Go-puja

Giriraj Swami: So, we are gathered here on the auspicious occasion of Govardhana-puja, at the feet of Sri Giriraj Govardhana.

Many of you may know the story, which is related in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. But one day, Sri Krishna noticed that Nanda Maharaja was gathering paraphernalia for worship, and He asked Nanda Maharaja what was the purpose. He said that no secrets should be kept by liberal persons, especially from their own relatives. Nanda Maharaja explained that the paraphernalia was being collected for the worship of King Indra, because King Indra sent rains, and from rains came grains and grasses that allowed the cows to live and eat, and allowed the cowherd community to live and eat.

So, Krishna proceeded to give many arguments against the Indra yagna. And although the arguments come in the category of karma-kāṇḍa, which is not really the philosophy of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam or Krishna consciousness, but Krishna spoke the arguments just because He wanted to stop the Indra yajña and to curb the false pride of King Indra. So then, Lord Krishna asked that the paraphernalia for the worship of Indra be used for the worship of Govardhana Hill, the brahmans, and the cows, and as will be revealed later in the pastime, Krishna showed that Govardhana Hill is actually Krishna Himself.

So, I will just read a few verses here from the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam where Lord Krishna explains the worship of Govardhana Hill that He wants the vrajavāsīs to perform. Canto Ten, Chapter Twenty-Four, Worshiping Govardhana Hill, Text twenty-four.

TEXT 24

na naḥ purojanapadā
na grāmā na gṛhā vayam
vanaukasas tāta nityaṁ
vana-śaila-nivāsinaḥ

TRANSLATION

My dear father, our home is not in the cities or towns or villages. Being forest dwellers, we always live in the forest and on the hills.

PURPORT by Srila Prabhupada

Lord Kṛṣṇa here points out that the residents of Vṛndāvana should recognize their relationship with Govardhana Hill and with the forests of Vṛndāvana, and not worry about a distant demigod like Indra. Having concluded His argument, Lord Kṛṣṇa makes a radical proposal in the following verse.

COMMENT

So, Indra is one of the powerful demigods. Bhagavad-gītā, Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, and other scriptures explain that there is one Supreme Lord, Krishna, īśvaraḥ paramaḥ kṛṣṇaḥ, but the one Supreme Lord Krishna has many powerful servants whom He entrusts with the management of different universal affairs. Thus, Krishna is like the king, and the demigods are like His ministers.

So, just like in the ordinary world, there may be a minister or secretary in charge of energy, so the demigods are in charge of various necessities of life. Indra is in charge of the rain, Vayu is in charge of the air, Varuna is in charge of the water, and of course, as you know, Brahma is in charge of creation, Shiva is in charge of destruction, Sarasvati is in charge of knowledge, culture, and music. So, the different demigods are servants of Krishna, just like ministers are servants of the king. And if we pray to a demigod or worship a demigod, he may give some material benediction to us.

But in Bhagavad-gītā, Krishna says that such worship is avidhi-pūrvakam, it is not proper, the worship is actually meant for Him. Because Krishna is in the heart of every living entity, and He is also in the heart of the demigods. So, even if we pray to a demigod, the demigod has no power to answer the prayer without the sanction of Krishna within the heart, or in other words, the demigods are not independent. In fact, when we chant the holy name, and I hope most of us will be chanting the holy name, at least one round every day, if not more, in the new year, so when we chant the holy name, we are advised to avoid certain offenses in chanting.

The first offense is to blaspheme the devotees who have dedicated their lives to propagating the holy names. So, one of the other offenses is to consider the names of demigods, even the most powerful ones like Lord Brahma and Lord Shiva, to be equal to or independent of the name of Lord Vishnu. So, the demigods are not equal to Krishna or Vishnu, and they are not independent of Him. And if we think that they are on the same level, then we are involved in committing an offense. And if we commit offenses when we chant the holy name, then we don’t get the real result that we are meant to get from chanting.

So generally, impersonalist think that the demigods are equal to Krishna, also because they think that the Supreme ultimately is impersonal and that the Supreme comes in different forms, and it may be Brahma, it may be Shiva, it may be Vishnu, it may be Surya, it may be Ganesha. But ultimately, one has to go beyond the different forms. This is the position of the impersonalists. One has to go beyond the different forms to merge and become one with God.

