Sri Govardhana-puja—with Sri Prahlada

Giriraj Swami: There will be a parikramā or circumambulation of Govardhana Hill and today our tour guide will be Sri Prahlada and he will lead us around Govardhana Hill and lead us in songs appropriate for the different places and describe the pastimes that took place there as described in various scriptures and literatures of the Gosvamis. 

Sri Prahlada: So it is a long parikramā and especially if you will stop at all the pastime places along the way and lead us at the place there.

Giriraj Swami: Oh that will take twelve hours.

Sri Prahlada: So Giri Govardhana has very mercifully come here, very small size so that we can go around and stop at all—well the prominent places because the pastimes places are all unlimited. We can stop at the prominent pastime places and hear the līlās along the way. But I think we won’t go around Govardhana Hill once but we will go many times today.

Giriraj Swami: Good! Good!

Sri Prahlada: So this līlās took place of course five thousand years ago. 

Giriraj Swami: Should we sit down first? Usually we sit before we begin the parikramā. 

Sri Prahlada: Is it?

Giriraj Swami: Because we are going to have hours to stay on, so—

Sri Prahlada: Ok, Ok! So we will begin by sitting down and we will give an introduction to—

Giriraj Swami: One last introduction I guess.

Hare Krishna Rose. We are just about to begin our parikramā. This is Professor Barbara Holdrege and her most famous book to date has been ‘Veda and Torah.’ She sort of developed a field of comparative study between Veda and Torah and her?  is there but anyway I think You know most of the other devotees. And Rose is part of a distinguished family of four generations of devotees. Her daughter joined in Los Angeles in early 70s and then she followed her daughter to find out what was happening and then she met Srila Prabhupada and she became a devotee and she took up the service of keeping relations with the parents of devotees which was a very important service at the time and she met Srila Prabhupada and he encouraged her in her service and she and her husband Sam live just around the corner. He is a young eighty-eight and she is a young eighty-two— or well we don’t say, we don’t say, excuse me, excuse me. We actually don’t know (Laughter) that was just—

Rose: Actually I don’t know. That is a fact. My birth certificate says Twenty-one and yet I was told that I was born in 1920. So—

Giriraj Swami: Someone’s cheating there—(Laughter). Anyway you are eternally young. You are eternally young in the service of the Lord. Okay. Now we will begin our parikramā.

Sri Prahlada: So Lord Krishna made His appearance in the rural environment of Vraja- dhāma. In Vraja there were different chiefs. Nanda Maharaja he was the most prominent. Then there was also Vṛṣabhānu Maharaja. He also had his like a kingdom. He wasn’t a king. They were mercantile vaishyas, but they were very wealthy, opulent living. They were the chiefs of their clan or their community. So Nanda Maharaja was the most prominent. Then there was also Vṛṣabhānu and then Abhimanyu as well. He was the leader of another clan or community. So once a year all of these groups they would come together in the great celebration of the Indra yajña. Indra is the god of the rain and in a mercantile community or farming community rain is very important, timely rain for the watering of the crops and so there was a bountiful harvest and so this Indra yajña was a great tradition in these communities and it has been going on since time. Who can say when it began.

So at one time when they were preparing for this great Indra yajña, Krishna who was just seven years old, He was observing all of this activity and preparation and He approached His father very innocently, apparently innocently because He knew exactly what was going on but He asked His father what was taking place. Of course Sanskrit, we know from the Brahma-saṁhitā that in the spiritual world each word is a song, kathā gānaṁ, each step is a dance. nāṭyaṁ gamanam api vaṁśī priya-sakhi and then the flute is the favorite associate of Karna and so when He asked His father He inquired in a song which we will translate into English. Of course Sanskrit songs they are sung in raga but the English song they have a different melody. So He asked His father 

Sri Prahlada sings:

“My dear father, what is this sacrifice meant for? Please explain it to Me. Is it a Vedic injunction or a popular ceremony?”

So Nanda Maharaja, he thought what will he understand of these complicated things but he responded:

“My dear boy, this function is traditional. We have to worship Indra for kindly sending rainfall. We cannot live without the rain for farming and producing grain.”

Krishna responded by speaking what Prabhupada called karma-mīmāṁsā philosophy. This is one of the sub-darśana or one of the systems of Vedic philosophy which says that just do good works and the demigods will be obliged to give you the fruits or the results of your activity. So you don’t need to worship any God. Just do good activity, just be pious and you will be sure to enjoy and prosper. Krishna responded to Nanda with this type of philosophy. 

He said:

“My dear father let us not worship Indra. We have our duty to perform. Rain is coming from the mode of passion and not by worshipping him. Rain is falling on the ocean and on the land as well. Besides we have our relationship with the cowherd men and Govardhana Hill. We are satisfied living in this forest of Vrindavan. We are satisfied living in this forest of Vrindavan. So let us take the grains and ghee collected for this yajña. Offer it to Govardhana and never mind Lord Indra.”

Then He started to describe all different types of preparations which should be brought:

“My dear father please prepare rice, dāl, halavā, purīs, pakorās, lāḍḍus, rasagullās,(you can see it is coming here from the back) sandesh, sweet rice and grains for the brāhmaṇas.”

So all of the preparations that had been made for the Indra yajña were now being used for a Govardhana-puja. Many many varieties of different sweets and other savory preparations were cooked and brought to Govardhana and Krishna, one of His arguments to Nanda Maharaja had been that you are doing this Indra yajña but has anyone seen Indra? What an argument? Has anyone seen him? How do we know that he actually accepts your offerings? But when all the residents of Vrindavan started to bring preparations for Govardhana, Krishna very trickily assumed a great form, a gigantic form and said, “śailo ‘smī! śailo ‘smī!” I am the hill personified and He started to eat all of the offerings and Raghunatha dasa Gosvami says that by doing this He fooled even Srimati Radharani. So everyone was convinced. Here is Govardhana. He is eating all of the preparations and He was eating and eating so much and he finished off everything that was there in front of the hill and he started to call out, “Aniyor! Aniyor! Aniyor!” Which means bring more bring more.

And So the residents of Vrindavan went back to their places and brought more food preparations and put them before the hill and this great gigantic form ate all of those preparations and was still shouting, “Aniyor! Aniyor!” and like this there is a village at this very place in front of Govardhana Hill and it is called Aniyor, bring more. So this whole area where these food preparations are being piled up, it is called Anukūṭa kṣetra, which is the place where they had put all of these varieties of food preparations for the service of Govardhana Hill. Now you can see these ladies they have been here for the past five minutes piling all the sweets on the hill but the hill doesn’t seem to be satisfied with all of these offerings. As much as the residents of Vrindavan could bring that much this great form would eat and He would call for more. And so supplies started to run low. People started to grow anxious, “What will we do? How will we satisfy Him?” Then Lord Balarama, Krishna’s elder brother stepped forward with a tulasi leaf and He placed that tulasi leaf on top of the preparations and this great form of Govardhana was fully satisfied.

The lesson from this is that tulasi she represents bhakti. She represents devotion and so the Lord is pleased by simple devotion. We may make so many opulent displays of religiosity, of sacrifice, of surrender but if devotion is not there, if the heart in not there, it is not so pleasing to the Lord because actually He owns everything anyway what can we offer Him but if devotion is there in the heart when we pray to the Lord and when we symbolize our devotion by offering something. Then that is what is pleasing to the Lord. In the Gītā Krishna says: 

patraṁ puṣpaṁ phalaṁ toyaṁ

yo me bhaktyā prayacchati

tad ahaṁ bhakty-upahṛtam

aśnāmi prayatātmanaḥ 

One can offer Me with love and devotion a leaf, a flower, fruit, or water. If it is offered with love then I will accept that. So Tulasi, we pray to her every day for devotion. In India in front of every house there is a tulasi tree and in the morning the family will come out, water that tree and circumambulate it. So she represents this devotion and by placing the tulasi leaf in the food items, Balarama, He demonstrated this principle of how to please the Lord with simple devotion. Anyway, in Krishna’s guidelines to Nanda Maharaja, He not only mentions food preparations but he also said, 

“Decorate the cows, feed them well, keeping them in front, circumambulate the hill. Govardhana-puja! Govardhana-puja! Lots of prasādam even for caṇḍālas, Govardhana-puja! Govardhana-puja!” And He gave a warning, “If you neglect worship of Govardhana you will be lilled by the snakes upon the hill.” Watch out! “All you people of Vrindavan for your good fortune and the fortune of your cows as well worship Govardhana Hill.”

