SB 2.7.32 – Sri Govardhana-puja

Giriraj Swami: Hare Krishna. We welcome you to the auspicious celebration of Govardhana-puja during the auspicious month of Kartik. So, we shall read a verse from Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam about Govardhana-puja. Please repeat after me:

oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya

oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya

oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya

This has to be extra loud because of the socializing [inaudible 3:08] [Laughs]

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.

COMMENT

Which I believe is like a mushroom.

PURPORT (continued)

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 pastime as related in Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam is that Lord Krishna, who was playing the part of a seven-year-old boy then, saw His father and the other elders gather in the paraphernalia for the worship of King Indra, So, very intelligently He asked His father “What are you doing? Is this simply customary or is there some result from it?” And Srila Prabhupada comments that we should not engage in ritualistic activities just as a matter of custom, but there should be some result. If there is no result, there is no need in perpetuating that practice. So, Nanda Maharaja explained that they were preparing to worship Indra, the king of heaven, and by heaven we mean svarga loka—the heavenly planet in the material world, not the spiritual kingdom of God. . . please come forward to make more room. So again, Nanda Maharaja explained that they were planning to worship King Indra because he is the demigod in charge of rainfall, and especially as an agricultural community and a cowherd community, they depended on the rainfall for their agricultural production, and for the production of grasses for the cows.

So, Krishna replied that there is no need to worship Indra for rainfall, the rain falls anyway. The rain falls on mountains, which don’t need the rain. The rain falls on the ocean, which doesn’t need the rain. So, we don’t need to worship Indra, rather we should worship the cows, and the brahmans and Govardhana Hill because they give us actual service. So, Nanda Maharaja agreed, and all the paraphernalia for the worship of Indra was used for the worship of Govardhana Hill, and cows and the brahmans. Now Indra, most of the demigods are devotees. You can’t become a demigod without being a devotee, but they are not pure devotees, they are mixed devotees who have material desires. And Indra felt offended that this community was denying him, his puja, on the advice of this small boy. Now, all the demigods are directly servants of Vishnu, so they recognize Vishnu as the Supreme Lord, as their master. But here, although Krishna is the origin of Vishnu, He was playing like a cowherd boy.

So, Indra became bewildered. He thought “Why are these people listening to this talkative child?” and so he became angry. He was proud, as it is said—"pride cometh before a fall.” He was proud, and he became angry and he wanted to avenge the supposed offense that the vrajavāsīs had committed by withholding his worship. And so, to punish them, he summoned this Samvartaka cloud, which is the cloud that inundates the universe at the time of universal devastation, a very powerful and ferocious. So, Krishna thought, first He thought, “I could just kill Indra.” But then He reconsidered “No, I won’t bother with that, I would just counteract his malicious activities by lifting Govardhana Hill” which He did with the little finger of His left hand. In other words, to humble injury He wanted to show that Indra could be defeated by Krishna with the little finger of His left hand.

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.

COMMENT

So, the worship of demigods is recommended in a way in the scripture, just to give people the sense that there are superior controllers, who they should recognize and to whom they should pay tribute. But actually, as Krishna says in the Bhagavad-gītā, that—People who worship the demigods do so improperly, avidhi-purvakam, it’s not, it’s avidhi, it’s not according to vidhi. But actually, they should worship Me.” And, Krishna is the root of all existence, yatha taror mula-nisecanena—Just as by watering the root of a tree, the water is distributed to the trunk, the branches, the twigs, the leaves, the fruits, the flowers. Similarly, by rendering service to Krishna, that service is distributed to all the demigods and indeed our living entities. So, we need not worship them separately.

PURPORT (continued)

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, sometimes it happens in Hindu families that there are deities of demigods that are passed down from previous generations. And sometimes a householder, who is in Krishna consciousness, may have some doubt about what to do with those demigod deities. They might think if they don’t worship the demigod, then the demigod might feel offended. But the lesson here is that you don’t need to worship the demigods, you just worship Krishna. And, He is the root, the demigods will be satisfied. The demigods can be there as devotees of Krishna, not as separate Gods. And it is a tradition in some temples that they offer food to Krishna, and then they offer the mahā-prasāda to Lord Shiva or other demigods, who are actually devotees of the Supreme Lord.

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.

COMMENT

 He is not recognizing His position.

PURPORT (continued)

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.

