SB 2.7.32 – Sri Govardhana-puja

Giriraj Swami: The Govardhana-puja was inaugurated by Lord Krishna Himself. In the Bhagavad-gītā Lord Krishna explains that He appears in every millennium, paritrāṇāya sādhūnāṁ vināśāya ca duṣkṛtāmto, to protect the devotees and to annihilate the miscreants. Now the history of the Govardhana-puja is very interesting because the adversary of Krishna was not a demon, he was a devotee. But unfortunately, he became proud and illusioned and in his illusion he chose to attack the whole village of Vrindavan. And its described that at first Lord Krishna thought of killing Indra, the heavenly king, but then He thought, No, it is better that I deal with him in such a way that I break his false pride and reinstate him in his proper position as a devotee.

So just to give a little philosophical background because there are some new people here, Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam explains that the absolute truth is realized in three phases Brahman Paramātmā and Bhagavān. Brahman is the impersonal light that comes from the transcendental body of the Lord; Paramātmā is the Lord in the heart, which is an expansion of the original Personality of Godhead; and Bhagavān is Krishna, the Supreme Personality of Godhead. So realization of God in full is sac-cid-ānanda-vigraha; sat means eternal, cit means full of knowledge, and ānanda means full of bliss. So realization of Brahman which is the goal of the jnanis realization of the sat feature, just eternity. Realization of Paramātmā is realization of sat and cit, there is knowledge there but only in relation to the Supreme Personality of Godhead is there ānanda or bliss. Even in our material life there is happiness in relationship, if there is no relationship there is no happiness. So that applies spiritually and that relationship is with Krishna, that relationship is eternal. Our relationships are not but the relationship with Krishna is eternal, full of knowledge and full of bliss. 

So please repeat after me. The Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam actually begins with this mantra and before we recite Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam we say this mantra, so please repeat.

oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya

So we read from Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam Canto Two, Chapter Seven: “Scheduled Incarnations.”

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.

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.

COMMENT

So just as in our experience there is personal management of everything, to come here we drove on the highway. So there is a highway department and there are people who manage the department. So within the universe there is similar management and Krishna is the Supreme Godhead, isvara parama Krishna, and He can be compared to a king. And the demigods, devatas who are in charge of different aspects of the management of the universe, can be compared to the king’s ministers. So we could say Lord Brahma is the minister of creation, Lord Shiva is the minister of destruction, Sarasvati is the minister of culture, and also just like we have governors for different states or provinces, so there are also demigods in charge of different planets, like Chandra in charge of the moon. So Indra, he is in charge of the heavenly planet known as svarga and he is also in charge of rainfall. And there are others like Vayu is in charge of wind, Varuna in charge of waters, and so on. But they are all ministers under the king, they have no independent power but it is recommended in the Vedas, as Srila Prabhupada mentions in the purport, to worship demigods to help people develop the sense of subordination. Generally, the conditioned souls are proud, like Indra became proud, they are proud and they think they don’t have to bow down to anyone. 

In one talk that Srila Prabhupada gave, a young man said that he doesn’t want to bow down. All of Prabhupada’s disciples would bow down to him but this young man said, “I don’t want to bow down.” And Srila Prabhupada replied, “You have diagnosed your own disease. You don’t want to bow down but you are forced to bow down. When you go to work you have to bow down to your boss, so how can you say that you don’t want to bow down. You may not want to but you are forced to bow down.” He said, “Well that is material but I don’t see why I should have to bow down spiritually.” And Srila Prabhupada elaborated that, “You are forced to bow down to repeated birth, disease, old age, and death.” You may not want to get disease but you are forced; you have to bow down to disease, you have to bow down to old age, you don’t want old age but you are, and ultimately death. So your business, your constitutional position, is to bow down. So you have to find out where to bow down, so that you will be happy because you will have to bow down. And that is Krishna; when you bow down to Krishna then all of your problems are solved. There was a singer named Boy George, who was quite popular, I suppose some of you might have heard of him. So he took some interest in Krishna consciousness, he went to Vrindavan and by his association with Srila Prabhupada’s devotees he understood that when you come in front of the deity you bow down, and he was surprised to find that many people would come in front of the deity, they wouldn’t bow down. So he wrote a song called, “Bow Down Mr.” Again as Prabhupada said, it is our business to bow down, we just have to bow down to the right person. 