So now we are going to ask everyone to get up and circumambulate Govardhana Hill.

[Sri Prahlada leads kirtan]

While all the residents of Vrindavan were worshipping Govardhana in this way (Everyone can sit down) Indra became very very angry, you can imagine. The Indra yajña had been taking place in Vrindavan for so many generations and this seven-year-old boy. A small seven-year-old boy, a mere child had stopped this great tradition and so he called his Sāṁvartaka clouds:

“Sāṁvartaka clouds go destroy Vrindavan. They had stopped their sacrifice which was meant for me. Sāṁvartaka clouds go and inundate that place. They have taken this talkative Krishna so seriously. Go and I shall also go riding on my elephant. Rain clouds shall accompany me to bring the proper punishment. Pour down the rain now all you clouds. They shall be destroyed along with their cows. Pour down the rain now oh you clouds; they shall be destroyed along with their cows. Go!”

And so with this great inundation, the Sāṁvartaka clouds, they are very special clouds if you can see. These are the clouds that are used at the time of the universal inundation. They are not ordinary clouds. They are not your average rain cloud or monsoon cloud. They are very very powerful and they started pouring down their torrents of rain on the innocent residents of Vrindavan. The nature of the residents of Vrindavan is that they are completely dependent and surrendered to Lord Krishna and whenever there is a difficulty they just immediately invest their total faith, their total souls in His mercy and so they went to Krishna and they began to pray for His mercy:

“We are all in danger, Lord Indra is sending rain. It falls like sharpened arrows along with heavy wind. Thunder, lightning, ices falling too. We are all in danger. What shall we do? Govinda, Govinda, We are all now weak. Let us take shelter of Your Lotus feet, Govinda! Govinda! Your mercy is sweet. Let us take shelter of Your lotus feet. My dear Krishna You are very strong and You love Your devotees. Now please save us from angry Indra. Now please save us from angry Indra. Krishna, Dear Krishna.”

Smiling Krishna, effortlessly went and with the small finger, His pinky of His left hand, He lifted that Govardhana Hill. The example is given just as a child lifts a mushroom and he held it high above his head and he announced to all the residents of Vrindavan:

 “My dear residents of Vrindavan, I have just lifted up Govardhana Hill. It shall protect you like a big umbrella. Don’t be afraid and think that it will fall. Don’t be afraid and think it will fall. Be happy together.”

And so all the residents in Vrindavan with their cows and other dependents, immediately rushed beneath the Govardhana Hill which was suspended from the small little finger of Krishna’s left hand. They stayed in that place completely secured in Krishna’s mercy for one whole week.

Of course in Vrindavan nobody thinks that Krishna is God. Sometimes they have slight suspicions when He does such miraculous things as lifting a hill, but the nature of the residents of Vrindavan is that their overwhelming love and affection for Krishna always conquers any suspicion or idea that they may have about His divinity. Because they were all assembled under the shelter of Govardhana Hill, Krishna and His boyfriends but also the Girlfriends, Radharani and Her associates they were able to have unrestricted association. Generally in Vrindavan, it was very difficult for Krishna and the gopīs to meet but at this time for seven whole days they were together constantly. So this was a great opportunity for them. They were feeling great happiness for this reason as well. Krishna Himself was greatly happy because He could just gaze upon the beauty of Srimati Radharani without restrictions. And so it was that as He was standing there holding the Govardhana Hill, He began to gaze upon the beautiful form of Srimati Radhika and He began to experience ecstasy as a result of this, and His small little finger started to shake. So Balarama He was observing the situation and He started laughing because He knew what was going on. But others like mother Yasoda. Mother Yasoda is blind to these things and so she became very worried, “Oh my boy! My Krishna! My Kanaya! He started to shake. Nanda you have to help Him. Nanda bābā help Him and so Nanda Maharaja, he found himself his stick that he uses for tending cows and he propped it under the hill and some of the other residents of Vrindavan, the older men, they got their sticks as well and they were helping Krishna to prop up the Govardhana Hill.

Meanwhile Madhumangala, he is another character. He is a brahman, a brahman in a community of cowherds men. So he has a very honored position and he likes to, let us say, take advantage of his position as a brahman, give blessings, demand payment of sweets for his blessings and so when he saw that this condition was taking place, he immediately started to chant his Vedic mantras:

(Hari om sahanna bhavatu, saha viryam———om shanty shanty shantih)

And he was convinced that because he was chanting these mantras that was giving Krishna the potency to hold the hill. And in fact when the whole ordeal was over he was going around and ‘phoning’ everyone, “Hey! Everyone is praising Krishna, what about me? It was because of me that Krishna was able to hold that hill. What do you think what would have happened if I hadn’t been chanting my mantras. He wouldn’t have been able to hold that for a second.

Mother Yasoda, she thought that it was Nanda bābā with his stick and like they say in Vrindavan you know everyone has their different explanations for how things happen. Luckily we have the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam which informs us that it is Krishna. So anyway Krishna is holding up this hill. Indra is pouring down these torrents of rain but imagine what could happen if you had so many torrents of rain pouring down over the hill. These torrents are described as thick as pillars, very very thick torrents of rain. Obviously the place was going to become flooded and so Krishna He had a solution for that as well, being the Supreme Personality of Godhead, two solutions. One solution is that He had Sudarśana cakra come overhead and generate enough heat to evaporate the water, both to shield Govardhana Hill from getting hurt from these torrents because the Govardhana is Krishna ‘s dear devotee. So to shield Govardhana but also to evaporate water, Sudarśana was doing that job and He had Ananta, the great serpent coil around the base of Govardhana Hill as a bank to hold back any water from coming in. So like this Krishna had things covered from different angles in order to protect the residents of Vrindavan. Seeing all these amazing arrangements, Indra became astonished. In fact, he was defeated because his whole purpose was to destroy the residents of Vrindavan for daring to neglect his position and failing to observe the Indra yajña. And so he called back the Sāṁvartaka clouds. He called them back. He realized that this is not an ordinary boy. This is the Supreme Personality of Godhead. And so in Vrindavan everything again became very calm and peaceful.

The residents of Vrindavan were overjoyed. Despite having stayed under that hill for seven whole days and nights none of them was hungry or thirsty or tired, 

“We are not hungry. We are not thirsty. We don’t even want to sleep. Krishna lifted up the hill and then we entered underneath. We are not hungry. We are not thirsty. We don’t even want to sleep. We just wonder how has Krishna held that hill for one whole week.” 

And so Krishna, He put down Govardhana Hill exactly as it was earlier and He started—-now these pastimes are eternal because they are eternally taking place. They take place in different ways from different times. So He placed down the hill and He started walking around the western side. Meanwhile Indra he was feeling very stupid, very fallen, very guilty. He was feeling terrible. He went to Brahma. He asked him, “I need some advise. What should I do? I have offended Krishna, thinking Him an ordinary boy. Brahma most wise, four headed Brahma, the engineer of the universe, he advised Indra, “Yes I don’t think you should go alone personally to apologize. You have really made the worse type of offense you could have made. There is no one that is more dear to Krishna than His own devotees and you have tried to kill them. There is no way He will forgive you. As in the case of Durvasa Muni offending Maharaja, Ambarish. Durvasa went to Narayana said please forgive me for my offense to Ambarish. Narayana said, “I cannot forgive. When My devotee is offended I don’t have the power to forgive because My devotee is more dear to Me than I Myself. You have to go to My devotee and beg for forgiveness.

So Brahma he advised Indra, I don’t think you should go petition yourself, you have to send someone who is very dear to Krishna and have them beg for your pardon. So there is this famous verse,

namo brahmaṇya-devāya

go-brāhmaṇa-hitāya ca

jagat-hitāya kṛṣṇāya

govindāya namo namaḥ

—that Krishna is very affectionate to the cows and to the brahmans and so it was that on Brahma’s advise, Indra he requested Surabhi, the cow, “Please will you go and beg Krishna to forgive me on my behalf?

And so it was that Krishna was walking behind Govardhana Hill after placing him down Surabhi started to walk behind Him and further back in a distance was Indra with his Airavata, elephant. So there is a kuṇḍa there, Surabhi-kuṇḍa. There is another kuṇḍa called Airavata-kuṇḍa. At Govardhana Hill at this place you can also see Airavata’s footprint. Surabhi was begging Krishna to forgive Indra. Krishna was walking ahead. Finally, they came to this place. This place in our representation here, you can see a cow representing Surabhi and you can see a deity of Krishna. His name is Govindaji. Surabhi was begging Krishna, “Please be merciful to Indra. He has made a great mistake. He is sorry for that. Please will you pardon him.” And because of Surabhi’s requesting Krishna became merciful. He stopped at this place and Surabhi performed an abhiseka for Him by pouring milk upon Him. In this way she worshipped the Lord and then Indra, he had Airavata, his elephant bring Ganges water in her trunk. And Airavata also performed this abhiseka or bathing ceremony for the Lord.

