SB 10.21.18 – Vrindavan Yatra—Sri Govardhana-puja

Giriraj Swami: Hare Krishna. Again it is a great pleasure and privilege and honor to be here with all of you in this auspicious place on this auspicious occasion.

When His Holiness Radhanath Swami described how Srila Prabhupada informed devotees that they could worship a piece of Govardhana Hill as Krishna, it reminded me of my initiation letter from Srila Prabhupada. I met the devotees and joined the temple in Boston and after about two and a half months the temple president recommended me for initiation by mail and after two days I received a letter in which Srila Prabhupada said that, “Your name is Giriraj. Giriraj is the name for the Govardhana Mountain where Krishna used to tend His cows and sometimes devotees take a stone from Govardhana Hill and worship it as a representation of Krishna.” So it sounded very intriguing to me. You can imagine someone born in America never been to India just beginning to understand the process of deity worship, so it sounded very exotic. 

Speaking of pride, I was very proud of my family name which is Teton. In United States there is a mountain range and national park called the Grand Tetons. And as far as I knew my grandparents and my uncle and his family and my father and his family, we were the only ones with the name Teton. So I had this pride like Indra and when I got my initiation letter that, Srila Prabhupada actually said it is a name for the Govardhana Mountain, I thought, “Wow! Srila Prabhupada knows everything.” [laughter] He knew that I was attached to my mountain name and he gave me another mountain name, a better one. 

So we are here by his mercy and I will read one verse from Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, spoken by the gopīs. In fact, Srila Sanatana says that it was actually spoken by Srimati Radharani but Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam says it is spoken by the gopīs. It comes from the Twenty-first Chapter of the Tenth Canto: “The Gopīs Glorify Krishna’s Flute.” It is a verse in glorification of Govardhana Hill and it has many deep lessons for us.

So please repeat after me:

oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya
oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya
oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya

We read from Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, Canto Ten, Chapter Twenty-one: “The Gopīs Glorify Krishna’s Flute.”

TEXT 18

hantāyam adrir abalā hari-dāsa-varyo

yad rāma-kṛṣṇa-caraṇa-sparaśa-pramodaḥ

mānaṁ tanoti saha-go-gaṇayos tayor yat

pānīya-sūyavasa-kandara-kandamūlaiḥ

TRANSLATION

Of all the devotees, this Govardhana Hill is the best! O my friends, this hill supplies Kṛṣṇa and Balarāma, along with Their calves, cows and cowherd friends, with all kinds of necessities — water for drinking, very soft grass, caves, fruits, flowers and vegetables. In this way the hill offers respects to the Lord. Being touched by the lotus feet of Kṛṣṇa and Balarāma, Govardhana Hill appears very jubilant.

PURPORT by Srila Prabhupada

This translation is quoted from Śrīla Prabhupāda’s Caitanya-caritāmṛta (Madhya 18.34).

Śrīla Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura explains the opulence of Govardhana Hill as follows: Pānīya refers to the fragrant, cool water from the Govardhana waterfalls, which Kṛṣṇa and Balarāma drink and use to wash Their feet and mouths. Govardhana also offers other beverages, such as honey, mango juice and pīlu juice. Sūyavasa indicates dūrvā grass, used to make the religious offering of arghya. Govardhana also has grass that is fragrant, soft and conducive to the strong growth of cows and increased production of milk. Thus this grass is used for feeding the transcendental herds. Kandara refers to the caves where Kṛṣṇa, Balarāma and Their friends play, sit and lie down. These caves give pleasure when the weather is too hot or too cold, or when it is raining. Govardhana also features soft roots for eating, jewels for ornamenting the body, flat places for sitting, and lamps and mirrors in the form of smooth stones, glistening water and other natural substances.

COMMENT

This verse was spoken by the gopīs when they were at home in the village when Krishna and Balarama went out to pasture, but the gopīs had such intense love for Krishna and such deep attachment for Him that they actually envisioned Krishna’s pastimes within their hearts and they felt as if they were present with Krishna at Govardhana Hill. 