So if someone is surrendered to Krishna who is the Supreme authority, he doesn’t have to surrender to any demigod, and in fact it is considered a deviation to worship demigods. So Indra was such a demigod and the residents of Vrindavan were accustomed to offering him a sacrifice every year, Indra yajña, and Lord Krishna although he was only seven years old, He stopped that sacrifice. Stopped means He convinced His father that there is no reason to perform that sacrifice. It is like if you pay your taxes, if you pay your bills you don’t have to go and flatter the officer in the water department or bribe him, you will get water because you are paying your taxes. You are paying your bills; you don’t have to flatter anyone or bribe anyone. So when you are serving Krishna, it is mentioned in the Bhāgavatam it is like pouring water on the root of a plant, you don’t have to water the leaves separately when you water the root the water is distributed to all the branches and leaves, and in fact to water the leaves is not of any use. So Krishna is the root; if you serve Krishna you don’t have to make a separate effort to serve the demigods. 

So Krishna stopped the Indra yajña and Indra, out of false pride, became angry. I would say he became furious and he wanted to take revenge on Krishna and the residents of Vrindavan, and because he was the god of rains, the god of the thunderbolt, so he sent torrential rains. Now when Krishna stopped the Indra yajña, He said instead of worshiping Indra for rain, because rain will come anyway, we should worship Govardhana Hill. Because we are agriculturalists Govardhana Hill provides many things, we should worship Govardhana Hill and the cows and the brahmans, you don’t need to worship Indra. So in that way Krishna conducted the Govardhana-puja and then Indra became outraged; he became furious, and he sent down torrential rain. And in response to that attack Krishna lifted up the Govardhana Hill. Just like a child picks up a frog’s umbrella, which I imagine might be something like a mushroom, so Krishna lifted up Govardhana Hill and He held it over His head with His left hand, with the tip of the pinky of His left hand to show that this mighty king Indra could be defeated by Krishna just by the tip of His pinky. 

So for seven days Indra tried his best and when his efforts had no effect, he came to his senses and he realized he had made a big mistake. He was thinking, people get illusion because as I mentioned the demigods are devotees, they are like the ministers of the king but many of them think of their master as Vishnu, who is actually an expansion of Krishna. Krishna is the origin of Vishnu. They think of their master as Vishnu they can see that Vishnu is god but Krishna was playing like a little cowherd boy so he is saying, “This isn’t my Lord, this is just a cowherd boy.” Even Lord Brahma also he fell into that same illusion when he saw Krishna and the cowherd boys having lunch together and Krishna was eating out of His left hand not even His right hand and the food was dripping through His fingers, and Brahma thought, This can’t be God, why are these people. . . So he also made that mistake and by his mystic power he stole all the cowherd boys and calves but in the end of course Krishna prevailed and Brahma was humbled. 

So Indra after seven days realized that he had made a mistake and that Krishna actually was God. And so he wanted to rectify his mistake, He wanted to offer his submission and surrender to Krishna but he was afraid because Krishna, he had made a major offense and the Lord, He doesn’t take an offense against Himself so seriously, but He takes an offense against His devotees very seriously. It is just like if someone is walking in the scorching heat barefoot, he will feel the heat on his feet more than on his head. So in the same way the Lord feels offenses against His devotees who have taken shelter at His lotus feet as more painful than offenses against Him directly. And Indra had tried to kill all the residents of Vrindavan including the animals, cows who are so dear to Krishna. So Indra wanted to come and surrender to Krishna but he was afraid because he didn’t know how Krishna would respond because Krishna would be angry at him. So Indra got the good sense to come, not alone but with a Surabhi cow, heavenly cow. Of course there are Surabhi cows in the spiritual sky but there is also another type of Surabhi cow in the material world, in the heavenly planet. But all cows are dear to Krishna so he came with Surabhi and he offered many prayers to Krishna and ultimately Krishna forgave him after smashing his false pride. 

So as devotees or aspiring devotees, we also have to be wary of false pride. We always have to remember our position of subordination to and dependence on the Lord, on Krishna, and if we do that we will be safe. It doesn’t matter who, Krishna mare rakhe ke, Krishna rakhe mare ke, if someone is protected by Krishna no one can kill him and if Krishna wants to kill someone no one can protect him. So a surrendered devotee, ānukūlyasya saṅkalpaḥ prātikūlyasya varjanam, there are six divisions of surrender and they begin with this ānukūlyasya saṅkalpaḥ prātikūlyasya varjanam—one should accept whatever is favorable for devotional service and reject whatever is unfavorable. And, goptṛtve varaṇaṁ tathā—one should consider Krishna to be his maintainer. We may think we are maintained by whatever but actually we are maintained by Krishna. One should be humble and one should have no independent desires from Krishna. In other words, one should know that unless Krishna wants to fulfill one’s desires, one’s desire cannot be fulfilled. So there are these six divisions of surrender. So our safest position and our natural position is to be surrendered to Krishna, and in that position we will have nothing to worry about. Krishna says in the Bhagavad-gītā, sarva-dharmān parityajya, give up all varieties of religiousness, sarva-dharmān parityajya, mām ekaṁśaraṇaṁ vraja, and come to my shelter, exclusively to my shelter; sarva-dharmān parityajya, mām ekaṁśaraṇaṁ vraja ahaṁ tvāṁ sarva-pāpebhyo mokṣayiṣyāmi—I will protect you from all sinful reactions, mā śucaḥ—do not fear, do not worry. So there is a little bit more to the purport which I will read.