Then all the demigods because Indra is the king of heaven they came to that place and they started to worship Lord Krishna, Brahma, Shiva, the sun god, Vivasvan, Vayu, they all came with different types of paraphernalia to worship the Lord, bathing Him and then offering Him cāmara fan, peacock fan, lamp, incense, different varieties of foodstuffs. And so in this way all of this sacred water that had bathed the Lord formed a little lake that is called Govinda-kuṇḍa. And at this time Krishna was coroneted as the King of all the demigods (of course He already is) but they officially coroneted Him as the king of all the demigods, the king of the cow, the king of the senses, by giving Him this name Govinda. This is the time in history where this name was (It is an eternal name as well) where this name was offered to Krishna. Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura, he explains that within the cow all the demigods have their abodes and so by giving them the name, Govinda, Lord of the cows automatically it also means Lord of all the demigods as well, Lord of the senses. Go means cows or senses, inda is a short form for Indra. So you might say Govinda. Like we have Vamanadeva name is Upa-indra or Upendra and so this name of Krishna, Govinda is celebrated in this place. 

Later the cowherd boys they came playing along, “He! Where is Krishna. Oh He is down that way.” So they came to that place and they saw all this celestial paraphernalia- fans, bells, pots, and they were very amazed at this great opulence, expert craftsmanship, and beauty. Then following the cowherd boys came the elderly residents of Vrindavan like Nanda Maharaja and his associates and they were even more amazed. “What are these celestial paraphernalia? Where has this all come from?” Some of boys had seen the demigods worshipping Krishna. They were very knowledgeable of the Vedic cosmology, so they very innocently explained what they have seen, “Well Nanda bābā we saw one man with four heads and he was saying all these things with four heads and he was fanning Krishna and we saw another person, he had eyes all over his body and he was pouring water over Krishna and worshipping Him and like this we saw all kinds of strange people with all of these amazing ornaments on themselves and they were doing all these things to Krishna.

So the elderly residents of Vrindavan they were not quite sure what to make out of it—sounds like Brahma, sounds like Indra, sounds like Shiva but they weren’t sure how to relate or to confuse all of this information. Anyway at that time there was an Akash vāṇī. Akash vāṇī is the name for the all India radio [Laughter]. It means message from the sky but actually it is a Sanskrit term which all India radio has borrowed. Message from the sky, so there was an akash vāṇī, the celestials were speaking to Nanda Maharaja that, “You should coronate Krishna as the king of Vrindavan. Use all this paraphernalia and coronate Krishna as the king of Vrindavan.” And so it was that Nanda Maharaja, as well again performed another ceremony to coronate Krishna as the king of Vrindavan, not only the king of heaven but also the king of Vraja because for the Vaishnavas Vrindavan is more important than any heavenly world. It is more important than this celestial realm of Vaikuntha. And so it was that Nanda Maharaja coroneted Krishna.

Many many years later at this place Govinda-kuṇḍa some six hundred years ago, a great sage, devotee, Madhavendra Puri, he came on a pilgrimage. After circumambulating Govardhana Hill he stopped at this place, Govinda-kuṇḍa to perform his bhajana, chanting the name of the Lord, Hare Krishna Hare Krishna—

He didn’t eat anything because he had a policy that unless someone would come and offer him something to eat he would fast. He wouldn’t work, he wouldn’t beg. He was fully dependent on the mercy of Krishna and so as he was chanting one young boy, very cute cowherd boy came to him, “Bābā, will you eat something? I have brought you some milk. The ladies in Aniyor, they saw you sitting here and they told me that you hadn’t eaten anything. Why didn’t you ask someone anyone in this village would have given you something to eat? All you had to do is to ask. “No, no I am just dependent on the mercy of the Lord.” “In my village nobody goes hungry. Here take this milk and drink it.”

And so it was that Madhavendra Puri, he thanked that young boy for His kindness. The boy said, “I will come later and take the pot.” And so he drank that milk, kept the pot. He didn’t come back to take the pot. And then he continued his chanting all through the night and then in the early hours of the morning he started to doze and as he was dozing he had a dream in which he saw that same boy this time decorated with a peacock feather, guñjā-mālā, different forest flowers with a flute and that boy said, “My dear devotee, I had been kept in this village, Aniyor in my deity form. I have been kept inside the thorns and prickles under the ground and it is very cold. What happened was that my devotees who were worshipping me they feared the Muslims and so they hid me in this place and so I have been here for very long time. I want you to come and dig me out and to establish Me again in a temple on top of Govardhana Hill and worship Me there.

Madhavendra Puri he woke up and he realized that that boy he had seen in his dream, Krishna, was the same boy that had brought him the milk and he started to chastise himself, “Why is it that you couldn’t recognize the Lord when He came to you?” But that was not the time to be so concerned with such things. He immediately got up. He ran into the village. He called all of the village people, “We have to go. Gopala is buried under the ground. He is kept in the thorn bushes deep in the forest. He wants us to take Him out.” And so they went with machetes. They cleared the path. They unearthed beautiful Gopala deity. They took Him on top of the hill and they took one stone as an altar and another couple of govardhana-śilā as the backrest. They performed a wonderful abhiseka which lasted for very long time. Villagers from al the surrounding area were coming with different milk products to bathe the deity and then they piled mountains and mountains of different preparations and they offered a great feast to the Lord and in this way Madhavendra Puri reestablished the worship of Gopala.

Sometime later Chaitanya Mahaprabhu when He visited Govardhana, He wanted to take darshan of Gopala but Gopala was high on top of the hill inside His temple and Chaitanya Mahaprabhu didn’t want to walk upon the hill because it is nondifferent from Krishna. Gopala was eager to see Chaitanya Mahaprabhu as well and so He arranged for a rumor in the community that the Muslims are coming and immediately the priests went into a defense mode. They took the deity out of the temple and hid Him in a nearby village and so it was that Chaitanya Mahaprabhu went to that nearby village and He had darshan of Gopala in some brahman’s house. So to this day you can see the place where Gopala was unearthed. This deity is very famous as Śrī Nāthajī. Now He is being worshipped in Naṭavara, in Rajasthan. You can see the place where this deity immerged, where Madhavendra Puri took Him from the hill. You can see the place where Madhavendra Puri was doing his bhajana. There is kutira built there although Madhavendra Puri wasn’t, well it wasn’t mentioned when he became a pūjārī. He established a kutira there and like that.

So we are going to change our—we have been going like this because that is how Krishna came around the hill after setting the hill down. The traditional direction to perform our parikramā is clockwise. Parikramā means going in a certain direction around, keeping the right hand side towards the object that one is circumambulating, that is parikramā or pradakṣiṇa and then apradakṣiṇa is inauspicious, that is when we go around with our left to that personality or object that we are circumambulating. So we are going to come around to this place here. It is called Dan-gatī.

Giriraj Swami: Some devotees came late. I think we should do a parikramā so they get a sense of Govardhana Hill.

Sri Prahlada: So we are going to do another parikramā around Govardhana Hill and then we are going to keep telling the different pastime places that we can see on Govardhana-parikramā. Jaya Radhe jaya Krishna jaya Vrindavan—

So we will continue our parikramā here. You may notice that in the center of Govardhana Hill dividing the hill actually into two parts is a great lake. It is the biggest of all the lakes or kundas around Govardhana Hill. This lake is called Manasi-ganga. Manaś means mind and Ganga of course is the celestial Ganges. It is described by our acharyas that in Goloka Vrindavan the Yamuna flows on one side and the Ganga on the other. The Yamuna is darkish in complexion and the Ganga is light, whitish. But in Bhauma Vrindavan or earthly Vrindavan we have Ganga as a lake in the center of Govardhana Hill and how this came to be is described in the Puranas. That once as Krishna and His friends, cowherd boyfriends were playing around Govardhana Hill, Kaṁsa he received word, “He is over there to the west at Govardhana playing with his friends in the forest.” And so he sent one of his demon friends who assumed the form of a small calf.