But devotees find such a proposal to be repugnant, because the life of a devotee and the bliss of a devotee comes in serving the Lord. So, if he merges and becomes one with the effulgence of God, then where is the chance of service? So therefore, great devotees pray that they would rather live in hell than merge into the brahmajyoti, because at least in hell, they can serve Krishna and glorify Krishna, which is their real life and bliss.

So, whether one is an impersonalist who thinks that we are actually meant to go beyond the different forms of God and merge and become one with the impersonal effulgence of God, or whether one just has the idea that there are many Gods that bestow different benedictions and according to the benediction we want, we can choose the particular God we want to worship and get the benediction, in any case, the actual fact is different.

The fact is that Krishna is the Supreme Godhead, and all others are His servants, ekale īśvara kṛṣṇa āra saba bhṛtya, and that pure devotees have no desire to get any material reward for their worship. They just want to serve Krishna out of love, and the happiness they get from such pure devotional service far exceeds the happiness one can get from any material facility in the material world, and it far exceeds by millions and trillions of times even the happiness that one can get from merging into the impersonal light. So therefore, devotees simply want to serve Krishna in love. And the devotees of Vrindavan agreed to worship Govardhana Hill, not because of all the arguments that Krishna gave, but just because of their love for Him.

As I mentioned, the arguments were really meant to provoke Indra, and ultimately, to curb his false pride, but the devotees of Vrindavan were completely in love with Krishna, and they would have done whatever He wanted just out of love for Him, and not for any other reason. And that is the specific qualification of the devotees of Vrindavan, that they love Krishna spontaneously and naturally, not because He is God. They don’t have any condition, “If Krishna is God, we will love Him, but if He is not God, then we will not love Him.” They don’t even think about whether He is God or not God, they just love Him as the beautiful son of Nanda and Yasoda. And therefore, to please Him, they are ready to do whatever He wants.

TEXT 25

tasmād gavāṁ brāhmaṇānām
adreś cārabhyatāṁ makhaḥ
ya indra-yāga-sambhārās
tair ayaṁ sādhyatāṁ makhaḥ

TRANSLATION

Therefore may a sacrifice for the pleasure of the cows, the brāhmaṇas and Govardhana Hill begin! With all the paraphernalia collected for worshiping Indra, let this sacrifice be performed instead.

PURPORT by Srila Prabhupada

Lord Kṛṣṇa is famous as go-brāhmaṇa-hita, the well-wishing friend of the cows and the brāhmaṇas. Lord Kṛṣṇa specifically included the local brāhmaṇas in His proposal because He is always devoted to those who are devoted to the godly Vedic culture.

COMMENT

So, we all know the prayer

hey Kṛṣṇa karuṇā sindhu dīna bandhu jagat pate
gopeśa gopikākānta, Rādhākānta, namo'stute

And similarly:

namo brahmaṇya-devāya

go-brāhmaṇa-hitāya ca

jagad-dhitāya kṛṣṇāya

govindāya namo namaḥ

So, the first verse describes Krishna as the lover of Srimati Radharani and the gopīs and the residents of Vrindavan, and that is our goal—to serve Krishna, the lover of Srimati Radharani and the gopīs and the residents of Vrindavan. But how do we achieve such God consciousness? In Vedic society, the brahminical culture helps the conditioned souls to be gradually elevated to the stage of God consciousness. And therefore, the worship of the brahmans and cows is important, because the brahmans give Vedic knowledge. They teach shastra.

tasmād guruṁ prapadyeta
jijñāsuḥ śreya uttamam

When one is actually interested in one’s ultimate benefit, he should approach a spiritual master. So, the spiritual master is considered the best of the brahmans, because he teaches the Vedic literature and he lives by the Vedic literatures, and he instructs his students to do the same. And the cows are also important because from the cows, we get milk, and from the milk, we make ghee, and from the ghee, we can perform Vedic sacrifices. But more important than Vedic sacrifices with the ghee and other milk products, we can make offerings to Giridhari and Giriraj, and advance in Krishna consciousness directly. So, the cows and brahmans are important in Krishna consciousness.

