Govardhan Leela (Part I)

The episode of Shri Krishna lifting Mount Govardhan is well known. Krishna decided that the pride of Indra, the king of the gods, needed to be crushed so he stopped the inhabitants of Vrindavan from performing a sacrifice to Indra. Indra became angry and caused a flood in order to punish them. Krishna lifted Mount Govardhan for seven days thereby protecting the citizens who took shelter under it.

I had heard this story when I was young and my understanding of it was age appropriate. Quite clearly the take away of the story was that Krishna is so strong! I remember in primary school some children were having an argument as to who was the strongest. A Hanuman devotee claimed that Hanumanji is the strongest – he carried a mountain from the Himalayas to Sri Lanka! A Krishna devotee countered that Krishna was the strongest – whereas Hanuman carried the mountain with his palm, Krishna carried the mountain with his little finger! Of course no one considered the size of the mountain and the duration for which they carried it. I can only imagine how that debate would have gone on but being children something came up and the whole thing was soon forgotten.

At that time I had not heard the folk tale where Shri Krishna was actually the third person to carry the mountain, the second being Hanumanji (not that it would have much bearing on the above mentioned argument). The story goes that when the bridge between Rameshwaram and Sri Lanka was being built, the monkeys and bears had gone off throughout the land bringing back huge rocks, boulders and mountains for the construction of the bridge. While Hanumanji was bringing Govardhan for the construction, news was reached that the construction was completed and that all were to return what they were carrying from where they had brought it and come back to the sea shore. While Hanumanji was returning the mountain, he noticed that it was weeping. He asked Govardhan why it was crying and he said that he had considered himself to be blessed to be used in the service of the Lord and now that opportunity was gone. Hanumanji felt pity and when he returned to Shri Rama, he reported the incident. Shri Rama said that in His next incarnation, He would carry out many sports on and around the mountain and that he would use it in His service by carrying it for seven days in order to protect His devotees.

I later realised that for that Lord by whose power all universes are created, sustained and destroyed, something as little as carrying a mountain cannot be used as a measure of His strength! My understanding having evolved a little, the katha became more about His mercy and assurance of protection to His devotees.

A while ago when I was watching the Little Krishna animated series with my daughter, a few different insights were glimpsed but not really fleshed out. So when Ishtaprana Mataji from the Sri Sarada Devi Ashram asked me to speak during Krishna Ashthami, I chose Govardhan Leela as my topic as I saw it as a good opportunity to look a bit deeper into this episode. As I attempted to delve deeper, there were so many new dimensions that opened up with different ideas and themes, many of which overlapped, that it became overwhelming.

Eventually I decided to break down the episodes into parts and analyse each one separately before trying to synthesise them into a cohesive whole. I initially limited my thinking to the first question that came to mind, why did Shri Krishna get the inhabitants to stop the sacrifice to Lord Indra? The obvious answer was to remove the pride of Indra. But then I stopped myself remembering that nothing is simple and straightforward with Shri Krishna! He is jagat guru, teacher of the world, and everything He says and does is important and relevant for everyone. He is also the upholder of dharma so His words cannot go against His own teachings. In the Gita chapter 3, Shri Bhagawan tells Arjuna:

सहयज्ञा: प्रजा: सृष्ट्वा पुरोवाच प्रजापति: |
अनेन प्रसविष्यध्वमेष वोऽस्त्विष्टकामधुक् ||10||

देवान्भावयतानेन ते देवा भावयन्तु व: |
परस्परं भावयन्त: श्रेय: परमवाप्स्यथ ||11|| 

इष्टान्भोगान्हि वो देवा दास्यन्ते यज्ञभाविता: |
तैर्दत्तानप्रदायैभ्यो यो भुङ्क्ते स्तेन एव स: ||12||

यज्ञशिष्टाशिन: सन्तो मुच्यन्ते सर्वकिल्बिषै: |
भुञ्जते ते त्वघं पापा ये पचन्त्यात्मकारणात् ||13||

"Having created mankind along with (the spirit of) sacrifice at the beginning of creation, the creator, Brahma, said to them, "You shall prosper by this; may this yield the enjoyments you seek." Foster the gods through this sacrifice, and let the gods be gracious to you. Thus, each fostering the other selflessly, you will attain the highest good. Fostered by sacrifice, the gods will surely bestow on you unasked all the desired enjoyments. He who enjoys the gifts bestowed by them without offering anything to them in return, is undoubtedly a thief. The virtuous who partake of what is left over after sacrifice, are absolved of all sins. Those sinful ones who cook for the sake of nourishing their bodies alone, partake of sin only."

The answer that unfolded was so vast that it was impossible to do justice to it given that the satsangh had a maximum of 15 minutes allocated for the talk.  Eventually, the talk was given (2-3 minutes more than the alloted time!) and that too without covering all that I wanted to🤦. The satsangh is viewable on YouTube (talk is at approximately 24:30).

 

I will attempt (हरि इच्छा) in the next post (or more) to cover what I had planned to say in the talk - and maybe a bit more. Or maybe not...

जै श्री कृष्ण !