Krsna Book Audio Dictation - Chapter 24
A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada
Next heading, Chapter Twenty-four. Subject matter: "Worshiping the Govardhana Hill."
Lord Kṛṣṇa and Balarāma, while implicated the brāhmaṇas who were too much engaged in the process of Vedic sacrifices, He also saw that the cowherds men were preparing for performing similar sacrifice in order to pacify Indra, the king of heaven, who is responsible for supplying water. As stated in the Caitanya-caritāmṛta that a devotee of Kṛṣṇa has strong and firm faith in the understanding that simply being engaged in Kṛṣṇa consciousness and in His transcendental loving service, one is freed from all other obligations, namely, a pure devotee of Lord Kṛṣṇa hasn't got to perform any ritualistic functions as enjoined in the Vedas, nor he is required to worship any other demigod. Being a devotee of Lord Kṛṣṇa, one is supposed to be known as having had performed all kinds of Vedic rituals and all kinds of worship to the demigods. It is not that by performing the Vedic ritualistic ceremonies or worshiping the demigods one develop devotional service of Kṛṣṇa. But it is a fact that one who is engaged fully in the service of the Lord, it is to be supposed that he has already finished such Vedic injunctions. And in order to stop all such activities by His devotees, He wanted to establish it firmly during His presence in Vṛndāvana.
While the cowherds men were preparing for the Indra sacrifice, Kṛṣṇa knew everything because He is omniscient Personality of Godhead. Still, as a matter of etiquette, He began to inquire with great honor and submissiveness from elderly personalities like Mahārāja Nanda and others.
Kṛṣṇa inquired from His father, "My dear father, what is this arrangement is going on for performing great sacrifices? What is the result of such sacrifice, and for whom it is meant for, and how it is performed? Will you kindly let Me know? I am very much anxious to know this procedure. So will you therefore explain to Me the purpose of this sacrifice you are now preparing?" Upon this inquiry, Kṛṣṇa's father, Nanda Mahārāja, remained silent, thinking that his young boy would not be able to understand the intricacies of performing yajṣas.
But Kṛṣṇa still continued to persist upon him: "My dear father, those who are liberal and saintly, for them there is no secrecy. They do not think anyone as friend or enemy, they are neutral, but they are always open to everyone. And still, those who are not so much liberal, for them nothing should be secrecy for the family members and friends, although secrecy is maintained for the persons who are inimical. Therefore you cannot keep anything secret for Me. All persons are engaged in fruitive activities. Some of them know what is such fruitive activity and what is the result of it, and some of them execute such activities without knowing what is the purpose and what is the result of such activities. But a person who does such activities with full knowledge, they get the full result of it, and one who performs without knowing the purpose does not get such perfect result. Therefore, you will please let Me know that the arrangement of sacrifice which you are going to perform, is it according to the Vedic injunction or it is simply a popular ceremony? Kindly therefore let Me know in details about the sacrifice."
On hearing this inquiry from Kṛṣṇa, Nanda Mahārāja replied, "My dear boy, this ceremonial performance is more or less traditional. Because rainfall is due to the mercy of King Indra, and the clouds are his representative, and water is so important for the living condition of us that we must show some gratitude to the controller of this rainfall, Mahārāja Indra. We are arranging, therefore, to pacify King Indra because he very kindly sends us the cloud, and the clouds pour down sufficient quantity of rain for successful agricultural activities. Water is very important. Without rainfall we cannot improve our agricultural activities, and without sufficient production of grains, we cannot live. Therefore rainfall is the cause of successfully carrying out religious ceremony, economic development and ultimately liberation. Therefore, we should not give up these traditional ceremonial function. Rather, one who gives it up either being influenced by lust or greediness or being afraid of, it does not look very well for him."
Next paragraph.
Upon this, Kṛṣṇa the Supreme Personality of Godhead replied His father as follows in the presence of all the elderly cowherds men of Vṛndāvana. He spoke in such a way as the heavenly King Indra may be very much angry. The purpose of stopping Indra's sacrifice, or the sacrifice performed to please Indra, by Lord Kṛṣṇa was twofold. First purpose is that Lord Kṛṣṇa, as it is stated in the Bhagavad-gītā, that there is no need of worshiping the demigods for any material advancement because all such results derived from such activities of worshiping the demigods are simply temporary, and those who are less intelligent, they are interested with temporary result. Another point is that whatever temporary results we derive by worshiping the demigods, that is also under the permission of the Supreme Personality of Godhead.