TEXT 26

pacyantāṁ vividhāḥ pākāḥ
sūpāntāḥ pāyasādayaḥ
saṁyāvāpūpa-śaṣkulyaḥ
sarva-dohaś ca gṛhyatām

TRANSLATION

Let many different kinds of food be cooked, from sweet rice to vegetable soups! Many kinds of fancy cakes, both baked and fried, should be prepared. And all the available milk products should be taken for this sacrifice.

PURPORT by Srila Prabhupada

The word sūpa indicates bean broth and also liquid vegetables. Thus to celebrate the Govardhana-pūjā, Lord Kṛṣṇa called for hot preparations such as soup, cold preparations like sweet rice, and all types of milk products.

COMMENT

So, I am sure that many of the cooks in the audience have found that the preparations that they make are included in the list given by Lord Krishna. Actually, the vrajavāsīs brought huge quantities of food to offer to Govardhana Hill, And Govardhana Hill ate all of them.

TEXT 27

hūyantām agnayaḥ samyag
brāhmaṇair brahma-vādibhiḥ
annaṁ bahu-guṇaṁ tebhyo
deyaṁ vo dhenu-dakṣiṇāḥ

TRANSLATION

The brāhmaṇas who are learned in the Vedic mantras must properly invoke the sacrificial fires. Then you should feed the priests with nicely prepared food and reward them with cows and other gifts.

PURPORT by Srila Prabhupada

According to Śrīla Śrīdhara Svāmī, Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa instructed His father and other residents of Vṛndāvana in the technical details of this Vedic sacrifice to assure the quality of the sacrifice and also to inspire Nanda and the others with faith in the concept of such a sacrifice. Thus the Lord mentioned that there must be orthodox brāhmaṇas, regular sacrificial fires and proper distribution of charity. And things were to be done in the order given by the Lord.

COMMENT

So, sometimes people are suspicious if the spiritual activities are too simple. They want to see something a little elaborate, a little gorgeous, a little complicated, and then they have faith that this is proper. Srila Prabhupada used the same approach when he installed the Deities of Krishna and Balarama in Vrindavan. He invited the local brahmans and had them chant mantra and light sacrificial fires, and basically, he did so to satisfy them and create faith in the people that something was being done in the proper way. But Srila Prabhupada commented that personally, he would have been satisfied if the Deities were installed just by hari-nāma-saṅkīrtana and the distribution of kṛṣṇa-prasāda. But to satisfy the local residents and create faith in them that the installation was done in the proper way, according to the local customs and brahminical rituals, he went through the whole procedure.

TEXT 28

anyebhyaś cāśva-cāṇḍāla-
patitebhyo yathārhataḥ
yavasaṁ ca gavāṁ dattvā
giraye dīyatāṁ baliḥ

TRANSLATION

After giving the appropriate food to everyone else, including such fallen souls as dogs and dog-eaters, you should give grass to the cows and then present your respectful offerings to Govardhana Hill.

TEXT 29

After everyone has eaten to his satisfaction, you should all dress and decorate yourselves handsomely, smear your bodies with sandalwood paste and then circumambulate the cows, the brāhmaṇas, the sacrificial fires and Govardhana Hill.

PURPORT by Srila Prabhupada

Lord Kṛṣṇa wanted all the human beings and even the animals to eat nice bhagavat-prasādam, sanctified foods offered to the Lord. To enthuse His relatives with a festive mood, He requested them to dress beautifully with fine clothes and ornaments and to refresh their bodies with luxurious sandalwood paste. The essential activity, however, was the circumambulation of the holy brāhmaṇas, cows, sacrificial fires and especially Govardhana Hill.

TEXT 30

etan mama mataṁ tāta
kriyatāṁ yadi rocate
ayaṁ go-brāhmaṇādrīṇāṁ
mahyaṁ ca dayito makhaḥ

TRANSLATION

This is My idea, O father, and you may carry it out if it appeals to you. Such a sacrifice will be very dear to the cows, the brāhmaṇas and Govardhana Hill, and also to Me.

