SB 2.7.32 – Sri Govardhana-puja

Giriraj Swami: We welcome all to the fest of Giri Govardhana. Today is the most auspicious day in the auspicious month of Kartik, the celebration of Govardhana-puja. We learned about the Lord and His pastimes from the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. The Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam is considered the ripened fruit of the Vedic tree of knowledge, and it is considered the supreme authority of all Vedic evidence. The pastimes of Lord Krishna are elaborately described in the Tenth Canto of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. But in the Second Canto of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, there is a brief description of the various incarnations of Godhead and of Lord Krishna Himself. Earlier, in the First Canto of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, there was a list of twenty-six incarnations of the Lord, but at the end of the list, Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam says, Ete cāṁśa-kalāḥ puṁsaḥ kṛṣṇas tu Bhagavān svayam, that all the incarnations in the list are portions or plenary portions of the Lord. But kṛṣṇas tu Bhagavān svayam, Krishna is the original Supreme Personality of Godhead.

So now we shall read one verse from the Second Canto, Chapter Seven, which describes the scheduled incarnations with specific functions. Of course, the First Canto mentions that ultimately no one can count the incarnations of the Lord because they are more numerous than the waves of the ocean. They keep coming whenever there is a need. But the most prominent ones are mentioned in Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. And of them, Krishna, although He appears to be an incarnation like the others, is actually the origin of all the other incarnations, and therefore He is call avatāri, the others are called avatars. Avatar means one who descends from the spiritual realm into the material realm. But Krishna is avatāri. He also descends, but He is the origin of all avatars, therefore He is call avatāri.

So, we will read from Second Canto, Chapter Seven, Text Thirty-two.

oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya,

oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya,

oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya

TEXT 32

gopair makhe pratihate vraja-viplavāya
deve ‘bhivarṣati paśūn kṛpayā rirakṣuḥ
dhartocchilīndhram iva sapta-dināni sapta-
varṣo mahīdhram anaghaika-kare salīlam

TRANSLATION

When the cowherd men of Vṛndāvana, under instruction of Kṛṣṇa, stopped offering sacrifice to the heavenly King, Indra, the whole tract of land known as Vraja was threatened with being washed away by constant heavy rains for seven days. Lord Kṛṣṇa, out of His causeless mercy upon the inhabitants of Vraja, held up the hill known as Govardhana with one hand only, although He was only seven years old. He did this to protect the animals from the onslaught of water.

PURPORT by Srila Prabhupada

Children play with an umbrella generally known as a frog’s umbrella, and Lord Kṛṣṇa, when He was only seven years old, could snatch the great hill known as the Govardhana Parvata at Vṛndāvana and hold it for seven days continuously with one hand, just to protect the animals and the inhabitants of Vṛndāvana from the wrath of Indra, the heavenly King, who had been denied sacrificial offerings by the inhabitants of Vrajabhūmi.

COMMENT

So the history is described more elaborately in the Tenth Canto of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. That one day, Lord Krishna saw His father and the other cowherd men of Vraja gathering some paraphernalia to perform a sacrifice. Of course, Krishna, as God, is the supreme father of all living entities. He has no father or mother. But still, for the sake of His pleasure, for the sake of His pastimes, He will select a pure devotee to play the part of His father and another pure devotee to play the part of His mother. So when I say His father, I don’t mean to suggest that Krishna had a father and mother like we had, or that He was born by the combination of the male and female. But for the sake of enjoying pastimes of love, He does accept some pure devotee to play the parts of His mother and father. And He, from His side, plays the part of their child. Whatever relationships we see in the material world are actually reflections of the original relationships that exist with God in the spiritual world. And whatever relationships we find in the material world have their perfection in the same type of relationship with God in the spiritual world. So if we want to have a perfect master, Krishna will be our perfect master. If we want to have an ideal friend, Krishna will be our ideal friend. If we want to have the perfect child, Krishna will be our perfect child. And if we want to have the most wonderful husband or lover, Krishna will reciprocate.