In the Bhagavad-gītā it is clearly stated that mayaiva vihitān hi tān (BG 7.22).
This means that whatever benefit is supposed to be derived from the demigods, they are also ordered by the Supreme Personality of Godhead. In other words, without the permission of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, nobody can bestow any benefit upon others. But sometimes the demigods become puffed up by the influence of material nature, thinking themself as all in all and trying to forget the supremacy of the Personality of Godhead.
In the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, in connection with stopping the sacrifice for pleasing Indra, is clearly stated that Kṛṣṇa wanted to King Indra very angry. Kṛṣṇa's advent was especially meant for the annihilation of the demons and protection of the devotee. King Indra is certainly not a demon—he is also a devotee—but because he was puffed up, Kṛṣṇa wanted to give him some lesson. In that way, first of all He tried to cause his anger by stopping the sacrifice which were arranged for satisfying him by the elderly members of cowherds men in Vṛndāvana.
With this purpose within Himself, Kṛṣṇa began to talk in such a manner, in such a way as if He was atheistic, supporting the philosophy of karma-mīmāṁsā. The advocates of this type of philosophy do not accept the supreme authority of the Personality of Godhead, but they put forward the argument that if anyone works nicely, the result out of that is sure to come. In other words, these philosophers’ opinion is that even there is some God who gives us the result of our fruitive activities, there is no need of worshiping such God because without working He cannot bestow upon us any good result. Therefore instead of worshiping any demigod or God, people should give attention to their own duties, and good result will surely come.
Lord Kṛṣṇa began to speak to His father on these principles of philosophy as follows: "My dear father, I don't think you require to worship any demigod for successful performance of your agricultural activities. Every living being is born according to his past karma, and he goes away simply taking the result of his present karma. Every living entity is born in different types or species of life according to his past activities, and similarly, he gets next birth according to the activities of this life. Therefore different grades of material happiness and distress, comforts of life, disadvantages of life, are all different results of different kinds of activity, either in the past life or in this life, because all living entities enjoy or suffer as the result of his karma."
Mahārāja Nanda and other elderly members put forward the arguments to Kṛṣṇa that without satisfying the predominating god, simple by material activities nobody can derive any good result. And this is actually the fact. For example, it is sometimes found that a diseased person, in spite of first-class medical help and treatment by first-class physician, succumbs to death. Therefore it is concluded that first-class medical treatment or attempts of a first-class physician is not only the cause of curing a patient, but there must be hand of the Supreme Personality of Godhead to cure the patient. There are many other such examples, just like a father and mother taking care of children is not the cause of the comfort of the children. Sometimes it is found that in spite of taking all cares by the parents, the children go bad or become succumbed to death. Therefore, actually material causes are not sufficient to get any result. There must be the sanction of the Supreme Personality of Godhead.
Nanda Mahārāja therefore advocated that in order to get good result of all agricultural activities, we must satisfy Indra, the superintending deity of rain supply. Lord Kṛṣṇa nullified this argument and said that the demigods give results only to the persons who have executed the prescribed duties, but the demigod cannot give any good results to the person who had not executed the prescribed duties. Therefore demigods are dependent on the execution of duties; he is not absolute in awarding good result to anyone. The demigods being dependent on the execution of good duties, we should take care…
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"I think, therefore, My dear father, there is no necessity of worshiping the demigod Indra. Also, we can see that one becomes busy according to the natural tendency of his work, and according to that natural tendency of work, all living entities—either human beings or demigods—achieve respective results. On account of executing such different types of work, all living entities have achieved higher or lower grades of bodies, and they create enemy, friends or neutral parties on account of their different types of work only. As such, one should be careful in discharging duties according to his natural instinct without diverting attention to the worship of various types of demigods. The demigods will be satisfied by proper execution of all duties, so there is no need of worshiping the demigods. Better let us perform our prescribed duties very nicely.
“Actually, one cannot be very much happy without executing his proper prescribed duties. One who does not therefore properly discharge his prescribed duties is compared with the woman who is not very chaste, who is not very faithful to her husband. The proper prescribed duties of the brāhmaṇas are to engage themselves in the studies of the Vedas. The proper duties of the royal order, the kṣatriyas, are engagement in the matter of protecting the citizens. Similarly, the proper duties of the vaiśya community is to take to agriculture, trade and protection of the cows; and the proper duties of the śūdras are to serve the higher classes, namely the brāhmaṇas, kṣatriyas and the vaiśyas. So far we are concerned, we belong to the vaiśya community, and our discharge of proper duty is to work on agriculture or to trade with the agricultural produce or to give protection to the cows, or we can take to the fourth business also—banking."