Krishna is very famous as bhakta-vatsala; he has parental affection for His devotees. This calf assumed the name of Vatsa to invoke Krishna’s affection but he was an asura, Vatsasura, he mingled with all the other calves thinking that this a good disguise to trick Krishna and then kill Him when He was unaware. But of course Krishna is always aware of everything and so He confided with Balarama, “That calf over there is a demon We will have to do something.” And so when Vatsasura was unaware Krishna went behind him picked him up, this Vatsasura by his hind legs and whirled him into a tree. Vatsasura demon died. Then cowherd boys said, “Krishna, You have sinned by killing a calf.” We know in Vedic culture it is a very grievous thing to offend a cow, what to speak of kill the cow and so the cowherd boys immediately informed Krishna, “You have a great sin upon You. You have contaminated Yourself with this sin. You must immediately go and bathe in the Ganga.”

Now the Ganga is not actually so far. It is far but not so far from Vrindavan. Actually it runs along the periphery at Rāma-ghāṭa. I am not sure which side. And so Krishna, He didn’t want to go to the Ganga. He said I will bring the Ganga here and so He called Ganga devi from His mind and she appeared and entered into this lake called Manasi-ganga. She appeared from Krishna’s mind and so He took His bath and His friends were satisfied. But this was only knowing to the cowherd boys. The other members of Vraja, they were not aware that Ganga had appeared in Vraja-dhāma. One day they heard of a great story from Narada Muni about the glories of Ganga devi. They were told that once Garuḍa, Vishnu’s great eagle carrier was carrying a serpent in his (talons) Flying over the Ganges river, this serpent happened to touch the sacred water and when this happened that serpent immediately turned into a four armed form resident of Vaikuntha, by the mercy of Ganga devi. What did Garuḍa do? His dinner had suddenly turned into a resident of Vaikuntha. He took this personality and placed him on his back and flew him to Vaikuntha and left him there.

On hearing this story, Nanda Maharaja and all the residents of Vraja they wanted to go and take bath in the Ganga. Who wouldn’t on hearing such a story? Ganga is so powerful, it will free us from all our sins. So they were making arrangements for this journey and Krishna he asked, “Nanda bābā, where is everyone going? What is the excitement?” He said, “We are going to bathe in the Ganga.” “But you don’t have to go far to bathe in the Ganga. The Ganga is right here in Vraja.” “No, no we are going to make a journey. It will take couple of days.” “But father I am telling you that Ganga is here in Vraja, by Govardhana Hill.” And so they started to hear Krishna and so they all came to the bank of the Manasi-ganga lake. Krishna led them there. Ganga devi herself appeared and authenticated Krishna’s words that, “Yes I am Ganga devi. I am resident here in Vrindavan and by bathing in my waters here in Vraja is as good if not better than making a journey anywhere else.”

So this Manasi-ganga is very very auspicious, very significant. But the Gaudiya Vaishnavas, they like to remember Manasi-ganga for other pastimes and these are the boating pastimes that take place within her waters. You see Govardhana Hill is high on both sides but then by this Manasi-ganga with this lake of course five thousand years ago, Govardhana Hill was much higher. That is another whole history how Govardhana was cursed, how he was cursed to shrink the size of a mustard seed, every single day. So Govardhana Hill is constantly shrinking. So five thousand years ago Govardhana was higher and this place, Manasi-ganga, proved a good point for people to cross over Govardhana Hill rather than scaling Govardhana’s heights. They could cross easily. This was one place but there were other places as well but we won’t reveal them right now. And so the gopīs, they would sometimes use the Manasi-ganga access to cross over Govardhana with their different wears of Yogurt, butter, ghee, milk that they could sell on the other side. Sometimes they would be taking it for a yajña. Indra yajña was taken place in this area. So they will be taking ghee and so on for that yajña.

So this is a pastime that takes place eternally and has different versions. But they always forget by the arrangement of yoga-māyā. So it is always fresh, ever fresh, nava-yauvana. And so one of these times the gopīs they came with Srimati Radharani to this side of the Manasi-ganga lake looking for a suitable craft that will take them across the waters and all that they could see or find on this particular day was a rickety, old boat with a very young and apparently immature boat man. So after negotiating, long negotiations as we know in India can be quite a haggle (Laughter). They finally settled upon an agreement that this boatman he didn’t want money. He wanted butter, yogurt, these types of things, an unusual boatman, sweets and so He started to row them across the Manasi-ganga lake. Then after a very short time they were just barely away from the shore He told them all, “Oh My boat is feeling tired. We are going to have to stop.”

“Your boat is tired! What kind of nonsense is this?” “It is obvious My boat is tired. He is old. What you expect he is an old boat so he is tired. He needs to rest.” And so they persuaded Him, “No keep going, keep going we don’t have so much time to wait for your boat. You can rest on the other side.” Ok so He started rowing again and then the boatman Himself decided that He was tired. “Boatmen You can’t be tired! You are supposed to be rowing us across this lake!” “No. I am tired I don’t have any strength in my body.” “What can we do?” “Well if some of you massage Me. Some of you can massage My arms, some of you can massage My legs, some of you massage My head and then I will be feeling fit enough to continue rowing the boat.” The gopīs said, “We will hold Your hands and Your legs and we will throw You right off this boat.” And so with distress He again started rowing.

After another short time He stopped and said that, “What’s wrong this time?” “I am hungry. I can’t row anymore because I am hungry. I need some food to get strength.” So the gopīs, very reluctantly, “But we were supposed to pay you on the other side!” “No I need it now because otherwise we won’t get to the other side.” And so they gave Him some sweets, half of the payment, some sweets, some other things. He ate them. Then after eating, “Oh I am so full. I need to rest some more.” So the gopīs encouraged Him more. So He started rowing again, rowing this boat across the lake and then appeared overhead some great storm clouds. At this the gopīs started to become afraid. The boatman pointed to a hole in the boat. He said, “Look there is storm clouds overhead and there is a hole in the boat and the water is coming in. We have to move very quickly but we can’t because this hole and the water is coming in and obviously this boat is too heavy. We are going to have to have you throw your pots of butter and yogurt and milk over board.” “Boatman this is crazy we are going over to the other side so that we can sell these things. You want us to throw them overboard.” “Well it is up to you, the boat is filling up with water.”

Very reluctantly the gopīs they threw all of their pots of yogurt and butter over. Boatman keeps rowing again. He says, “Look it is still too heavy. You have to throw your jewelry overboard. The gopīs started to get afraid. The boat was filling up more with water and the storm clouds were gathering just over Manasi-ganga lake coincidentally, and so they threw their jewelry overboard as well and he started rowing more. He said, “Look it is still too heavy you have to throw your clothes over board.” At this the gopīs said, “This is too much! You rascal boatman You are crazy how did we get You?” The storm clouds started to rumble and rain started to fall, drops of rain and the gopīs started to panic and the boatman said, “Don’t worry my boat is very sturdy,” and he started shaking the boat backwards and forwards. The gopīs started to scream. Radharani jumped up and found Herself just out of fear with Her arms around the boatman. At that moment the clouds disappeared. Everyone was looking. “Radhika You are embracing a boatman! How can this be?” And She said, “Don’t worry.” And from behind His back, She pulled out His flute and She said, “It is Krishna.”

And so at that moment everyone felt a great sigh of relief. The moon came out and Krishna began to take the gopīs to all the different islands in Manasi-ganga and they enjoyed wonderful pastimes in Manasi-ganga Lake. So this is a very very special place. Manasi-ganga. Traditionally people begin their Govardhana-parikramā at this place. They take bath in the Manasi-ganga lake. There is a deity of Manasi devi, one of few devi temples in Vraja. There is yoga-māyā devi temple in Vrindavan. There is Manasi-ganga devi here in Govardhana. There is Vrinda devi at Kamyavana and there is another devi temple in Mathura.

On the bank of the Manasi-ganga lake there is a place that is celebrated as Cakra-tīrtha. After Sudarsana Chakra had been evaporating water and keeping Indra’s torrents of rains off the Govardhana Hill, the Sudarsana Chakra was so ecstatic in Vrindavan in the association of the vrajavāsīs he didn’t want to leave. Indra’s storm clouds had gone. Govardhana was back at the chakra, he wanted to stay, “ I want to stay in Vraja. Please Krsna allow me.” So He gave him a place to imbed himself into the earth. And so there is a place here called Cakra-tīrtha, by the bank of the Manasi-ganga lake. There is also a famous temple of Lord Shiva called Chakleshwar Mahadev, one of the four very famous Shiva temples in the Vraja mandala. Here in Govardhana is Chakleshwar Mahadev; in Vrindavan it is gopīs vara Mahadev; in Mathura is Bhuteshwar Mahadev; and in Kamyavana is Kameshwar Mahadev.

