Govardhan hill leela

Shyamsundar Prabhuji - 11/15

Yesterday was the most important day of this month - Govardhan puja. Govardhan leela today -

damodar leela was on deepavali and then govardhan puja is the age old tradition started by his lord Krishna itself. It is explained in our shastras that Govardhan was born by the combined ecstacy of Krishna and Radha. Radha was praying to Krsna and she was sharing her desires to Krsna that I want a place where I can share my pasttimes with you and Krsna with his deep love and meditation came out as Govardan hill. When it was time for Krsna to come to this world he doesn't come alone he asked Radharani to come along but radha said I want 2 personalities to come wih me - yamuna and Govardhan hill. Krsna said, I already have giri raj and yamuna in the material world. Many many stories are there but tonight this one we shall discuss.

Giriraj govardhan is a key devotee in the past times of Radha and Krsna. He is known as Haridas hariya - the greaest devotee of Krsna. Because he employed every existence in the service of Krsna. Fresh green high quality grass - cows of Krsna, grass was so soft that when Krsna, the gopis, gopas walked they had a comfy feeling like they are walking on carpet.He had many many trees and earlier he was much bigger, taller than today and many trees which would give shade, fruits, flowers to Krsna and all his associates so they can take rest. He has many kundas (streams of water) - so cows and calves could quench their thirst, Krsna and all the gopas played and drank the water. Had many caves - in summer they would be cold and in winter they would be hot for Krsna and the devotees. Because of this mood of service he is know as the haridas wariyar.

Same way in Hanumanji when he went to vindyachal mountain, it withdrew those herbs so hanunam couldn't taqke it back to Ramji. Same way we are trying to protect everything like - money, house, car etc and not engage that in the service of Krsna. By nature we want to give pleasure to our senses and not employ that in the service of Krns. Just like Vindyachal parvat. Instead we should be like Giri govardhan so we can give everything in the service to the Lord. Everything that belongs to me, nothing belongs to me and I want to offer everything to you lord, everything for your service, don't want to hold back anything. Hence become like Giri govardhan and Krsna wanted to show to the world how great Govardhan parvat was and the gopis and the Lord had unlimited pasttimes there. Example - Srila Prabhupada was such a great devotee that Krsna made all the arrangements to glorify him. That is Krsna's favorite pasttime - do everything to glorify his devotees - like giri govardhan. Hence, in one shot he can do many things.

Just when I want to glorify Giri Govardhan same way I can curb the pride of Lord Indra. One day all the brajavasis were preparing for puja of Indra. Krsna went to Nanda maharaj and he asked what is this. Nanda maharaj said this is an age old tradition of us serving to the demigods so demigods can take care of us. But then Krsna says according to Karma philosphoy if you work then you can get everything. If you follow your karma properly then you will get everything. But actually, it is Govardhan who is taking care of everything. Ex - govardhan is allowing our cows to graze, so many water sheds etc - so it is Govardhan who is doing everything. He was so mesmerized by Krsna's talk that he couldn't say no to his sweet talk. Actually the brajavasis are always in the mood of pleasing Krsna. That is how a pure devotee should be - do everything and anything to please Krsna - in pure devotional service to Krsna. One must be brave enough that anything you do is favorable in the service to Krsna and always give up anything not favorable to Krsna. So nandamaharaj immediately just stopped his age old tradition to just please Krsna. He stopped Indra puja and then just to do Govardhan puja.

So how should we do this puja. Go home and prepare savories, kachoris, dhoklas rice and unlimited bhoga and we shall offer all these unlimited bhogas to Krsna. So after they offered all these they asked what shall we do now? Krsna then personally took the form of Govardhan and ate all of the bhoga and said I want more I want more - so then they made more and said I want more - Then they gave him tulsi - as krsna assumed the form of govardhan hill - he was non different from him and gave back everything to the brajavasis for remanants of prasad and then he said you should do govardhan parikrama so following in the footsteps of this leela so many devotees go to Govardhan and do parikrama and think about the leelas of Radha rani, krsna, gopis, and the govardhan leela. So we all can meditate on the glories of Govardhan hill.

The diety of Sri Nathji was made by gopal and when aurengzeb came he was hideen and then Mahavendrapuri found then and they went to Dvarika and there its being worshiped.

Govardhanji was born as meru parvat in himalyas and then pulatsya muni was passing by and because Govardhanji had this immense attitude of serving Krsna and Radha. So Pulatsya muni asked his father that I want to take your son because he looks so good. But one condition, you can't put me down and if you do you can't carry me. So when he was flying through Vrindavan he became very heavy and then he put him down and then couldn't take him after that. Pulatsya muni was angry and gave him curse that by passing time your size will keep decreasing by the mustard seed and hence he isn;t as big as he was.

Hare Krsna.