In this connection, Kṛṣṇa identified Himself to the vaiśya community because Nanda Mahārāja, who had so many cows to protect, and Kṛṣṇa was taking care of them, and He enumerated four kinds of business engagement by the vaiśya community, namely agriculture, trade, protection of the cows or banking. Although the vaiśyas can take to any of the occupation as above mentioned, the cowherds men in Vṛndāvana were engaged particularly in the protection of cows.
Kṛṣṇa further explained to His father that "This cosmic manifestation is going on under the influence of three modes of material nature, namely goodness, passion and ignorance. These three modes of material nature are the causes of creation, maintenance and destruction. The cloud is caused by the action of the modes of passion; therefore it is the modes of passion which causes rainfall. And after the rainfall, the living entities derive the result of it, or success in agricultural work. What Indra has got to do in this affair? So even if you do not please Indra, what he can do? We do not derive any special benefit from Indra because even if he is there, he pours water on the ocean also, where there is no need of water. As he is pouring water on the ocean and sea where there is no need of water, similarly he is pouring water on the land also. It does not depend on our worshiping him particularly.
“So far we are concerned, we do not go to any other city or village or any other foreign country. We have no palatial building in the cities; we are satisfied living in this forest of Vṛndāvana. So our specific relationship is with this Govardhana Hill and Vṛndāvana forest and nothing more. I therefore request you, My dear father, that you may begin some sacrifice which will satisfy the local brāhmaṇas and the Govardhana Hill, and we have nothing to do with Indra."
On hearing this statement of Kṛṣṇa, Nanda Mahārāja replied, "My dear boy, as You are asking, I shall also arrange for a separate sacrifice for the local brāhmaṇas and Govardhana Hill. For the present, let me execute this sacrifice known as Indra-yajṣa."
On this Kṛṣṇa replied, "My dear father, don't delay. The sacrifice you propose to do for Govardhana and the local brāhmaṇas will take much time. Better the arrangement you have already done for sacrificing Indra-yajṣa, all these paraphernalia may be engaged immediately for satisfying Govardhana Hill and the local brāhmaṇas."
On this, other elderly cowherds men inquired from Him how Kṛṣṇa wanted to perform this yajṣa, and Kṛṣṇa gave them direction as follows. Kṛṣṇa said that "You prepare very, very nice foodstuff of all description from the grains and ghee collected in connection with Indra-yajṣa. First of all you prepare rice, dāl, and then halavā, pākorī, purī and all kinds of milk preparations like sweet rice, rābṛi, sweetballs, sandeśa, rasagullā, lāḍḍu, and invite all the learned brāhmaṇas, who can chant the Vedic hymns and offer oblations to the fire. All these learned brāhmaṇas may be called and given in charity all kinds of grains. Then decorate all the cows very nicely and feed them well, and after performing this, give in charity money to the brāhmaṇas.
“So far the lower animals are concerned, as the dogs, or the lower grade of people in the society, just like the cāṇḍālas, or the fifth grade population who are considered as untouchable, they also may be given prasādam sumptuously. And after giving nice grasses to the cows, this sacrifice known as Govardhana-pūjā may be began immediately. This sacrifice known as Govardhana-pūjā will very much satisfy Me."
Next paragraph.
By this statement, Lord Kṛṣṇa practically described the whole village economic problems specifically by the vaiśya community. In the human society, all communities, namely the brāhmaṇas, the kṣatriyas, the vaiśyas, the śūdras and the caṇḍālas, as well as the animals like cows, dogs, goats, etc., everyone has his part to play in cooperation for total benefit of the whole society, which includes not only the animate object but also inanimate objects like hills and the land. The vaiśya community are specifically meant for economic improvement of the society by producing grains, by giving protection to the cows, by transporting foodstuff where they are needed and by banking, finances to the traders and the agriculturists. He also stressed as much production of foodstuff, the financial arrangement by banking, increase of trade and commerce are required. Similarly, cow protection is also one of the items of economic advancement of the society.
Another hint we get from the statement that the cats and dogs, which have become at the present moment so much important animals, although they are not to be neglected, cow protection is very, very important than giving protection to the cats and dogs. Another hint we get from the statement that the cāṇḍālas, or the untouchable population in the society, they also are not neglected by the higher class of men. It is hinted herein also that the lower animals like cats and dogs and lower class of men like the caṇḍālas may not be neglected, or they should be given protection as much as they require, but that does not mean they are equal to the important animals like cows or important men like the brāhmaṇas, kṣatriyas, vaiśyas or the śūdras. Everyone is important, but some of them are directly responsible for advancement of human society, and some of them are indirectly responsible for the advancement of the society. But when there is Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement, everyone is taken care of for total benefit.