COMMENT

Or as Srila Prabhupada told me in my first exchange with him, that “Krishna is God, He doesn’t have to become God by yoga or meditation, but He is always God. He is God when He is playing on the lap of Mother Yasoda, He is God when He is speaking the Bhagavad-gītā to Arjuna, He is always God.”

PURPORT (continued)

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.

COMMENT

So, we are under the control of time, and because we are under the control of time, we grow old. We don’t want to, I mean, the real little ones might want to, to a certain point, but after—whatever, I see some of the little ones smiling in recognition and agreement. But once they reach a certain age twenty, twenty-five whatever, that’s enough, they don’t want to become forty, fifty, sixty, seventy, eighty. . . But we can’t help it because we are under the control of time. But time is under the control of Krishna, and therefore, Krishna never ages beyond sixteen years, so there is a big difference between us and Krishna. But if we surrender fully to Krishna and engage in bhakti-yoga and become perfect in Krishna consciousness, then when we leave this body, we will go to Krishna. And when we go to Krishna, we will get our own spiritual body, which will never age, depending on—but anyway, it will never age. Most of us might end up being around eleven or twelve in our spiritual bodies, and then we never, we don’t age, which is very nice.

PURPORT (continued)

These are the particular features of the transcendental body of the Lord.

COMMENT

He is sac-cid-ānanda-vigraha, and within us we also have that, the soul actually has a form. The Bhagavad-gītā gives the example that the body is a dress, and just like you wear one outfit and when it becomes old and useless you discard it and put on a new outfit. So, this dress it has form, it has arms and a trunk because the body within has form. So similarly, the body, which is the dress of the soul, has form because the soul has form. And this particular form of the soul becomes revealed when we realize our eternal identity and our eternal relationship with Krishna, which can be done in the present life, in the present body. That is called svarūpa siddhi—we realize our spiritual form and then when we go to the spiritual world and join Krishna. Then, that is our permanent situation, that is called vastu siddhi.

So, we should not waste our time. I hope the young man won’t mind my citing him, but I met him in the hallways. He is a very nice devotee, his parents are devotees, but he was wearing a shirt that said “Eat, sleep, and video games.” So, we should not waste our lives by eating, sleeping, and playing video games or any other fruitless activity. But we should utilize every moment to become Krishna conscious because this is a very rare human form of life, and even more rare—we’ve come to the association of devotees, Srila Prabhupada, pure devotees in the line of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. So, we should utilize every moment so that—we have to leave this body, actually we will, everyone will, but before that comes, that time comes, we want to become perfect and push your consciousness so we can go back home, back to Godhead, and play with Krishna and His associates. And the main process, as recommended in all the scriptures, is the chanting of the holy names offenslessly, attentively—Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare / Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare.

So, thank you very much. I believe we have a couple of minutes, so if any of you have any questions or comments.

Devotee 1: His Divine Grace A.C Bhaktivedanta Swami Srila Prabhupada landed [00:25:20–00:25:42 inaudible] United States for spreading of Krishna and returned, Was he jīva-tattva or viṣṇu-tattva?

Giriraj Swami: Oh, Srila Prabhupada—Srila Prabhupada was presented himself as jīva-tattva, a living entity, but he was also credited with being a śakty-āveśa-avatāra. śakti meanspower and āveśa means invested with and avatar means one who descends. So, he was a śakty-āveśa-avatāra, he was invested with the potency to do things that no one else could do and no one else ever did. It’s said in Caitanya-caritāmṛta, kṛṣṇa-sakti vina nahe tara pravartana: that one cannot propagate the holy name of the Lord without being invested with Krishna śakti, potency from Krishna.

Devotee 2: [Inaudible 00:26:46]

Giriraj Swami: My name is such that I should, you are right [Laugh], oh, ok I got an extension. So, since you mentioned my name, but the spiritual name that Srila Prabhupada gave me, I can share some thoughts about that name in the history. In my, what you say, my family name is Teton, and there is, there are mountains called the Teton mountains. And we were always very proud of being Teton’s and the fact that the Teton mountains were so beautiful. And even after I joined I felt some pride because Alfred Ford, the great grandson of Henry Ford, very wealthy young man but he chose to live in the Teton mountains. So, that increased my false ego.

So, after I met Srila Prabhupada he initiated me by mail. And in his initiation letter he said a few very significant things, but the one thing he said was that Giriraj is the name of 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.