The first word hanta, the synonym is “oh” and that “oh” can have different moods but the mood here is of great joy. The gopīs are experiencing great joy. And ayaṁ adriḥ, ayaṁ means “this” and adriḥ means “hill.” ayaṁ. We would use this word “this” for something that is very close. Like this microphone is very close. That video camera is a little far away but this microphone is very close. And the gopīs were saying ayaṁ adriḥ, “this hill,” as if they were there. That’s the idea as if they were right there with Krishna. And abalāḥ means “friends.” The literal meaning is bala. Bala means “strong” and abalāḥ means “weak.” So the gopīs are addressing each other as abalāḥ meaning they are weak in resisting the attraction of Krishna. We pray to have to that kind of weakness not the other kind of weakness, to fall prey to maya’s allurements.

Hari-dāsa-varyaḥ. “Oh friend, this hill is the best of the servants of Lord Hari.” Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam describes different devotees or hari-dāsa and three are prominent. One is Maharaja Yudhisthira. It is said that when he performed the Rājasūya sacrifice so many great saints and sages came, so many kings and great personalities, and they came to see of course Krishna—He was there—but they also came to see Maharaja Yudhisthira and the Pandavas. It is described that they took great pleasure in describing Maharaja Yudhisthira as hari-dāsa, as a great servant of Lord Hari. Lord Krishna would regularly visit their home, He would act their friend, as their servant, as their advisor. He was very intimate with them. And Maharaja Yudhisthira and the Pandavas were all devotees of Krishna, their wife was a devotee of Krishna, and they engaged all of their family members and citizens in the service of Krishna. So they were such an exalted family that people came to the Rājasūya sacrifice to see them with Krishna. 

Another hari-dāsa mentioned in Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam is Uddhava. Uddhava was Krishna’s cousin and in Dvaraka he was Krishna’s constant companion. He looked like Krishna, he was qualified like Krishna, and when Krishna wanted to send someone to Vrindavan to pacify the residents of Vrindavan in separation from Him, He sent Uddhava. Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam describes that for many months Uddhava remained in Vrindavan and he made the residents of Vrindavan enlivened with his talks of Krishna. They forgot the pangs of separation from Krishna while he was there. And so he is also glorified as hari-dāsa.

But of all the hari-dāsa, Govardhana Hill is hari-dāsa-varyaḥ, he is the best of all the servants of Lord Hari. Why is he considered the best? That is also described. Yad rāma-kṛṣṇa-caraṇa-sparaśa-pramodaḥ: being touched by the lotus feet of Krishna and Balarama, he was pramāda (jubilant). We heard from His Holiness Radhanath Swami how jubilant Govardhana Hill felt being touched by the tip of the little finger of Krishna’s left hand. He felt jubilant. And everything was a pleasure for him. All the torrents of rain and wind, it was a pleasure for him. He felt cleansed and ecstatic. That was govardhana-līlā. But everyday Krishna and Balarama would go to Govardhana Hill and walk on him and Govardhana Hill felt jubilant being touched by the lotus feet of Krishna and Balarama. 

This is the secret of a good servant that he takes pleasure in serving his master. If we have a servant who really wishes that he didn’t have to do the service, it’s not very pleasing. If the servant is thinking, “I am hungry, I wish I could be taking prasāda right now,” or, “I am tired, I wish I could be taking rest right now,” so it is not going to be very encouraging to the master. But if the servant is feeling joy in serving the master, is eager to render more and more service to the master, that will please the master very much. When the master is pleased the servant becomes even more pleased and when the servant becomes more pleased, the master becomes more pleased, and thus there is a beautiful transcendental competition where the servant is jubilant and by his mood he makes the master happy and seeing the master happy, he feels more happy, and seeing the servant more happy, the master becomes more happy, which makes the servant more happy. 

We see the same kind of competition between Krishna and the gopīs that seeing the beautiful form of Krishna, the gopīs become happy and their beauty increases, and seeing the beauty of the gopīs, Krishna becomes more happy, and His beauty increases, which makes the gopīs even more happy and beautiful, which makes Krishna even more happy and beautiful.

This is the mood of the best servant of Lord Hari. Srila Prabhupada also was in the same mood. He was happy to serve Krishna under any condition. Once one disciple was discussing with Srila Prabhupada arrangements for Srila Prabhupada to do programs in different places and he was asking Srila Prabhupada, “Would you like to go here? Would you like to go there? What should we arrange for you?” And Srila Prabhupada said, “I am just like a cow. Wherever you put me I will give milk. So it doesn’t matter where you take me because I will give the same thing wherever you take me.” 