Sanatana Gosvami he would perform his bhajana. He had his bhajana kutir next to Chakleshwar Mahadev. He was staying there for some time writing and chanting, doing bhajans, but the mosquitoes were quite a disturbance to him. So one day he decided “Okay, that is enough,” and he was preparing to leave that place. Then a brahman approached him and said, “My dear sir where are you going?” “Oh I am going because of this disturbance of mosquitoes.” Actually it was Lord Shiva in the guise of a brahman. That brahman promised, “No, No. Please you stay here. Don’t go anywhere else. Stay here and I promise that from this day there will not be any mosquitoes in this area.” And the people of Vraja who lived in this place, near to Chakleshwar Mahadev, they attest that to this day there are no mosquitoes in this area and in India that is a significant thing because the mosquitoes are quite problematic.

Oh we have a temple here. This is a temple of Harideva. The story of Harideva in this temple is that once the gopīs were waiting for Krishna to arrive. They had some rendezvous, some appointment. But Krishna wasn’t coming. And so – what happens in Vrindavan is that when the residents of Vrindavan, when the gopīs are feeling separation from Krishna, one way that they mitigate the separation is by discussing His līlā as we have in the Bhāgavatam where Krishna left the arena of the rasa dance, the gopīs started to discuss His līlā and enact His līlā and then they felt His presence among them. Another thing they do is they chant His name. And so the gopīs began to chant, “Harideva, Harideva, Harideva again and again and again, until finally Krishna appeared before them as a deity, a seven year old boy holding Govardhana Hill and this deity is called Harideva. Many many many years later, some four or five hundred years ago, a temple was constructed for the Harideva deity by the father of Jaysingh, king of Jaipur. So that temple is there one of the older temples in the Vraja area. Traditionally the vrajavāsīs or the people perform parikramā they will take their bath in Manasi-ganga, take darshan and blessings of Harideva and then they will start their Govardhana parikramā. One of the first places that they will come to on their parikramā is Dan-gatī. This Dan-gatī is one of the most significant līlās that takes place on Govardhana Hill and is very fondly remembered by the Gosvamis in their different prayers.

Hari dayitam vapurnam—

Raghunatha dasa Gosvami prays, “Please Giriraj give me a place near to you. Allow me residence by you so that I can also bear witness to these pastimes of Dāna-keli that you witnessed. So Dāna means to give but it also means tax and keli refers to play or pastimes. So the tax pastimes they take place in this place called Syama-vedi. It has one place in Govardhana Hill. Nowadays there is a road going right through there. It is the road which goes to Mathura. So it is another low point in the Govardhana Hill that the gopīs could use to go across Govardhana. And so Krishna, because it is a narrow passage, He would like to block that passage, stand in the passage way and then the men taxed for the gopīs passing. “Oh You are going to sell these things you should pay your duty or you are going to give me, whatever it is. So Krishna has a parrot, He has many parrots but He would send His parrot out on a spy mission over Vraja mandala, find out where Radhika is. So this parrot would go flying over to Yavat. He would go flying to Surya kuṇḍa, different places where Radhika could be. If He would report that She is on her way to that place Syama-vedi, that passage over Govardhana Hill, Krishna would immediately jumped into action with His cowherd boyfriends. The cowherd boys would hide themselves along the peak just out of the sight behind different boulders. Krishna Himself would stand in the middle of the passage taking on the role or the mood acting as a tax collector, with His chest puffed up, with His stick in His hand, “Yes Young ladies Good afternoon, where are you going? What do we have here? Oh so you are planning to sell these pots of butter and yogurt.” “Krishna, what you are doing?” “Excuse Me, I am the tax collector. I am the tax collector here. I have been appointed by the king to levy taxes on everyone passing through this way and you gopīs will not be excused. No one is above the law.” And so they are pleading their innocence. Krishna He is not letting them go. They are trying to plead with Him in different ways. Krishna is saying, “Look if you don’t want to give Me a portion of your wealth, if you don’t have the required tax, you can leave Visakha here as a hostage and then when you return with the proper tax then I will let her go.”

And so after all this discussion again haggling, then they asked, “Okay how much do you want? What is the figure that we are talking about?” So then Krishna says, “Okay, we are going to have to calculate. Well let me give you some idea. This cowherd girl here, Vrsabhanu nandini, Srimati Radharani, we will just make the calculations based on Her. Now for Her teeth which are so beautiful that they rival the most precious pearls. Actually the most precious pearls are insignificant in comparison to the beauty of Her teeth. So we are going to have to have (I can’t remember the exact figures) we are going to have to have a thousand pearls for her teeth as payment. That is the tax because she has robbed the beauty of the pearls of this kingdom with the beauty of Her teeth. And for Her eyes which are more beautiful than sapphires. She has robbed the beauty of the sapphires; therefore we demand a hundred thousand sapphires for Her eyes. And for Her gait which is more beautiful than the movements of the swan or of the elephant then we will have to have two hundred thousand elephants as payment for Her gait.”

And like this He would describe the different limbs of Srimati Radharani and Her beauty by comparison to the most beautiful and wonderful things that we can think of in the world, and then multiply it by a thousand times and give that as a comparison to the beauty of Srimati Radharani. In this way with joking words and playful threats Krishna would glorify the beauty of Srimati Radharani. When the gopīs, “Come on, that is ridiculous. This is nonsense. This man is crazy, speaking these mad words. We cannot pay these things anyway. Who has that?” “Well you have to give me is Radhika Herself then.” And so again they will refuse because it is not their way to give in so easily. So then Krishna would give a signal. The cowherd boys would come down from the mountain and start stealing all the butter and yogurt that the gopīs have carried.

Now on one occasion the gopīs were carrying butter and yogurt to take for a yajña. Again this is a yajña place. They were carrying butter and yogurt for a yajña that was going to be performed by a great muni, probably even Durvasa Muni, and so they were going to participate to help the performance of that yajña and get blessings. So after Krishna and the cowherd boys had gone in and put their hands in the pots and eaten from those pots, they said, “Krishna, You rascal, how can we use this ghee for the yajña now that You have polluted with all of your friends.” Then Krishna asked them. “What was it that you were going to ask for in that yajña anyway? What did you want as a result of serving that yajña.” What is it that the gopīs want? They want to associate with Krishna. Krishna said, “This is Vrindavan. Even without going to the yajña your desires have been fulfilled so don’t complain.” “So this is Dan-gatī, the place where the tax pastime is performed. There are other places in Vrindavan where this līlā takes place. This is a sigh here, there is Radharani’s footprint. There is no particular līlā connected but when you go to Govardhana—

Giriraj Swami: I just wanted to mention two things about Dan-gatī līlā. Well as a further irony or joke, Krishna actually said, “I have been appointed by King Kamsa to collect the taxes.” But the other day I told the story of different moods of devotees, and there is a mood of separation and a mood of meeting. And Raghunatha dasa Gosvami, he was so attached to Srimati Radharani and Krishna that when Rupa Gosvami wrote the drama, Lalita Madhava, he felt so much separation that he was just crying and crying and crying, because the mood of the drama is separation. It is set at the time after Krishna has left Vrindavan and gone to Dvaraka. So there is tremendous separation of Srimati Radharani and the gopīs from Krishna and Krishna in separation from Srimati Radharani and the residents of Vrindavan. So after he read the drama, Raghunatha dasa Gosvami was just crying and crying and crying, nothing could console him. And Rupa Gosvami felt so bad. He wanted to do something. So he wrote another drama called Dāna-keli-kaumudi about the Dāna-līlā and all the joking words and meeting of Radha and Krishna and the gopīs. And then when Raghunatha dasa Gosvami read Dāna-keil-Kaumudi, he was pacified. The other little footnote is that the palace that His Holiness Tamal Krishna Gosvami and I purchased from the king of Chaturpura is near Dan-gatī the whole area is called Dan-gatī. So that place has even more significance, special significance for us.

Sri Prahlada: And as a footnote also to what Maharaja just said, is that Prabhupada in his final days he wanted to visit Govardhana and do Govardhana parikramā because his disappearance day was very near to Govardhana-puja.

Giriraj Swami: Yes, he actually said that he wanted to take a bullock cart from Vrindavan to Govardhana to join in Govardhana-puja and that is another pastime. 