COMMENT

So, in accordance with the request of Sri Krishna, all the vrajavāsīs prepared all sorts of foodstuffs and brought them to offer to Govardhana Hill. And it is described that lakes, literally lakes were filled with sweet rice, kheer, and other nectarean liquid preparations, and that there were literally mountains of puris and halavahs, and laḍḍus, and other preparations that you seem to know about already. And then, Krishna expanded Himself into an unprecedented gigantic form, and He declared that He, the same huge form of Krishna, was identical to Govardhana Hill, and the huge Krishna actually devoured all the preparations that the vrajavāsīs had offered Him.

But still, He was not satisfied. He kept crying, “Aniyor, aniyor, bring more, bring more.” So, the vrajavāsīs went back to their houses, whatever ingredients were left, they cooked, they brought the preparations, they offered them to Giri Govardhana, and the huge Krishna devoured them all. And again, He cried, “Aniyor, aniyor, bring more, bring more.” So again, they went, they exhausted every particle of food in their homes, they brought all the food they could find in the market, and they cooked everything, prepared and offered it, and Giri Govardhana again ate everything, and He said, “Aniyor, aniyor, bring more, bring more, I am not satisfied.”

So, the vrajavāsīs were completely bewildered. They did not know what to do, there was not a single grain left in Vrindavan that they could offer. So finally, someone had the idea to offer Krishna a tulasi leaf. The one thing they hadn’t offered was a tulasi leaf. So, they offered Giri Govardhana a tulasi leaf, and then to the relief of all the vrajavāsīs, He said, “Tathosi, now I am satisfied.” So, the vrajavāsīs were relieved, they had satisfied the Lord. The only thing was, there was not a grain left in the whole of Vraja, not a drop of milk that they, or the elders, or the children could eat. So, they were trembling, they did not know what was going to happen next. But then, the merciful Lord returned all of the food that He had eaten, all the empty lakes filled up with sweet rice and various nectars, and all the mountains of laḍḍus and samosas reappeared, and there was a huge feast.

And so, today we are trying to recreate the same festive mood and the same worship of Govardhana Hill, who is Krishna Himself, by offering Him various types of preparations, singing His glories, which is always the most important item, bathing Him, circumambulating Him, and in the end, honoring His remnants. So, in the Kṛṣṇa book, which most of you probably know is Srila Prabhupada’s summary study of the Tenth Canto of the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, Srila Prabhupada explains, and it is also apparent from Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, that there was one form of Krishna, the unprecedented huge form that declared that He was the same as Govardhana Hill and ate all the offerings, and the original little Krishna, who was worshiping Govardhana Hill along with the other vrajavāsīs.

So, Srila Prabhupada explains that the identity between Govardhana Hill and Krishna is still observed by devotees who sometimes take a rock or a stone from Govardhana Hill and worship it as Krishna. And that we have here, that very principle is being followed here. Therefore, we have the stone from Govardhana Hill that we worship here as Lord Krishna.

But one should not take such worship cheaply. I have heard of life members and friends who go to India, they go to Govardhana Hill, and they fill up their purses and shopping bags with stones from Govardhana Hill, but actually, it’s not so cheap. First of all, the shastras say that whatever the weight of the stones that you take from the Govardhana Hill, you should leave the same weight in gold there. So, that is the first warning. In fact, I don’t think we even need to go beyond that one from the reaction of the audience, but even then, there are other procedures. One must receive the śilā from the vrajavāsīs, and so on. But here, we are fortunate to have the govardhana-śilā and to be able to worship Him and serve Him.

So, the festival was conducted very nicely and everyone was happy, because when Krishna is satisfied, everyone is satisfied. But one person wasn’t satisfied, because his Krishna consciousness had been covered by his false pride, and that was King Indra. He felt offended that the paraphernalia for his worship had been used for the Govardhana-puja, and he felt offended that his worship was stopped altogether.