Once His Holiness Bhakti Svarupa Damodara Gosvami Maharaja said to Srila Prabhupada that, “I have just one department, the Bhaktivedanta Institute, and there are so many problems, there is so much difficulty just to manage one department, and you have the whole movement, the whole worldwide movement. How do you deal with all the problems and difficulties?” And Srila Prabhupada replied, “Problems? I don’t see any problems. I just see service to my guru maharaja.” So it is the same idea that his duty is to serve and whatever he faces is just a different situation for service, a different opportunity for service. So he was always happy.

Still, he could feel anxiety. I thought of this when His Holiness Radhanath Swami was speaking about anxiety, how when one is surrendered to Krishna, there is no anxiety. But Mother Yasoda always felt ecstatic anxiety as a mother for little Krishna. So Srila Prabhupada felt that kind of anxiety for his movement. Once in Juhu. . . I am afraid I am going a little far from Govardhana Hill but I will just try to complete this one thought that Srila Prabhupada detected that there was a conspiracy between the site supervisor and the store keeper and the accountant and they were stealing construction material. Actually Srila Prabhupada was in Nairobi and he got the report and Brahmananda Prabhu was with Prabhupada and he said, “Srila Prabhupada, you are not eating. Is there something wrong?” And Srila Prabhupada replied, ‘How can I eat when my property is being stolen.” His property means Krishna’s property. He was in Nairobi and he knew what was happening. We were in Juhu and we had no idea. So then Srila Prabhupada came to Juhu and he wanted to deal with this conspiracy. He raised so many questions, “Why is the devotee who is in charge of the construction keeping these people” And so many questions Prabhupada had. And then he called in Surabhi. Actually his name was Saurabh but when he took sannyasa Prabhupada gave him the name Surabhi Palayantam Swami but for short devotees would call him Surabhi Swami. So Prabhupada called him in and in his own wry way Srila Prabhupada said, “I came to Krishna consciousness for a life of bliss and instead I have gotten a life of anxiety.” So he was appealing to Saurabh to relieve him of his anxiety and deal with the construction issues, but at the same time he was instructing us that yes, we joined and chant and be happy—we all want to be happy—but there is another type of happiness, a transcendental anxiety, and that’s also happiness, but it is also anxiety. 

There was one other devotee, Siddha-svarupananda, he wanted to be very mellow, his mood was to be very mellow, so once he told Srila Prabhupada, “There is one thing I really just do not like about your devotees. They are always in anxiety.” And Srila Prabhupada replied, “That is their love. The gopīs were always in anxiety for Krishna.” 

So back to Govardhana. Pramāda. Govardhana Hill was always jubilant being touched by the lotus feet of Krishna and Balarama. In other words, he was happy that Krishna and Balarama were walking all over him. Now we don’t like it. Sometimes if someone takes advantage of us, someone will say, “Oh, he is walking all over you. You can’t let him walk all over you like that.” But Krishna and Balarama and the cows and calves were walking all over Govardhana Hill and he felt jubilant. So this is an instruction for us if some devotee is walking all over us we should feel jubilant because it is a way that we can serve that devotee and by serving that devotee we are pleasing devotee. This is also an instruction in this verse. Mānaṁ tanoti saha-go-gaṇayos tayor yat, that he offered respect to Krishna and Balarama. Go-gaṇayoḥ: along with the go, ga, the cows, calves, cowherd boys, and gopīs. And how did he offer respect? By providing all the things that we read: soft grasses, fresh water, roots, fruits, vegetables, caves, sitting places, so many things to serve Them. That’s how we show our respect. Mānaṁ. Amāninā mānadena. We don’t want any respect for ourselves but we are ready to offer all respect to others. And Govardhana offered respect by offering service, by offering his body, his everything in service. 