Sri Prahlada: So by purchasing this palace then you also fulfilled that desire of Srila Prabhupada.

Giriraj Swami: Yes, that was part of our idea. And Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura he also used to recite the prayer specially at the end, nija nikata sa dehi Govarhdana tvam, which he quoted, “Prayer to Govardhana please give me residence.”

Sri Prahlada: ISKCON does appear here on our Govardhana Hill. There is a little sign which says ISKCON that refers to the palace that Maharaja was speaking about.

Now we are going to come to a place called Gauri Kund. Gauri is the name for Durga and during the time of Krishna’s līlā in Vrindavan, His Prakaṭa-līlā because His līlā is there eternally in the aprakata or unmanifest form, there is a temple of Gauri at this place and Candravali would come daily to Goddess Gauri and offer prayers and worship to Goddess Durga. And the people of Vraja was saying that because of Candravali’s devotion, her husband Govardhana had become very wealthy. So one day Abhimanyu he was feeling disturbed, “My wife Radharani she is always being attacked by this snake Krishna. I am going to take her away to Mathura and protect Her from this debauchee.” And so he was making these plans, these arrangements to take Radharani away to Mathura so that she could be away from Krishna. Before leaving he decided to take the blessings of Paurnamasi. Paurnamasi is an expansion of yoga-māyā or she is yoga-māyā. Paurna means all, masi means mother. She is the grandmother in Vrindavan, elderly lady, brahman lady. Everyone takes her advice very seriously. She is like the elderly wise person in Vrindavan, like a guru. Anything she will say people will take very very seriously, as very significant.

So he went for her blessings, “If you bless me Paurnamasi then everything will be successful.”

Paurnamasi, she became very disturbed when she heard Abhimanyu wants to take Radharani to Mathura. What will happen to the parakīyā rasa, to the conjugal pastimes of Radha and Krishna if Radharani is out of the scene? So we have to stop this. So she advised Abhimanyu that, “My dear Abhimanyu, I think that you should engage your wife rather than taking her to Mathura. You engage Her in worshipping Durga at Gauri Kuṇḍa because Candravali’s husband has become very wealthy as a result of her worship and the same will happen for you. So that is my advise to you. Don’t take her away. Keep her in Vraja serving at Gauri kuṇḍa and all auspiciousness will come to you.”

And so Abhimanyu said, “Well please will you teach my wife how to do this worship?” And so Paurnamasi, she trained Radharani in the worship of Gauri. We know that the gopīs, they would also worship Kātyāyanī in order to get Krishna as a husband. So the demigods they are worshipped by the residents of Vrindavan in order to increase their love and devotion for Krishna. So She was going towards Gauri kuṇḍa one day, shortly after this, when Krishna, He happened to accost her on the path, “Radhika where are You going? What are You doing?” He started to press Her in this way. ”Stay away from Me You treacherous person, You treacherous man don’t come near Me. I am going to the temple of Gauri to offer worship.” So like this Krishna was playing with Her.

Meanwhile Abhimanyu, he heard that Radha and Krishna were together at Gauri kuṇḍa. So he took Jatila, his mother with him and they hurriedly came to this place to catch Radha and Krishna together red handed. Of course Krishna knew what was happening so He went into the temple and dressed in the deity’s cloth and stood in front of the deity as Goddess Gauri. Meanwhile Radharani went into the temple and She was standing there in prayer. Abhimanyu came rushing into the temple and Radharani where is Krishna. When She heard his voice She just fainted on the ground unconscious and then Goddess Gauri, she started to speak to Abhimanyu. “Abhimanyu, you rascal, I have been offended by you and you have a great penalty hanging over your head.” Abhimanyu became very afraid. “What is it? What is it? What is happening?” Gauri said, “Abhimanyu within a very few days you are going to die.” Abhimanyu became very afraid, “Oh Goddess Gauri, please tell me how I can become free of this curse that is hanging over me.” Goddess Gauri said, “I have been offended because you have accused your wife who is innocent on all accounts. And for a man who accuses his chaste wife, there is great sin and anger from me because I am a woman and I would not tolerate chaste ladies being offended.” And Abhimanyu asked, “What should I do? What should I do?” He says, “You have to promise me that Radharani will stay in Vrindavan and worship Me here regularly, and that you will never take Her away anywhere else.” “Oh yes! Yes! I promise I promise.” And so it was that this great calamity was averted.

So this is Gauri kuṇḍa. Today it is not very manifest. You won’t see much when you go there. Here is Apsarā Vana. Apsarā Vana is a place where the seven apsarā came to worship Krishna, the heavenly apsarās. This is also a place where you will find beautiful Nṛsiṁhadeva temple. From the roof of that temple you can get the most amazing views of Govardhana Hill, truly the most beautiful views of Govardhana Hill from the roof of this temple. Why Nṛsiṁhadeva in Vraja at Govardhana? At this particular place in Govardhana Lord Krishna would manifest the different forms of the twenty-four incarnations of Godhead. Sometimes He would appear as Rama and all the cowherd boys would become monkeys and bears. Sometimes He would appear as Varaha and start digging the ground and so it is that there is a Nṛsiṁhadeva temple in this place of Govardhana Hill. By Apsarā Vana there is also some kuṇḍas here called apsarā kuṇḍa where people go in and take their bath.

So now we are going to go around. We are going to come to Sakhi vana on the other side of Govardhana Hill because we were speaking about Candravali. Candravali is Radharani’s rival actually. Candravali’s mood is very submissive to Krishna. “Whatever you say Krishna? Yes Krishna. Of course Krishna” Radharani’s mood on the other hand is always contrary, “No Krishna. Why?” She has a contrary nature. Krishna enjoys that more. So Sakhi vana is the place where Candravali has her place. Just as Srimati Radharani has a place at Radha-kunda. Candravali has a place here at Sakhi Sthali or Sakhi vana. There are different līlās that take place.

For example, one time Srimati Radharani is waiting for Krishna at Radha-kunda. She has very nicely decorated the kuñja. She has decorated Herself. She is waiting for Krishna’s arrival and He is not coming. So She begins to get impatient. She is pacing up and down. She is sitting down constantly looking in the direction that Krishna should come and He is not arriving. Rupa Mañjarī is fanning Srimati Radharani to cool Her because She is becoming more and more heated by Krishna’s delay. She is becoming angry. Rupa Mañjarī is fanning Her with a peacock fan. Krishna is not arriving. So then Radharani engages Her parrot, to go out and find just as Krishna is using His parrot to figure out where Radharani is so that he can play His tax pastime. She also has her connections and Her spy network in Vrindavan. So she sends out Her parrot, “Go out and find where He is.” So this parrot is flying to the pasturing grounds where the cowherd boys were, but He is not there. Flies over to Nanda Bhavan, No he is not there, Nanda Gram. As a last choice he flies by Sakhi vana through Candravali’s kuṇḍa and what does he see, “Krishna is there being served by Candravali. So the parrot flies back to Srimati Radharani and informs Her. “He is in Sakhi vana with Candravali.” Radharani becomes indignant with anger, with mana and she instructs Rupa Mañjarī, “Go and bring Him here immediately.”

So Rupa Mañjarī she has a dilemma because she is fanning Srimati Radharani, her personal service at the same time she has been ordered to bring Krishna from Sakhi vana, and how to do these two services at once. Rupa Mañjarī is the perfect servant and she knows how to accomplish these apparently diverse services without neglecting one service to accomplish the other service. She starts to fan Srimati Radharani’s aroma down around Govardhana Hill to the place of Candravali’s kuñja and Krishna is there being served by Candravali and then at one moment He smells the aroma of Srimati Radharani’s body and He becomes completely intoxicated, literally intoxicated, and He forgets Himself. Candravali is asking Him a question and He just does not know how to answer or what to answer. Rupa Mañjarī is fanning that aroma stronger and stronger from this direction. Krishna is intoxicated here and He just has to go and find Srimati Radharani. So He told Candravali, “Thank you very much! I better go. (Laughter) other Yasoda is calling Me! I got the cows to milk.” And so it is that he gets up but he is so intoxicated that He can’t stand straight, what to speak of walk in any direction to get anywhere. What he does is He holds on to that aroma and by holding on to that aroma He stumbles and He is able to come to Srimati Radharani’s kuñja, where of course She thoroughly chastises and admonishes Him and He has to beg for Her mercy to be accepted by Her again. That is their relationship.