So once, five thousand years ago or so, Krishna was displaying His eternal pastimes on earth. He saw that His father was gathering all sorts of paraphernalia for worship. And He asked him, why? So Nanda Maharaja replied that he was gathering the paraphernalia for worship of Indra, the King of heavenly planet and demigod in charge of rainfall. Nanda Maharaja reasoned that the inhabitants of Vrindavan were dependent on the rainfall to water their agricultural fields and to produce grass for the cows. Because in Vrindavan, the economy was based on agriculture and cow protection. The Bhagavad-gītā says, kṛṣi-go-rakṣa-vāṇijyam, that the basis of economy of human society should be agriculture and cow protection. Of course, Krishna is God. He could have appeared in any type of family. But He chose to appear in a family of cowherds to emphasize the ideal life that He wants us as human beings to live. And in the ideal social system and economic system given by God, the economy is based on agriculture and cow protection. The bull pulls the plow, and the cow gives milk. And from the milk, we get so many nice dairy products like yogurt, cheese, and ghee. Ghee is clarified butter, which is important not only in the preparation of cooked food, but it is also used in Vedic sacrifices. So cows and bulls are very important in Vedic culture. And therefore, Nanda Maharaja was concerned that Indra should be pleased to send rainfall to water the fields and provide grass for the cows, and food grains and fruits and vegetables for the humans.

But Lord Krishna, He had a different idea, and He advised His father that the same paraphernalia that He gathered for the worship of Indra should instead be used for the worship of Govardhana Hill. Now, there is a secret here, and that is that Govardhana Hill is identical to Lord Krishna, or one could say that Govardhana Hill is an incarnation of Lord Krishna. And therefore, indirectly, Lord Krishna was advising the residents of Vrindavan that there is no need to worship any demigod. But rather, they should worship the Supreme Lord directly. In the Vedic literatures, we learn not only about the Supreme Lord, but also about the universe and how the universe functions. And in universal management, the Supreme Lord empowers certain advanced living beings to be in charge of different departments of the universal management. Just like in the state, there is the king. But the king also has various ministers to assist him and look after different affairs of the state.

So the demigods are like the ministers or secretaries to the Supreme Lord Krishna. So Indra is a demigod in charge of rainfall, say the minister of rainfall. Vayu is demigod in charge of air and wind. Varuna is the demigod in charge of water. Similarly, Sarasvati is the demigod or demigoddess in charge of learning and culture and music. So there are different demigods in charge of different affairs in the universe. But they are all servants of the Supreme Lord, Krishna. And therefore, Sri Caitanya-caritāmṛta says, Ekale īśvara kṛṣṇa, āra saba bhṛtya, only Krishna is the supreme controller or Lord, and all others are His servants. So the various demigods are also servants of Krishna and according to the statements of Lord Krishna in the Bhagavad-gītā, there is no need to worship them separately. One is enjoying simply by worshiping Lord Krishna directly. Just as by watering the root of a tree, the water is automatically distributed to all the branches and twigs and leaves without any separate endeavor. Similarly, by worshiping Lord Krishna, the worship is automatically distributed and the service is automatically distributed to all of the demigods, and in fact, to all living beings. Because all living beings, from Indra, the king of the heavenly planet, down to the insect, Indra-gopa, all are parts and parcels of Krishna, and by serving Krishna, we automatically serve all living entities.

PURPORT (continued)

Factually there is no need of offering sacrifices to the demigods for their services if one is engaged in the service of the Supreme Lord. Sacrifices recommended in the Vedic literature for satisfaction of the demigods are a sort of inducement to the sacrificers to realize the existence of higher authorities. The demigods are engaged by the Lord as controlling deities of material affairs, and according to the Bhagavad-gītā, when a demigod is worshiped the process is accepted as the indirect method for worshiping the Supreme Lord. But when the Supreme Lord is worshiped directly there is no need of worshiping the demigods or offering them sacrifices as recommended in particular circumstances. Lord Kṛṣṇa therefore advised the inhabitants of Vrajabhūmi not to offer any sacrifices to the heavenly King Indra.

COMMENT

So just as there are demigods who are like ministers or secretaries in charge of different departments of the universal affairs, there are also demigods in charge of different planets. Just like in the governance of the United States, there are cabinet members that are in charge of different affairs, and there are governors who are in charge of different states. And Indra serves both functions. He is the secretary of rainfall, and he is also the governor of Svargaloka, or the heavenly planet. The Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam explains that within the material universe, there are different grades of planets or there are planets with different grades of life. Just like even on earth, there are different relativities. Some countries are considered more desirable and others are considered less desirable. So similarly, within the universe, they are different relativities, and some planets are relatively heavenly and some are relatively hellish, and some are in between. And according to Vedic literatures, earth is in the in-between category but slightly on the lower side.