Srila Prabhupada, commenting on this verse in the Kṛṣṇa book, says that Govardhana knew the secret of pleasing the Supreme Lord by his serving His beloved devotees. So Govardhana Hill, yes, he was serving Krishna and Balarama, but not just Krishna and Balarama, the cowherd boys, the cows, the calves—everyone. He was serving all and that pleased Krishna very much. We all know that Krishna is more pleased when we serve His devotees than when we try to serve Him alone directly. Govardhana Hill showed that and he was jubilant. Sometimes we want to serve the big men, we want to serve the guru, but sometimes we can please the guru more by serving the guru’s servants. Prabhupada also gave that instruction. So we should feel happy. We shouldn’t feel deprived, “Oh, I wanted to serve Guru Maharaja. Now I am serving this one.” We should feel happy. Serving the servant of the servant, that’s a better position than serving the servant directly.

So how did Govardhana Hill express his jubilation? That is also described. There are different symptoms of ecstasy. One symptom of ecstasy is perspiration. So the moisture in Govardhana’s rocks was his ecstatic perspiration. Another symptom of ecstasy is his hair standing on end. So Govardhana’s tall grasses were his hair standing on end in ecstasy. Of course another symptom of ecstasy is tears flowing from the eyes and in Govardhana waterfalls were his ecstatic tears. 

So, as we have been hearing from the different discourses and explanation, everything in Vrindavan is conscious and personal and everyone, everything in Vrindavan is filled with love for Krishna and acting out of love for Krishna. Of all of the servants of Krishna, Govardhana Hill is the best. But what is the particular significance of Govardhana Hill to the gopīs? Why are they are praising Govardhana Hill? What is the purport? 

This is a very important point. We have heard about Gargamuni, the brahman who did the name giving ceremony and horoscope of Krishna. So Gargamuni has a daughter named Gargi and Gargi would visit Vrindavan and she would instruct the gopīs in spiritual matters. The gopīs learned that one’s desires can be fulfilled only by the mercy of great souls. So the gopīs were thinking, “We must take shelter of some great soul so that our desires to serve Krishna, to meet Krishna and serve Krishna, will be fulfilled.” So they were thinking, “Where can we find some great soul?” And that principle is enunciated throughout Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam: syān mahat-sevayā viprāḥ, the First Canto onwards, Second Canto, Third, Fourth Canto—every Canto the same thing—mahat-sevāṁ dvāram āhur vimukteḥ. So the gopīs were thinking, “We must get the mercy of some great soul,” and then they spoke this verse that, “Of all of the servants of Lord Hari, Govardhana Hill is the greatest. So if we go to Govardhana and get Govardhana’s mercy then our desires to meet and serve Krishna can be fulfilled.” 

And as we know, the young gopīs were all under the protection of their families, their parents, or in some cases their husbands, and it was not possible for them to leave the house and meet Krishna, but the gopīs were so intelligent and tactful they thought that, “If we tell our parents, our guardians that we want to go to Govardhana Hill to worship Haridasa, the deity. . .” At the beginning of Govardhana parikramā one takes darshan and offers respect to the deity of Hari deva. He is Narayana. “So if we tell our elders, our superiors, our guardians that we want to go to Govardhana Hill and take bath at Manasi-ganga and do worship of Hari deva, they will let us go.” But the gopīs were actually thinking that the mercy that they can get from Hari-dasa is greater than the mercy that they can get from Hari deva. And that is true. We should always seek the mercy of a devotee and then the mercy of Krishna will follow the mercy of the devotee.

So we have heard how Govardhana Hill is Krishna. There is no doubt that Govardhana Hill is Krishna. But the gopīs were worshiping Govardhana Hill not in the mood that he is Krishna but in the mood that he is hari-dāsa-varyaḥ, the best servant of Krishna, thinking that, “The mercy that we can get from the servant of Krishna is greater than the mercy we can get from Krishna directly.” Govardhana Hill is like Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu is Krishna in the mood of a devotee and in the mood of a devotee He is more merciful than Krishna. So Govardhana Hill is also Krishna in the mood of a devotee and in that mood we can get more mercy from Krishna. 

So we will be going to Govardhana Hill soon and we can worship him in either mood—we can see him in either mood as Krishna or as a servant of Krishna. But the gopīs, they were seeing him as a servant of Krishna. And Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, we heard a little about His ecstasy when He came to Govardhana Hill in Vrindavan and saw the first govardhana-śilā and embraced it in the mood of Radharani being reunited with Her lover. 