So, he became angry and he sent devastating rain fall on Vrindavan, and Krishna, in order to give protection to the residents of Vrindavan, lifted Govardhana Hill and held it above His head as an umbrella, to give shelter to all the vrajavāsīs, and He held it up for seven days. And He was only seven years old by material calculation. And the residents of Vrindavan were completely satisfied under the shelter of Govardhana Hill. They experienced no hunger, or thirst, no fatigue. Rather, they were raft in ecstasy, being able to see the beautiful form of Krishna twenty-four hours a day for seven days.

And thus, we also can get the lesson that one who surrenders to Krishna is not the loser, but the gainer by many times. So, if some of us have learned to worship demigods, either from our forefathers or from other associations, we don’t need to feel obliged to continue to worship the demigods. Here, Lord Krishna has shown the example that even if your family has worshiped a demigod for many generations, you can stop the worship of the demigod because again, avidhi-pūrvakam, the worship is actually meant for Krishna, and when it is offered to the demigods, it is not being done in quite the right way.

So, we want to please Krishna, ultimately, we want to develop love for Krishna, premā pumartho mahān. And therefore, as Krishna says, sarva-dharmān parityajya mām ekaṁ śaraṇaṁ vraja, we should give up all other varieties or worship and religious performance and just surrender to Him and come to the shelter of Krishna, come to the shelter of Giri Govardhana, and we will be protected from any of the onslaughts of the material world, and at the same time, we will get the complete satisfaction and bliss of associating with Krishna in Krishna consciousness. And thus, we will be completely happy.

So, by the grace of Krishna, Indra in the end realized his mistake when he saw that his most powerful cloud, Sanvartaka, that he sent at the time of devastation of the universe to fill up the universe with water, he realized that Krishna was actually his eternal Lord and master. So, he came to Vrindavan with Surbhi cow to worship Krishna and beg for His forgiveness. And then, Krishna Himself told Indra that He had crushed Indra’s false pride so that Indra could come back to his proper consciousness, Krishna consciousness. So, He ordered Indra to go back and resume His position as the king of heaven, but to be humble and sober.

So, this is also a lesson for us, that we should be humble. Whatever position we have or whatever opulence we have is by the grace of God, Krishna, and it should be used for the service and pleasure of Krishna. And if we are sincere devotees, but at the same time, we happen to become a little proud and covered over, Krishna will be merciful and humble us, or we can just remain humble and save Krishna and ourselves the trouble of getting Krishna’s special mercy.

So, we thank you. Well, looks like I have about one minute left, so I will mention just a thought about the idea that one should leave the equal weight in gold at Govardhana Hill. Now, this is quite a big śilā here, and probably His Holiness Tamal Krishna Goswami did not think of it at the time, but in the end, he and I ended up leaving a lot of gold at Govardhana Hill because we bought a property there with a palace that used to belong to a king. And we have used that facility to serve the devotees and the brahmans, and feed the vrajavāsīs, especially on occasions like Govardhana-puja.

So, that’s also the beauty of Krishna consciousness, that no one loses, even though we ended up giving more to Govardhana Hill than we probably expected when we brought the śilā here, but even then, we don’t feel that we are the losers. We also feel that we are gaining hundreds and thousands of times. And I believe that His Holiness Tamal Krishna Goswami resides there even now.

Sri Giri Govardhana ki jaya! Sri Govardhana-puja ki jaya! Srila Prabhupada ki jaya! Srila Gurudeva ki jaya! Nitai-Gaura premānande Hari Haribol!

Devotees: Giriraj Swami Maharaja ki jaya!

Giriraj Swami: Five—ten minutes and Guptaji is saying questions, there should be time for questions. Does anyone. . .? Yes?

Devotee: [Unintelligible 01:35:00].

Giriraj Swami: Why did Lord Ramachandra pray to Lord Shiva in Rameshwaram? I am glad you asked the question because many people have the wrong idea of why.