So when we refer to Indra as the king of the heavenly planet or the predominating deity of the heavenly planet, we should not confuse the material heavenly planet with the spiritual kingdom of God. The spiritual kingdom of God exists beyond the material universe. What we see at night in the skies and the heavens, the different heavenly bodies, planets, moons, and stars, those are all within the material universe. And the spiritual kingdom of God exists beyond the material universe. So when we refer to heaven in this context, or the king of heaven, we refer to a material planet and a demigod who is the governor of a material planet.

PURPORT (continued)

But Indra, not knowing Lord Kṛṣṇa in Vrajabhūmi, was angry at the inhabitants of Vrajabhūmi and tried to avenge the offense. 

COMMENT

So there is another form of Krishna known as Vishnu, and all of the demigods is the Supreme Lord. But Krishna, when He comes in His original form and plays like a cowherd boy in Vrajabhumi, appears like a human being who has His mother and father and friends and activities. So Indra fell into a sort of illusion. He could not realize that Krishna who was playing as a cowherd boy in Vrindavan as the darling son of Nanda and Yasoda was the same Supreme Lord Vishnu who was his worshipable Lord and master. And therefore, when Krishna stop the Indra yajña, Indra took offense. And he thought, “Who is this child that is telling them not to worship me? And who are these foolish people that they are listening to this child?” So he took offense. He became angry. And in order to avenge his offense, take revenge on the inhabitants of Vrindavan for their offense, he, as the demigod in charge of rainfall, summoned the samavartaka cloud which are special clouds that Indra summons at the time of the universal devastation which takes place periodically. So he called these samavartaka clouds to inundate the land of Vrindavan.

PURPORT (continued)

But, competent as the Lord was, He saved the inhabitants and animals of Vrajabhūmi by His personal energy and proved definitely that anyone directly engaged as a devotee of the Supreme Lord need not satisfy any other demigods, however great, even to the level of Brahmā or Śiva. 

COMMENT

So. As we know from Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam and authorized literatures, when Indra sent the samavartaka clouds to inundate Vrindavan with torrential rain and hail, Lord Krishna lifted the Govardhana mountain and held it up over his head with the little finger of his left hand. And he held it over his head for seven days. And for seven days, all the residents of Vrindavan, the humans and the animals alike, took shelter under the Govardhana Hill. And during that period, they experienced no hunger or thirst nor discomfort of any kind. And to the contrary, they were filled with ecstatic love and joy, because they got to be with their beloved Krishna for seven days continuously without any interruption. During Krishna’s eightfold daily pastimes, there is always meeting and separation. In the morning, Krishna wakes up. These are His pastimes or līlā. In the morning, Krishna wakes up, and His mother Yasoda and the various household servants, servants of Krishna, servants of God, they come and help Krishna bathe and get dressed. Then Krishna goes into the dining hall, and He has breakfast with King Nanda, His father, and with His brother Balarama, who is the first in terms of ontological existence. Balarama is the first expansion of Krishna. And with various cowherd boyfriends, they all get to be with Krishna. But then later, Krishna goes into the fields with the larger group of His cowherd boyfriends and the calves and later the cows. And then His mother and father and the other residents of Vrindavan, they get separated from Krishna while His cowherd boyfriends are with Him. And then in the evening, when Krishna returns from the pasturing grounds, He again returns home to be with Nanda and Yasoda, and His cowherd boyfriends who enjoyed His company during the day, are separated from Krishna because they also have their respective homes where they go.

So within the daily activities of Krishna, there is meeting and separation. And the devotees love Krishna so much, they can’t bear to be separated from Him even for a moment. In fact, the gopīs, the cowherd damsels of Vraja, they get enjoy looking at the beautiful form of Krishna, transcendental form of Krishna, that they curse the creator, the material creator Brahma for creating eyelids. Because for a fraction of a moment when their eyelids blink, they are deprived of the vision of Krishna. So they condemn the material creator Brahma for making eyelids. They say, he doesn’t know anything about transcendental ecstasy because if he did, he would not have created his horrible eyelids that deprived us of the vision of Krishna for a fraction of a moment. And in that ecstasy, high ecstasy of mahā-bhāva, that fraction of a moment when their eyelids close, to them appears like eons of time. They can’t bear it. So when even a fraction of a moment, it is like eons of time in separation. So what to speak of several hours when Krishna is away?