First, I thought This is perfect. I was so proud of my mountain name, Srila Prabhupada gave me another mountain name, but of a better mountain. And, at the time, I mean, I accepted it on faith but I didn’t relate to the idea of worshipping a stone as Krishna. At that time in ISKCON, Srila Prabhupada introduced the worship of Radha-Krishna Deities, Gaura-Nitai Deities and Jagannatha Deities, but there is no govardhana-śilā or even śālagrāma-śilā in ISKCON. So I had no experience of it, but it sounded nice. It sounded nice. And this particular govardhana-śilā, as you know, is huge compared to other Govardhana, other govardhana-śilā, other govardhana-śilā this big—and there is some history to this śilā. Of course, it was selected by Tamal Krishna Goswami. and, but the eyes and the features were done by a disciple of mine from South Africa, who had been a professional artist named Arca Vigraha devi dasi.

And up until this śilā, all the other śilās, they just had simple mouths and simple eyes. So, she was the first one—I don’t know if others have done it since then, but she painted this govardhana-śilā. And in Vrindavan mother Arca Vigraha built a house and the bottom floor was for her and the top floor she made for me. And that house was next door to the house of Bhakti Bringa Govinda Swami and Sivarama Swami. Bhakti Bringa Govinda Swami carried this govardhana-śilā from Vraja to Houston. Haribol!

So, there is a lot of personal history, but it is said that if you take a śilā from Govardhana Hill, you should leave the equivalent weight in gold. Now, I don’t remember the details, but later on there was some legal complications, some sort of complication, and someone told Tamal Krishna Goswami—well, but I don’t know how much stock I put in it, it’s just something that happened, that “Well, you didn’t leave the equal amount of gold at Govardhana Hill so now you have to pay in another way.” But the idea behind that isn’t—I don’t think I’m in it so much to leave the gold because where would you leave it? And what would happen to it? But the idea is not to take it cheaply.

Some people, they go to Govardhana, they just pick up śilās along the way, put them in their purse, But there is some procedure to getting that śilā, and one is it should be given to you by a vrajavāsī. But anyway, we are blessed with this huge śilā and magnificent. As we discussed, Srimati Radharani proclaimed Govardhana Hill, Govardhana as hari-dāsa-varya: the best servant of Lord Krishna.

So, there are two moods in which one can worship Govardhana: one is as Krishna and during the Govardhana-puja when Krishna and of all the vrajavāsīs were circumambulating Govardhana Hill, Krishna manifested Himself in a gigantic form. He proclaimed “Govardhana Hill and I are one, We are the same,” and along with that huge Krishna, the original Krishna stayed in His cowherd life form. So, even He and all the other vrajavāsīs offer obeisances to the huge Krishna.

So, there is no doubt that Govardhana is Krishna, but at the same time, the gopīs say hari-dāsa-varya, that Govardhana is the best servant of the Lord, Hari or Krishna. And when the gopīs wanted to meet Krishna at the time that they recited that verse about hari-dāsa-varya, they hadn’t met Krishna yet, but they wanted to. And so, they recited this verse, and they couldn’t just really move out of their homes without permission from their elders authorities. So, they really wanted to meet Krishna but they couldn’t say that. So, they said that they wanted to go to Govardhana Hill, to get the mercy of a great soul, because by the mercy of a great soul, one’s desires can be fulfilled. And who are the great souls? They are devotees. And of all of the devotees, Govardhana Hill is the best servant of the Lord Hari.

So, the gopīs’s idea was that they would go to Govardhana Hill to get the mercy of Govardhana, to meet and serve Krishna. And Govardhana is known as sarva-abhista-padata: He fulfils all desires. It is said that when you do circumambulation of Govardhana Hill, Govardhana was taking note of all your desires. But you should be careful also, sometimes you could get in trouble if you desire the wrong thing. But the gopīs, they desired to meet Krishna and serve Krishna, and there is a deity at Manasi Ganga, and that at Manasi Ganga the deities are Haridev.

And generally, devotees begin their parikramā there, they take darshan on Haridev and then they do their parikramā. But, the gopīs thought that the mercy that we can get from Haridasa is greater than the mercy we can get from Haridev. So, they really went to Govardhana to get His mercy and they did. And many of our acharyas lived at Govardhana. They’ve written poems, one by Raghunatha dasa Gosvami. I was thinking as I was doing the abhisheka, and every verse ends with the line nija-nikata-nivasam dehi govardhana tvam: please give me residence near you. And you all are so fortunate, you have residence, near Govardhana.

Hare Krishna.