There was another incident when Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu was in Jagannatha Puri and He saw a caṭaka-parvata which is like a hill. Prabhupada called it a sand dune. It is a hill. And He thought that that caṭaka-parvata was Govardhana Hill. It reminded Him of Govardhana Hill and He rushed towards it as if He were rushing towards Govardhana Hill. Then He went into a state of internal consciousness. Srila Krishnadasa Kaviraja Gosvami explains that Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu had three states of consciousness: antaḥ-daśā (internal), bāhya-daśā (external), and ardha-bāhya (half external). So He went into a state of internal consciousness and He saw Radha and Krishna entering a cave at Govardhana Hill and They were accompanied by Their gopī friends. One of the gopīs told Chaitanya Mahaprabhu to collect some flowers for the service of Radha and Krishna. But this is what was happening internally. Externally Chaitanya Mahaprabhu’s devotees saw that Chaitanya Mahaprabhu was going mad again and He was rushing towards caṭaka-parvata. And when Chaitanya Mahaprabhu would enter His mood of divine mad ecstasy, He could do anything, He could through Himself in the ocean, He could jump off of a hill. He could do anything. He could hurt Himself. When He was in internal consciousness His body would go through very extreme states of ecstatic symptoms that were very hard for the devotees of Mahaprabhu to tolerate because it looked as if His body was being torn into pieces by His ecstatic separation.

So the devotees were running to catch up to Chaitanya Mahaprabhu and meanwhile He was rushing forward to Govardhana Hill and then He collapsed in an ecstatic state. Seeing these extreme ecstatic symptoms, the devotees tried to bring Him to external consciousness. So they would do kirtan, they would chant, “Haribol! Haribol!” Do kirtan and sprinkle water on Him. It is very paradoxical because the devotees wanted to save Chaitanya Mahaprabhu from these extreme symptoms of ecstasy which appeared to be so painful but internally Chaitanya Mahaprabhu’s relishing the highest ecstasy in service to Krishna. 

So, Chaitanya Mahaprabhu after being in internal consciousness, He came to partial external consciousness, and then He said, “I saw Radha and Krishna and Their friends. They were all at Govardhana Hill and they entered a cave and one of the gopīs asked Me to pick flowers and I was so happy I was getting to do service. It was with Radha and Krishna and Their associates. And then you all came and created tumultuous sound and now where is Radha and Krishna? Where is Govardhana Hill? Now everything is gone.” And He would weep in separation.

So these are some of these confidential, mysterious dealings of ecstatic love between the Lord and His devotees. But this is how important Govardhana Hill is. Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, although generally He is often in the mood of Radharani, in this pastime He was in the mood of a maidservant of Radharani. He was not in the mood of Radharani. He was in the mood of a maidservant of Radharani, collecting flowers to offer to the confidential gopīs to offer to Radha and Krishna. So Chaitanya Mahaprabhu also manifested that mood and it’s to me significant that He manifested that mood in relation to Govardhana Hill. 

So certainly Govardhana Hill is most merciful and if we approach Govardhana Hill in the mood of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, in the mood of the gopīs, in the mood of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, in the mood of our acharyas, we pray to Govardhana Hill, pray for residence at Govardhana Hill. . . There is one beautiful Govardhana-aṣṭaka by Srila Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura and at the end of each stanza he prays to Govardhana Hill to fulfill his desires. That is Govardhana Hill’s special feature, special blessings for devotees. He fulfills their desires—sarva abhīṣṭam pradātā—-he fulfills all the desires of devotees. So whatever desires we have to serve Guru and Gauranga, to serve Radha and Krishna and Their associates, we can just approach Govardhana Hill with those desires and he will fulfill our desires. Of course we should be careful of our desires. 

There is a story, I don’t remember the details, but someone was in a situation where whatever he thought he would get. So he thought, “Wow! I wonder what will happen if I thought of a tiger?” A tiger immediately came and devoured him. So we don’t want any material desires that will be like some ferocious tiger that will devour our determination to serve Krishna and His devotees, but our heart’s deepest desires, our heart’s purest desires to serve Radha and Krishna and Their devotees—dāsa-dāsānudāsaḥ—-those desires can be very mercifully fulfilled by hari-dāsa-varyaḥ.

Sri Giri-Govardhana ki jaya!
Sri Giridhari ki jaya!
Gaura-bhakta-vrnda ki jaya!
Nitai-gaura-premanande Hari-Haribol!