PURPORT (continued)

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

Now, there is another lesson here which is that due to tradition or custom one might be worshiping demigods, and here Krishna is instructing that even if you have been doing it as this was being done for generations in the cowherd community this Indra yajña, Krishna is saying you don’t need to continue that you can stop. Some people they have that, “Oh my grandmother worship Durgama or whatever this deity of Ganesh has come,” but you don’t need to do that. That type of worship is irregular in the Bhagavad-gītā, avidhi-pūrvakam, avidhi.

PURPORT (continued)

Lord Kṛṣṇa therefore advised the inhabitants of Vrajabhūmi not to offer any sacrifices to the heavenly King Indra. But Indra, not knowing Lord Kṛṣṇa in Vrajabhūmi, was angry at the inhabitants of Vrajabhūmi and tried to avenge the offense. 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. 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 this is a very important point, avajānanti māṁ mūḍhā, that foolish people deride Krishna for appearing in a human-like form. But although he descends in his original form, which is human-like, it is not a material body. With us there is a difference between the soul and the body; the soul the ātmā, jīvātmā is eternal whereas the body is temporary. But in the case of Krishna there is no difference between the body and the soul, there is no difference between His outside and inside, it is all spiritual. And one of the proofs is that His body never ages beyond the appearance of sixteen years of age. Even when he was had been on the planet for 125 years and had children and grandchildren and great-grandchildren, but He still appeared to as we always see Him; as a youth of about sixteen years of age.

So now surrendering to Krishna, although it is beneficial, most beneficial, and although we may understand in theory that we should surrender to Krishna, to the Supreme, we may not know how to go about that. And someone may have the notion, mistaken notion, that if you are a brahmachari or a sannyasi you can surrender to Krishna. But if I am a grihastha, if I am a married person, I can’t surrender to Krishna because I have to take care of my wife, my children, I have so many duties and responsibilities and obligations. Now that is not the case, that one cannot surrender to Krishna even in household life, if one is sincere and serious and knows the art, and of course we can’t discuss every detail but the basic principle is that for you and your family members you can accept whatever is necessary to keep the body and soul together to engage in Krishna’s service but the goal, the whole goal should be Krishna’s service. And actually according to shastra, one should give 50 percent of one’s income to Krishna. This was a principle that Srila Prabhupada enunciated. It is there in the shastra and it was a pretty firm principle.

And Prabhupada had one disciple named Dayananda who was very competent. He had quite an important position in a computer company back then, IBM, and he was pretty much giving 50 percent. So Srila Prabhupada was having a discussion with some disciples and saying how important it is and saying that they are not giving. So someone said, “Dayananda is giving 50 percent.” Then Prabhupada said, ”No, he is not. Actually he was giving 44 percent.” Prabhupada was aware of exactly how much he was earning and how much he was giving. And then one devotee, I don’t remember all the details now, he was having some difficulty and Prabhupada said it is because he is not giving 50 percent. So yes, even in grihastha ashram one can be surrendered but okay this might sound a little bit too much. So then there is another, not another but a complementary process which is the real essence of Bhakti which is chanting and hearing, especially the chanting of the holy names—Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare / Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare.

This we should do and then hear about Krishna, Bhagavad-gītā, Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, that will cleanse our heart, ceto-darpaṇa-mārjanam, and when our hearts are cleansed we will develop a higher taste. Then we won’t want to eat in restaurants, go to movies, or whatever but we will want to use our time for chanting and hearing about Krishna, and serving Krishna and His devotees that is paraṁ dṛṣṭvā nivartate. Krishna says in the Bhagavad-gītā that you develop a higher taste and then naturally give up inferior things. And also Krishna is very pleased as He says in the Bhagavad-gītā if you bring people to Him, if you repeat His message in the Bhagavad-gītā and bring people to Him, that pleases Krishna more than anything. Of course you have to also practice what you preach, the two go together. So if you do that you will please Krishna and you will make spiritual advancement and the material is included in the spiritual so that is also there. So just like this couple Shyamadanda Prabhu and Radha Priya Mataji, what they are doing any one of you could do. You invite people, you chant, you hear, you take prasāda and be happy in Krishna consciousness. So Hare Krishna.

I haven’t kept complete track but if you have, does anyone have any questions or comments?

All right. Well, Srila Prabhupada says if there is no questions it means everyone agrees.