Next paragraph.
The sacrifice known as Govardhana-pūjā is one of the items of Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement. Lord Caitanya has recommended that as much as Kṛṣṇa is worshipable, similarly His land, Vṛndāvana, and Govardhana Hill are also worshipable. To confirm this statement of Lord Caitanya, Lord Kṛṣṇa said that this Govardhana-pūjā is as good as worshiping Him. As such, from that day the Govardhana-pūjā is going on still, and it is known as annakūṭa ceremony. In this annakūṭa ceremony in all the temples of Vṛndāvana or outside Vṛndāvana, a huge quantity of foodstuff are prepared, and they are distributed to the general population very, very sumptuously. Sometimes such foodstuffs are thrown to the crowd of people, and they enjoy collecting it from the ground. In this instance, we can understand that prasādam which is offered to Kṛṣṇa never becomes polluted or contaminated, even they are thrown on the ground and people collect them and eat them with great satisfaction.
Next paragraph.
In this way, the Supreme Personality of Godhead Kṛṣṇa advised the elderly cowherds men to stop the Indra-yajṣa and begin Govardhana-pūjā in order to chastise King Indra, who was very much puffed up at that time as being the supreme controller of the heavenly planets. The honest, simple and elderly cowherds men headed by Nanda Mahārāja accepted Kṛṣṇa's proposal and executed everything in detail as advised by Lord Kṛṣṇa for Govardhana worship and circumbulation (sic) of the hill. (Following this inauguration of Govardhana Pūjā, people still in Vṛndāvana assemble near the Govardhana Hill on this day and offer worship and circumbulate the hill, dressing themselves very nicely and taking their cows all round.)
Thus according to the instruction of Lord Kṛṣṇa, Nanda Mahārāja and other elderly cowherds men called learned brāhmaṇas and began to worship Govardhana Hill by chanting Vedic hymns and offering prasādam as described above. After this offering of prasādam, all the inhabitants of Vṛndāvana assembled together and they decorated their cows, gave them nice grass and, keeping them forward, they began to circumbulate the Govardhana Hill. So far the gopīs are concerned, they also dressed themselves very luxuriantly and, sat on their bull-driven carts, began to chant the glories of Kṛṣṇa's pastimes. Then all the brāhmaṇas who assembled there to act as priests for Govardhana Pūjā, they offered their blessings to the cowherds men and their wives, the gopīs.
When everything was complete, Kṛṣṇa assumed a great, transcendental form and declared to the inhabitants of Vṛndāvana that He was Himself the Govardhana Hill in order to convince the devotees that Govardhana Hill and Kṛṣṇa Himself are identical. Thus declaring, Kṛṣṇa began to eat all the foodstuff offered there. This identification of Kṛṣṇa and the Govardhana Hill is still honored, and great devotees take rocks from the Govardhana Hill and worship it exactly like the Deity of Kṛṣṇa in the temples. Followers of Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement may therefore collect small rock pebble from Govardhana Hill and worship at home, as good as the Deity worship at home.
The form of Kṛṣṇa who began to eat the offerings was separately constituted, and Kṛṣṇa along with other inhabitants of Vṛndāvana began to offer their obeisances to the Deity as well as the Govardhana Hill. In offering obeisances to the huge form of Kṛṣṇa Himself and Govardhana Hill, Kṛṣṇa declared, "Just see how Govardhana Hill has assumed this huge form and is favoring us by accepting all the offerings given by us."
Kṛṣṇa also declared in that meeting that "Anyone who would neglect this worship of Govardhana-pūjā, as I am personally conducting, such person will not be happy. There are many snakes in the Govardhana Hill, and persons who are neglecting this prescribed duty of Govardhana-pūjā will be bitten by these snakes and they will be killed that one way. Therefore, in order to observe the auspicity of the cows and themselves, all people of Vṛndāvana near Govardhana must worship the hill, as prescribed by Me."
In this way, after performing the Govardhana-pūjā sacrifice, all the inhabitants of Vṛndāvana followed the instruction of Kṛṣṇa, the son of Vasudeva, and thus began to their respective homes.
Thus ends the Bhaktivedanta purport of the Twenty-fourth Chapter in the matter of "Worshiping the Govardhana Hill."