill, but still, Govardhana Hill was not satisfied. So then, one brahman came forward, and he had the idea, “We haven’t offered Govardhana Hill tulasi leaves yet. Let us offer Govardhana Hill tulasi leaves, and maybe that will satisfy Him.” So, Lord Krishna, on behalf of the vrajavāsīs, appealed to Govardhana Hill, “Whatever little we had, we have already offered to You. We don’t have anything else to offer. So, please accept this tulasi leaf and be merciful and be satisfied.” So then, Govardhana Hill accepted the tulasi leaf and was satisfied.

Sacinandana Swami: Then, Krishna, to show that He is actually non-different from Govardhana, actually, that had happened before, He took a very big form, in which He ate with arms, and then He was finally satisfied by eating the tulasi leaf. Then, Krishna bowed down with all the inhabitants of Vrindavan to Giriraj and offered prayers to show them.

Giri Govardhana ki jaya! Giriraj ki jaya! Gaura premānande Hari Haribol!

Now, there is also an after play. The after play was when everything was settled, everyone was back in the village, Krishna went to inspect the damage which Indra had created. And Indra took this opportunity to approach the Lord and beg Him for forgiveness. He did not come alone, however. He first went to the planet where there is Mother Surabhi and asked her, “You are so dear, and I have offended the cows. Please, you are so dear to Krishna, come with me and speak on my behalf to get the Lord’s attention.” When you do something very foolish to a great personality, you will ask someone, “Please, you introduce me. You tell him that I am not so bad. I mean, I am a little foolish, that’s all, but no bad characteristic can be observed in my nature.” So, this is what Indra also did.

So, Surabhi came forward, Krishna received her, and then Indra came also forward and Krishna was not so happy, because Indra had offended His devotees, but at the very end, the līlā ends with Surabhi who gave Krishna a great abhisheka with her milk, also Indra was abhisheka by Airavata, his elephant. Before that, Indra was really praying for forgiveness, and he made himself very, very low. This is also what we have to learn. We may not remember whether we were Indras or not, but we certainly have the bad qualification of being proud, of being deceived by our own false ego, and rebelling against the service of the Supreme Lord. In fact, sometimes we might have become very disturbed by Krishna’s worship.

I remember once, when we tried to cultivate Michael Jackson, the infamous singer of America, we gave him a picture that Radha and Krishna are beautifully displayed as sitting on one of the rocks of Vrindavan. Radha is leaning towards Krishna, and Michael Jackson appreciated the picture, but in a wrong way. He said, “This picture is very nice. Please paint a new one, and instead of this bluish person’s head, you put my head there. You put my head there, everything else remains.” And we had to inform the fool that this is not possible, because no one can take the position of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. This picture will be painted by the colors of his own offense, but we will not be instruments in this. I don’t know if he painted it or not.

So, this is the mood of the conditioned souls. We have left the Lord due to enviousness, and decorated ourselves afterward with pride. The Lord is not tolerating this pride in His devotees. We must give it up. The Vedic mantras start with namo oṁ. Na means not, and mah means ego. You cannot enter into the domain of real spiritual life, if the pride, false pride, is not crushed. And therefore, it is a very good opportunity, on the sacred day of this unusual festival, to pray that our pride will be sufficiently and effectively and once and for all crushed into little pieces of dust, so that the mountain of false ego won’t stand between us and the Lord any longer. This is one of the beautiful lessons which we can learn from this wonderful līlā, but I suspect that my much more realized and learned older brother also has something to say on messages or lessons.

Giriraj Swami: Once, Srila Prabhupada commented, placing himself as if he was one of us, “As soon as someone says, ‘Swamiji, you are so learned,’ immediately, I become puffed up.”

Actually, although there are counterparts in caitanya-līlā for kṛṣṇa-līlā, although the resemblance may not be complete, but still, the resemblance is there. And there is a similar incident in caitanya-līlā, where one devotee named Vallabha Bhatta also suffered from pride. You may know the story that Vallabha Bhatta was a learned scholar, and he wrote a commentary on Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, which he considered to be better than the original commentary on Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam by Śrīdhara Swami. So, the system in Jagannatha Puri was that anyone who wanted to submit a piece of writing to Lord Chaitanya would have to submit it first to Svarupa Damodara, and only if Svarupa Damodara approved, would the piece be given to Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu to read.

So, Vallabha Bhatta approached Svarupa Damodara, and he said in a very proud way, “I have written a commentary on Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam that surpasses the commentary of Śrīdhara Swami.” So, Lord Chaitanya was just nearby at the time, and so, Svarupa Damodara explained what Vallabha Bhatta had told him, and Lord Chaitanya replied, “One who is not faithful to his swami. . .” In Sanskrit language, swami means master. And in Vedic culture, sometimes the husband is referred to as swami, or master. So, Lord Chaitanya told Svarupa Damodara to give the reply, “One who is not faithful to one’s swami, (And here there is a play on the word swami meaning husband, and swami meaning Śrīdhara Swami.) “One who is not faithful to one’s swami is a prostitute. And how can I hear from a prostitute?”

So, when Vallabha Bhatta received the reply of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, he was very disturbed. He would always enter the assembly of Lord Chaitanya’s devotees to try to establish his superiority, but every time, he was always defeated, and he felt very dejected. Once, he approached Advaita Acharya, “It is the duty of the chaste wife not to refer to the husband by name. So, Krishna is the Supreme Master, He is the Supreme Husband, and we are all females, we are all meant to be enjoyed by Krishna. So, why do you address Krishna by name? It is not correct.” So again, Lord Chaitanya was nearby, and Advaita Acharya said, “Why don’t we ask Chaitanya Mahaprabhu directly?” They approached Chaitanya Mahaprabhu and He replied, “The first duty of the chaste wife is to obey the instructions of the husband. And because Krishna has given us the instruction to chant His holy names—Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare, Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare, our first duty is to follow His instruction and chant His holy name.”

Anyway, there is a whole story about the meeting of Vallabha Bhatta and Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, but the conclusion is that Chaitanya Mahaprabhu dealt with him in such a way as to smash his false pride. And when the devotees saw how Lord Chaitanya had smashed the false pride of Vallabha Bhatta, they were all reminded of the pastime of Lord Krishna and how He smashed the false pride of Indra.

Sri Giri Govardhana ki jaya! Sri Govardhana-puja ki jaya! Sri Krishna-Balarama ki jaya! Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu ki jaya! Sri Vrindavan dhāma ki jaya! Sri Navadvipa dhāma ki jaya! Nitai-Gaura premānande Hari Haribol!