Govardhan Hill

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The Lord's Pastime of Lifting Govardhan Hill

Preparations for worship of Indra

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One day, seven year old Krishna, became intrigued by the hectic

activity going on in the His village of Vrindavana. His father, Nanda

Maharaja, was busily directing all the preparations with help of the

village elders. Curious, Krishna began to inquire the reason behind all

this from His father. But Nanda Maharaja being extremely busy, and

thinking Krishna to be too young to understand, ignored His

queries.

 

However, he could not contend with the persistence of Krishna and

finally gave in. He explained that they were arranging for a big yajna

(sacrifice) in the honor of Lord Indra, the king of the demigods. Since

they belonged to the farming community (Vaisya), they were very

dependant on timely rainfall for their crops and food grains. Lord

Indra being the controlling deity of rainfall was therefore being

propitiated by the yajna to ensure timely and sufficient rainfall.

 

Krishna dissuades His father

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Krishna however began to dissuade His father from this sacrifice.

Overtly, He took the position of a karma-mimamsa, a class of atheist

philosophers that propose that since God is bound to reward or punish

one in accordance with one's karma, a person should simply

focus on performing his activity and enjoy the results. This argument

was countered by Nanda Maharaja that while activity is essential,

the mercy is also needed. Krishna however nullified these arguments

saying that Indra sends rains even to the oceans, since he himself is

duty bound to do so. Since demigods will be satisfied by the proper

execution of duties, there is no need to worship them separately.

 

Krishna instead proposed that they should worship the local Brahmans

and Govardhana hill. Since the Brahmans were the spiritual

leaders of the community and Govardhana hill was providing them with so

many amenities like grass, water and shelter for the cows,

which are the primary assets of the village community. Even though

Krishna was debating from an atheistic view point, He had a higher

purpose in mind. His descent to the world was to discourage the worship

of demigods for material gains, and to establish the true

position of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. He was aware that Lord

Indra was very much proud of his position as the king of the

demigods. Since Lord Indra is actually a great devotee, Krishna was

also showing him His mercy by removing the illusion of false pride

from him.

 

Nanda Maharaja agrees with Krishna

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Even though Nanda Maharaja was very affectionate to Krishna, he was

reluctant to give up the traditional ceremony they had been

performing for years. So he offered a compromise, that the Govardhana

puja would be done after the Indra yajna was completed.

However this did not satisfy Krishna. He does not like wishy-washy

compromises but clear and uninterrupted commitment. Finally out

of affection for Krishna, the villagers lead by Nanda Maharaja relented

and began to worship the Govardhana in accordance to the

instructions of Krishna.

 

Thus was established the tradition of the worship of Govardhana, which

is followed to this day in a festival called Annakuta. They

began the worship by first circumambulating Govardhana hill, a

tradition that is followed even now. After Nanda Maharaja and the

Brahmins concluded the ceremony, they were awed to see Govardhana

personified, personally accepting the foodstuffs offered in the

ceremony. They were joyfully surprised to see that Govardhana

personified look exactly like Krishna, and from this we can understand

that Govardhana is actually non-different from the Supreme Personality

of Godhead. To this day, qualified devotees take small rocks

(shilas) from the Govardhana hill to worship as the deity form of the

Lord.

 

Lord Indra angered

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Lord Indra was however most displeased with this. Even though he was

aware of the position of Krishna, anger and pride caused him to

become illusioned, a symptom that is common in present day

materialists. Furious, he summoned the Samvartaka clouds, specially

powerful clouds used at the time of cosmic destruction, and ordered

them to pour rain over Vrindavana. So powerful were these rain

clouds that soon entire Vrinadavana was deluged under rain fall as

thick as columns and as sharp as arrows, causing much pain to the

people in Vrindavana. The inhabitants of Vrindavan were all pure

devotees of Sri Krishna, and in distress turned to Him for shelter.

 

Govardhana hill lifted by Krishna

*********************************

The omniscient Lord, very much aware of the machinations of Lord Indra,

simply picked up the Govardhana hill and asked all the

inhabitants of Vrindavana to take shelter under the hill with their

families and animals. In this way, Krishna held the mountain up for

seven days on the little finger of His left hand. By His mystic

potency, no one felt any hunger, thirst or discomfort for the entire

time

they spent under the hill. Finally when Indra realized that he was

actually up against the Supreme Personality of Godhead, he

immediately ordered the clouds to stop. The inhabitants of Vrindavana

happily went back, singing the glories of Krishna, and Krishna

replaced the Govardhana hill to its original position.

 

Lord Indra forgiven

*******************

Now Lord Indra was terrified at his offenses. Knowing that Krishna is

specially merciful to the cows, he enlisted the help of Surabhi, the

personification of the cows in the spiritual world. He stealthily

approached Krishna in a secluded place and fell prostrate at His feet.

In

beautiful prayers, Lord Indra begged for forgiveness and the mercy of

Krishna. Since Krishna is always favorably disposed to His

sincere devotees, He forgave Indra and cautioned him against false

pride. He also pleasingly received the worship from Surabhi and

many other denizens of the heavenly planets.

 

The descent of Govardhana

*************************

In the Padma Purana it is mentioned that when the Lord descends to

performs His pastimes, He does so accompanied by His associates

and intimate paraphernalia. Part of the paraphernalia is the actual

land where the pastimes are performed. Thus the entire tract of land

known as Braja Mandala is said to have descended from the spiritual

world into the material. When Krishna wound up His pastimes, He

left behind this holy dhama for His devotees to enjoy and draw

inspiration from.

 

Along with the Braja Mandala also descended Govardhana hill on which

Krishna performed so many of His childhood pastimes. Since

the Lord personally picked it with His hands, it is considered

non-different from Him. So enjoyable is this pastime of Krishna to His

devotees, that He is also called Giridhari, meaning one who holds the

mountain. When Krishna descended later as Caitanya

Mahaprabhu, in the mood of His own devotee, He refused to set foot on

Govardhana, recognizing it to be non-different from the Lord.

 

Vanishing Govardhana

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In the Garga Samhita, it is said that Govardhana Hill was once cursed

by Pulastya Muni, a powerful mystic and one of the sons of Lord

Brahma. The curse was that every day Govardhana would reduce by the

size of one seed of mustard. In accordance with the curse,

Govardhana, which was initially two yojnas (sixteen miles) tall, has

since been reducing in size. The scriptures say that as long as

Govardhana hill and river Yamuna are present, there will be religiosity

and God consciousness. On the day they disappear, which is

predicted to happen some ten thousand years from now, Kali yuga will

start in earnest and any semblance of religion will completely

disappear.

 

So while we can, let us relish the pastime of Govardhana, and if and

when we get the opportunity, take darshana and perform the most

auspicious parikrama (circumambulate) Govardhana.