There are other such līlās that had similar developments with different endings. I would like to take the opportunity to tell that līlā as well. That on another occasion Radharani is waiting. Krishna hasn’t come. She sends Rupa Mañjarī, “Go out and find Krishna and bring Him here.” Rupa Mañjarī is very very intelligent, most intelligent, the leader of all the mañjarīs. So she goes to Sakhi Sthali, goes to Candravali’s kuñja and finds Krishna there and she runs in and says,” Krishna! Krishna!” “Rupa you are here. What, what is it?” Krishna knows He is in trouble when He is being caught by Rupa Mañjarī there. “What happened?” And then Rupa Mañjarī says, “Krishna there is a great demon by Radha-kunda and this demon is going to take the lives of Your devotees. You have to go there immediately and kill that demon and rescue your devotees from death.” So Krishna immediately knows what it is. “Radharani is waiting there at Radha-kunda. I have missed the appointment and she is feeling so much separation that she is about to give up her life. So that demon of separation is going to take her life.” And so Krishna has to come there immediately to kill that demon of separation. So Krishna immediately told Candravali I have to go and she is always submissive, “Yes, My Lord, whatever.” She immediately agrees to whatever he says. And so Krishna, He comes out of the kuñja They walk a little way down and then Rupa says, “You rascal! You nonsense!” And Krishna says, “Please Rupa Mañjarī, have mercy on Me.” “I am not going to have mercy on You. Let’s go!” And so she is leading Krishna and Krishna is walking behind her pleading, “Please Rupa be merciful to me.” And Rupa is not being kind to Him. Finally as they are entering through Radha-Kuṇḍa, just on the outside, Krishna gets down on His knees and He holds Rupa Manjra’s feet with tears in His eyes and He is begging her, “Please Rupa Mañjarī don’t tell Radharani where I was.”

And so through this story we get to see that not only does Srimati Radharani control Krishna with Her love, but the servants of Srimati Radharani and the servants of the servants of Srimati Radharani like Rupa Mañjarī, they have that power that they completely dominate and subjugate and control Krishna with their love for Him. And this is demonstrated through this līlā of Rupa Mañjarī, who of course appears in caitanya-līlā as Rupa Gosvami.

Since we have been speaking about Radha-kunda, then we will tell the story of the appearance of Radha-kunda. Radha-kunda is a very dear friend of Govardhana Hill. Raghunatha dasa Gosvami says, Hari gayitam apurvam radhika kundam priya sakha——My dear Giriraj Govardhana please give me residence near you that I can see how you embracing the neck of your dear friend Radha-kunda constantly watch newer and newer pastimes take place unfold between Srimati Radharani and Kṛṣṇacandra. And so Radha-kunda is intimately associated with Govardhana Hill. One who does Govardhana parikramā they will also do parikramā of Radha-kunda as well.

The appearance of Radha-kunda took place in some way similar to the appearance of Manasi-ganga, that after Krishna had killed the Aristasura demon, this great bull demon who came and was terrorizing the residents of Vrindavan and everyone came running to Krishna, “Krishna please save us as we had them running to Krishna to save them from Indra’s torrents of rain. So they were also begging, “Please save us from this bull demon, Aristasura.” And so Krishna, He went and He easily killed that demon and everyone was glorifying Krishna and His strength, His prowess, His might, His protection. Then He came to be associated with Srimati Radharani and the gopīs and they said, “Go away. Don’t touch us.” “What is it? What happened?” “You are contaminated with the sin of killing a bull.” Krishna said, “But He was a demon.” “Whether he was a demon or not it was a bull and you have killed it and so you are an offender and you are carrying those sins upon You and we don’t want to be in any way associated with such sinful persons who kill bulls or cows.” And then Krishna again pleaded, “But no it was a demon.” And then the gopīs gave examples from shastra that, “King Indra, he killed Vṛtrāsura who was apparently a brahman but because he was a demon Indra had to assume those sinful reactions, in the same way although Aristasura was in the shape of a bull nonetheless he was a demon and you have to assume those reactions.”

So then Krishna said, “What do I have to do to free myself from those sins?” Then the gopīs said, “You have to bathe in all the holy places of the entire universe.” Krishna said, “That is going to take too long and then I won’t have your association. I will be separated from you for too long.” Then Krishna said, “Okay, don’t worry.” He dug His heel into the earth and made a great indentation into the earth and then He called all the holy rivers of the universe to enter into that indentation in the earth. And so they came one by one and He also instructed them that they should introduce themselves so the gopīs know that it is authentic, that He has really taken bath in all those holy places. So each personified holy river they came, “I am Ganga devi.” Offered her praṇāma entered into the. “I am Narmada.” “I am Sindhu.” “I am Kaveri.” Like this all of the holy, “I am Prayāg.” Like Sarasvati they all entered into that holy kuṇḍa and then very proudly Krishna He took His bath there and He stepped out again. Radharani, She seen the beauty of Krishna’s kuṇḍa. She decided that She also wanted to have her kuṇḍa. Krishna was quite boastful about His kuṇḍa and the way he had arranged everything. So She did not want to have Krishna getting the better of Her.

Giriraj Swami: And also He said I purified myself but you took the side of a demon. So you are contaminated because you took the side of a demon. Now you have to purify yourselves of that sin.”

Sri Prahlada: So Srimati Radharani broke Her bangles and all of Her sakhīs and assistants, they broke their bangles as well and they stared digging and very quickly they created quite a big recession in the earth and then Krishna said, “He Radhika why don’t we just have all the holy rivers enter from my kuṇḍa into your kuṇḍa.” Radharani said, “No way! All those Tirthas have been contaminated by you entering into them. I am going to have my sakhīs form a line from my kuṇḍa all the way up to Manasi-ganga. We are going to bring Ganges water and fill the kuṇḍa.” And so they started to make this arrangement but then the personified holy rivers themselves went to Radharani and said, “Please Srimati Radharani. It would be a great honor for us if you would allow us to enter into your kuṇḍa. It will bring us the greatest satisfaction and pleasure and perfection of existence.” And so Radharani She felt merciful to the personified holy places and so they burst through Śyāma-kuṇḍa, and entered into Radha-kunda. So this Radha-kunda, Śyāma-kuṇḍa. is the place of the most intimate pastimes of Radha and Krishna.

In the Upadeśāmṛta, Sri Rupa Gosvami says, Vaikuntha jānato——-

More holy than Vaikuntha is Mathura, why? Because Krishna has appeared there. More holy than Mathura is Vrindavan, why? Because Krishna performs His līlā there. More holy than Vrindavan is Govardhana, why? Because Krishna neglected Vrindavan for a whole week and gave His full attention to Govardhana Hill by holding Govardhana upon His little finger. More holy even than Govardhana is Radha-kunda because that is the place of the most intimate pastimes between Radha and Krishna.

Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura says that Radha-kunda is nondifferent from Srimati Radharani Herself and that Śyāma-kuṇḍa. is Non different from Krishna Himself and He describes an eternal līlā from Goloka Vrindavan that once Radharani was looking at Krishna and She melted with love and so she formed Radha-kunda. And similarly, Krishna looking at Radharani melted with love and formed Śyāma-kuṇḍa. and then those two kuṇḍas have merged into a loving embrace. Even today one can see that the two kundas are there merged at a saṅgam in the middle, in the small walkway between the two kuṇḍas.

All of our great Gosvamis, the six Gosvamis, they have performed bhajana on the banks of Radha-kunda. They have their kutirs, samadhis, or puspa-samadhis at this holy place. There are wonderful līlās surrounding their pastimes there at Radha-kunda as well. It was Raghunatha dasa Gosvami who expanded them to their present size. Syama-Kunda has an interesting shape. Later when you do parikramā again you can see that Syama-Kunda is not square but odd shaped. The reason for this is because when He was having Syama-Kunda excavated he had a dream and the five Pandavas appeared to him and said please don’t cut down these trees that you are planning to cut down to expand Syama-Kunda because we are residing in those trees on the bank of Syama-Kunda. So please don’t take us away. And so he left those trees and cut Syama-Kunda in an odd shape.