So for the seven days of the govardhana-līlā, the entire cowherd community was with Krishna continuously. And there was no separation, no interruption. And they enjoyed the highest transcendental bliss.

PURPORT (continued)

Thus this incident definitely proved without a doubt that Lord Kṛṣṇa is the Personality of Godhead and that He was so in all circumstances, as a child on the lap of His mother, as a boy 7 years old, and as an old man of 125 years of age. In either case He was never on the level of the ordinary man, and even in His advanced age He appeared a young boy 16 years old. These are the particular features of the transcendental body of the Lord.

COMMENT

So Lord Krishna is God, and God is God. He is always God. He doesn’t have to become God by yoga or meditation. There are some so-called gurus that say, “You chant this mantra twenty minutes in the morning and twenty minutes in the evening, and in six months, you will become God,” or whatever. But Krishna is not that kind of God. He doesn’t have to become God by practicing yoga or meditation. He is always God. He is God when He is playing on the lap of Mother Yasoda. He is God when He is lifting Govardhana Hill. He is God when He is speaking Bhagavad-gītā to Arjuna. When Krishna spoke the Bhagavad-gītā to Arjuna, by material calculation, He was about 125 years of age. He had manifested His pastimes on earth 125 years before He spoke the Bhagavad-gītā to Arjuna. But His transcendental body never aged or deteriorated. It always appeared like the body of a youth of about sixteen years. We never see a picture of Krishna as an old man with gray hair, bent over, and walking with a stick. No, even when Krishna was on the battlefield of Kurukshetra, He looked just like a young man. So that is the difference between we ordinary mortals and Krishna. Krishna is always God, even in His babyhood, He performed superhuman feats that no ordinary person could do, like the killing of the Putana Rakshasi. He was just a baby, but He killed this fearsome demon.

And similarly, at the age of one hundred and twenty-five, so-called, He was still as powerful as always, and His transcendental body never aged. So, that is one of the many differences between us and the Lord. The Lord, He is above the material nature, He is above time. We are under the control of time. By the influence of time, we grow old, we get diseased, and ultimately, we die. But Krishna is not under the control of time. He is not under the control of material nature at all. But rather, He is the controller of the material nature. He is the controller of time. So, they have no power to affect Him. And therefore, from the beginning of His pastimes to the end, He always enjoyed with His pure devotees in pastimes of love in His eternal blissful spiritual body. And if we serve Krishna in this life and completely purify our consciousness, then in our next life we can go to Krishna. In Bhagavad-gītā, Krishna says,

janma karma ca me divyam
evaṁ yo vetti tattvataḥ
tyaktvā dehaṁ punar janma
naiti mām eti so ‘rjuna

That anyone who understands the transcendental nature of Krishna’s appearance and activities in the world, just as we discussed from the book today, anyone who understands the transcendental nature of Krishna’s appearance and activities, he doesn’t have to take birth again in the miserable material world, but he goes to Krishna. He goes back home, back to Godhead. But how do we understand Krishna? We understand Him by hearing from authorities. We cannot understand Him by logic and reason. Up to a point, we can, but beyond that point, we have to hear submissively from authorities. And that is also confirmed, bhaktyā mām abhijānāti, in Bhagavad-gītā, Lord Krishna says, “I can be understood only by devotional service. Only by devotional service can you enter into the mysteries of My understanding.” And therefore, this is the process to realize God, to realize oneself, and to gain liberation from the repetition of birth and death and go back home, back to Godhead. And the essence of the process, the essence of bhakti-yoga, is kirtan, or saṅkīrtana, the glorification of the Lord, especially the chanting of the holy names of the Lord.

Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare

Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare

So, we thank you for joining us in the celebration of Govardhana-puja. We pray that Giri Govardhana will give you shelter, just like He did to the residents of Vrindavan, and fulfill all your desires for His service, just as we fulfill all of their desires in govardhana-līlā. So now, we will rise. Sorry, there will be some announcements, some transcendental announcements, and then there will be the beautiful ārati ceremony and the distribution of prasāda.

Devotees: Haribol!