The actual answer is Krishna or Rama, Rama is also an expansion of Krishna, likes to serve His devotees, He likes to worship His devotees. We find in kṛṣṇa-līlā that sometimes, Nanda Maharaja will tell Krishna to bring him his chappal, so Krishna will bring His Nanda Baba’s sandals on His head and carry them to him. We find that when Sudama Vipra came to visit Krishna, Krishna personally worshiped him, He washed his feet in Dvaraka, and on the battlefield of Kurukshetra, Krishna acted as the chariot driver, or the sarthi of Arjuna. And Arjuna would order Him, “Draw my chariot between the two armies,” and Krishna would carry out the order of Arjuna. And He would even unharness the horses in the night, take them to the stable, wash them, and care for them, just like a menial servant. So, the Lord likes to worship His devotees, He likes to serve His devotees, and therefore, Lord Ramachandra worshiped Lord Shiva at Rameshwaram.

The wrong answer is that Lord Rama wanted to take Lord Shiva’s permission before He killed Ravana. I don’t know whether you have heard that one, looks like you haven’t, so I won’t waste our time there. And then, the other wrong answer is that Lord Shiva is supreme. Have you heard that one? No. So, we won’t waste our time on that one either.

But that’s the real reason, that the reciprocation of love between the Lord and the devotee, the devotee likes to serve the Lord, and the Lord likes to serve the devotee. The devotee likes to worship the Lord, and the devotee likes to worship the Lord. Any other questions? Yes?

Devotee: [Unintelligible 01:38:10].

Giriraj Swami: Anyways, he says that he read in Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam that when Krishna killed Śiśupāla, the soul of Śiśupāla merged into the body of Krishna.

Yes, what you read is true because God is absolute, Krishna is absolute. So, anyone who comes in touch with Him becomes purified and liberated. But there is a difference between the liberation of the demons that are killed by Krishna and the devotees who serve Krishna with love. The demons who are killed by Krishna merge into the effulgence from the body of Krishna. That’s what we discussed earlier. The idea of becoming one with the light, which is anathema to devotees. And the devotees who love Krishna and serve Krishna with love, they are liberated, but their liberation is different.

There are actually five kinds of liberation described in the scriptures. So, one is sālokya, to reside in the same planet as the Lord, one is sāmīpya, to have the same opulences as the Lord, and then one is sāyujya, which is to merge and become one.

So, pure devotees have no desire for any type of liberation, but they can accept one of the four types of liberation, where they go to the spiritual kingdom and continue to serve the Lord in the spiritual kingdom. But they will never accept sāyujya-mukti, which puts an end to devotional service with the merging. So therefore, the Mayavadis, the impersonal philosophers and yogis who want to merge and become one with Brahman, are in the same category as demons. They get the same results as demons.

So, we are impressed with the Lord’s mercy in the sense that He purifies even the demons who are envious of Him like Śiśupāla, and He gives even the demons liberation. But otherwise, we don’t want to be a demon or a Mayavadi, we don’t want to be anything other than a devotee of Krishna, and we don’t want to do anything other than serve Krishna and glorify Him. So, it is a type of mercy, but not the type of mercy that we want.

Okay, well, let’s take one last question so we don’t end with. . .

Devotee: Many times, Govardhana is non-different than Krishna, and at the same time, [Unintelligible 01:42:18].

Giriraj Swami: He says that although Govardhana Hill is said to be identical to Lord Krishna, in other places, Govardhana Hill is said to be the best servant of Lord Hari, or Krishna. Well, I was actually going to speak on that topic tomorrow morning in more detail, but in brief, I will just say that Lord Chaitanya is Krishna, but He is in the mood of a devotee. So, Govardhana Hill is also Krishna, but He is in the mood of a devotee. And just like Lord Chaitanya in the mood of a devotee is more merciful than Krishna in the mood of the Supreme Lord, so similarly, Govardhana Hill in the mood of a devotee may be more merciful to us than Govardhana Hill in the mood of Krishna as the Supreme Lord.

But here, we are following Govardhana-puja, we are worshiping Govardhana Hill in the mood of the vrajavāsīs in Govardhana-puja. Because the main thing is just to understand that Krishna is the Supreme Personality of Godhead, and that we don’t need to worship any demigods, and that Govardhana Hill is identical to Krishna. And if you are one of the devotees that comes to the morning program tomorrow, then you will get to hear more about the worship of Govardhana Hill in the mood of hari-dāsa-varya, the best servant of Lord Hari. Hare Krishna.