Down from Radha-kunda and Syama-kunda, we are coming near to the end of our parikramā now, is a place called Kusum Sarovara. Sorry we are going back. Here we have a wonderful painting of Radha-kunda. This place here is the place where Jahnava devi would take her bath. It is also the place where there is a walkway in the aprakata līlā that leads out to Ananga Manjari’s place in the center of Radha-kunda. Right here is Raghunatha dasa Gosvami’s samadhi mandir. There are twenty-four hour kirtan that takes place there. So these are two very—inside is a temple of Radha-Govinda. So these are very very most significant places on the banks of Radha-kunda. Down from Radha-kunda there is Kusum Sarovara, very very famous, very picturesque palace is there. Kusum Sarovara, kusa means flowers and so Radharani she would come to Kusum Sarovara with her girlfriends to pick flowers. And Radharani, Gandharvika she is picking flowers here. And so Krishna, He would appear on the scene this time planning to be the chief gardener. He is always assuming these different responsible positions so that he can chastise the gopīs. So the gopīs headed by Radharani are picking flowers. Later you can see the beautiful flowers all around this area, and this chief gardener arrives and He starts accusing them. “You thieves! Who has giving you permission to come here and pick flowers? You are going to have to pay tax for your stealing. You have been doing this very often and I am not going to allow it anymore.” Radharani looks at this gardener and says, “Who is calling us a thief? Who is calling a thief a thief? You! Young man, a notorious thief in Vrindavan. Everyone knows how You stole butter and yogurt from your own mother. Not only that You stole the cloth of the gopīs while they were bathing in the sacred Yamuna river, performing their vrata to Kātyāyanī devi, and you are calling us a thief? If anyone is a thief around here is You!” And then Krishna said, “No! No! I am completely innocent. I am the gardener here and I am not going to take any nonsense from any of you. I am a very austere, honest, renounced brahmachari who resides in this place.” And then Radharani says, “Brahmachari! If there is any reason why you are a brahmachari is because you have such a bad reputation. Nobody wants to give their daughter in marriage to You. No other reason.”

And so like this they were having this loving exchanges, joking words. This delights Krishna more than hearing the repetition of the mantras of the Vedas. He enjoys hearing these apparent assaults, loving assaults from Srimati Radharani and Her friends. So Uddhava, he is the dear associate of Krishna in Dvaraka and in Mathura. Uddhava he was the advisor of the Yadu dynasty, famous for his intelligence and good judgement, power of discrimination. He is glorified in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam as Haridasa. Bhāgavatam describes three Haridasas, Yudhisthira Maharaja that Krishna would wash the feet of all the kings who were coming to the Rājasūya yajña. Krishna washed their feet. He was their receptionist. He did that because of love for Yudhisthira. Another Haridasa is Uddhava. Uddhava was so dear to Krishna that Krishna sent Uddhava as a messenger to the gopīs. When Krishna was in Mathura, He sent Uddhava, “Please you go and you give this this letter to the gopīs and you read it to them and tell them how much I love them, how much affection I have for them.” So Uddhava he came. When he came he was dressed in Krishna’s own cloth and ornaments. He was so intimate. He came riding in Krishna’s own chariot and in fact His very form was so similar to that of Krishna’s. And at first some people thought that Krishna Himself has come.

So Uddhava he stayed in Vrindavan for quite some time to console the hearts of the gopīs and the gopas, Nanda and Yasoda, who were feeling so much separation from Krishna. Uddhava’s bhakti was jñāna-miśra, mixed with jñāna or knowledge. So when he saw how much the gopīs were suffering, he thought that he will try to help them by giving them some nice advice. “My dear gopīs, you are suffering so much because of your separation. Just meditate on the Paramātmā and concentrate your energies within and become peaceful through yoga.” When Radharani and the gopīs heard these advices of Uddhava, they immediately chastised him and said, “We reject your meditation and your yoga and your so-called peace. We are given to only remembering, hearing, chanting, and serving Krishna and we consider this higher than any so called peace that one may achieve through yoga.”

So seeing the devotion and the love of the residents of Vrindavan that particularly of the gopīs how they exhibited this love, Uddhava realized that yes this is much more significant. This is much higher than any jñāna or yoga or meditation. This is the real thing and so he considered the gopīs his gurus and he thought Krishna is very clever. “He sends me here to console the gopīs and to teach them something but actually His real purpose was to show me what is real bhakti and that I could actually learn from the gopīs what real devotion is. And so Krishna has very cleverly educated me by sending me as some messenger here to Vrindavan.” And so he was so overwhelmed with the devotion of the gopīs. He wanted to take the dust of their feet and keep it up on his head but because he was quite an exalted person in society, people respected and honored him, he knew that the gopīs would never agree to such a proposal. And so he prayed to the Lord that he could appear as a creeper or a blade of grass in this area of Kusum Sarovara, that when the gopīs are picking flowers, the dust of their feet will go on his head as a blade of grass in Vrindavan.

And so next to Kusuma Sarovara there is a temple of Uddhava and just a few hundred meters away on the other side of Govardhana Hill is Uddhava-kunda. So this is also very very significant. We have here a deity of govardhana-śilā which has a natural mukut around him. And this is a deity that was residing in Uddhava-kunda for great duration of time, decades. And this deity was given- this govardhana-śilā was given to Indradyumna Maharaja by the pujari at Uddhava-kunda. This pujari is seventy years old and he told Indradyumna Maharaja that this deity has been there since before his time. And Indradyumna Maharaja gave this deity to me in this very place, two years ago. And so he is here back in his place at Uddhava-kunda today.

So I was mentioning the two Haridasas mentioned in the Bhāgavatam, Yudhisthira Maharaja and Uddhava. There is one more Haridasa mentioned in the Bhāgavatam but with a suffix, Haridasa varyā and that personality is Govardhana Hill. Srimati Radharani glorifies Govardhana Hill with these words:

Hantayamadrira abala haridas varyo——

Oh How glorious is this Govardhana, hanta, hanta means like this exclamation of amazing. Hantayamadrir abala Haridas varyo, yad rama krsna carana sparsa pramoda.

That when Rama and Krishna, Krishna and Balarama or Rama as Radha Raman Krishna, walk on Govardhana Hill, he is experiencing ecstasy. The devotees experience ecstasy of tears falling from their eyes and so he has waterfalls falling from his peaks. They experience ecstasy with their hairs standing on end and Govardhana exhibits this ecstasy with trees that stand erect and grasses that stand on end. This grass is enjoyed by the cows and calves that are so dear to Krishna and so in this way Govardhana serves Krishna by providing fresh green grasses for the cows and the calves. He also serves Krishna by providing many jeweled caves and these caves are the places for Krishna’s wonderful pastimes with Srimati Radharani.

Chaitanya Mahaprabhu repeated this verse of the Bhāgavatam when in Jagannatha Puri He was going with his associates and he saw a sand dune that is today called tattva parvata. When He saw that sand dune He went into ecstasy thinking that to be Govardhana Hill and He started running towards that sand dune chanting the same verse, Hantamadrir abala haridas varyo—-

This verse spoken by Srimati Radharani. He fell unconscious and then the devotees, very worried, they came they started to chant into his ear. They awoken him and he asked, “Where have you brought me?” He said, “I was by the side of Govardhana Hill and I saw Radha and Krishna enter into a cave and when they entered into the cave, some of the gopīs engaged Me in picking flowers and so I was picking flowers for Radha and Krishna by Govardhana Hill and then all of you made such a great noise and brought Me here again.”

And so it is that Srimati Radharani and Chaitanya Mahaprabhu glorified Govardhana Hill as Haridas varyā as the greatest of Lord Krishna’s servants. Some may be confused how is it that Krishna is saying, śailo smi, “I am the hill,” and Lord Chaitanya and Srimati Radharani is saying that, “He is the best of devotees,” that he is Krishna, and he is a devotee at once. And He is just that. He is Krishna but He assumes the mood of a devotee in order to serve and so the devotees worship him in both ways; as the Lord himself, and as a devotee. They worship Him as a devotee because one gets the mercy of the devotee. It is easier to get than getting Krishna’s direct mercy Himself. The devotee very freely gives bhakti, even to one who is not qualified and so it is that the devotees worship Govardhana as the best of devotees and as the Supreme Lord Himself as well. So we will conclude here. If Giriraj Maharaja has—

Giriraj Swami: Just that when one gets the mercy of the devotee and then the mercy of the Lord will follow.

Sri Prahlada:

Jaya Sri Giriraj Maharaja ki jaya!
Sri Govardhana lal ki jaya!
Sri Giridhari ki jaya!
Giriraj Dharan ki jaya!
Nitai-Gaura premānande Hari Haribol!

Giriraj Swami: Now we will conclude as is the tradition with circumambulation of Govardhana Hill. In Vrindavan at the end of the celebration devotees throw pieces of the hill to the other devotees who have assembled, but being in America we will adopt a more methodical approach and then we will all honor the feast that has been offered to Govardhana.