Karthik - Damodar leela (Damodara - rope) udara - belly.

Kartik month - take opportunity to light the lamp and also say the damodar prayers. Last week we spoke about Sharad poornima past times, he chose this month to perform a lot of nice leelas.

Damodarastakam prayers

1. The first verse of the prayers -

"1) To the Supreme Lord, whose form is the embodiment of eternal existence, knowledge, and bliss, whose shark-shaped earrings are swinging to and fro, who is beautifully shining in the divine realm of Gokula, who I (due to the offense of breaking the pot of yogurt that His mother was churning into butter and then stealing the butter that was kept hanging from a swing) is quickly running from the wooden grinding mortar in fear of mother Yasoda, but who has been caught from behind by her who ran after Him with greater speed--to that Supreme Lord, Sri Damodara, I offer my humble obeisances."

So, what is happening over here - how did this past time begin? In the SB it is explained that Krishna is glorified in the 14 worlds as makhan chor - butter thief. He loved the past times to into the homes of the neighborhood gopis and steal butter. He is the propritor of the entire world so why did he have to steal the butter - but he was doing it to give pleasure to the devotees - so he can steal their love and hence we was doing the leela. But mother yashoda started thinking that maybe my butter is not as good as all the other gopis as they are always complaining about krisna stealing. So she decided to make the best butter.

So she got the best 1000 cows and the milk and grass they eat, the by product was given to 100 cows and the milk from them was fed to the top 10 cows and then milk from these top 10 cows was used to make yogurt and then from yogurt she make makkan butter for Krsna. To make the best butter for Krsna. This is the best medidation of the devotee. Mood of the devotee - always give the best to Krsna - give something to krisna - no - but the best of best of Krsna.

Example how many people used to donate cars to NV - but a devotee doesn't think like that - let me give the best to Krsna. Let me give the brand new car so that is the best car to Krsna. Similarly Yoshoda mata wanted to give the best. and similarly, devotee feels my body is young, fresh - let me offer my body to the service of Krsna - what ever skills Krsna has given me, use it his fullest service, not waste time. He thinks, let me give it to Krns because I want to give the best to Krsna. That is what Yashoda maya wanted to do for Krsna.

So every morning, Yashoda mata would churn the butter every morning and it was hanging from the ceiling and have a rope to churn the rod - using left hand and right hand to churn the yogurt. Because the rod is churned in both directions (to and fro) the taste is the best (traditional science) - churning this yogurt to butter for Krsna.

As she was doing this, she was gokula rani, nanda patni - the queen of Gokula. She had decorated her hair, nice bangles etc. Acharyas say - everyday while churning she would compose beautiful songs of the Krsna's yesterday;s leelas. This is devotional service. Prabhupada says - this way while doing work everyday, think about krisna, hear about krisha - so 24*7 you are always thinking and hearing and talking about Krsna.

While she was singing the song, the bangles were rubbing against each other and they sounded like kartals. The entire mood of Vraja were surcharged in the mood of Vrindavan. Each devotee there is engaged like that. As she was churning like that the flowers on her head felt, why are we created  burden on her head, we should be on her feet and everything in vraja is alive. Acharyas give commentary like this.

So, during this time, baby Krsna wakes up and as he waked up, he is searching for his mother as he is hungry. and he pulls on her sari saying - I'm hungry, please take care of me, please nurse me, serve me. Now, she is absorbed in feeding and serving krsna by feeding her own milk.

Krsna is an expert in extracting the love from his devotees heart. But we have to follow his plan only then he will do. Then Mother yashoda saw the milk on the stove boiling - acharyas explained that the milk seeing mother feeding her milk, what is the use of us, we should just jump into the fire. Seeing this mother Yashoda puts Krsna down (direct service vs indirect service) to go check on the milk. In our real life too, we will get sometime more than one opportunity where we need to decide - what service is better and then we need to take the help of gurus.

Seeing this Krsna was angry and he said I will now create a prank. So then he jumped on the grinding mortar and then pulled the pot of butter from the rafters and broke the pot. Thne he called the monkeys to feed them. Why? Because monkeys are also devotees - because no matter where you are, if you are a pure devotee of the lord then - he will take care of you. Be a servant of the Krsna and just serve. Just engage in his service - automatically we get the property of Krsna. Krsna is telling the monkeys that when I appeared as Lord Rama you all helped me so much now enjoy this best butter. Krsna is thinking mother Yashoda is going to be angry and this will be fun.

Seeing her come, the monkeys run away and Krsna also runs away. She sees that the pot is broken and butter is falling on the ground. So she tracked Krsna with his butter foot prints and she sees Krsna in another room where he is feeding butter to the monkeys. But now Krsna is going to be caught and he runs and mother yashoda also runs behind him. This is the verse we are discussing today. His form is eternal blissful and full of knowledge. This Krsna has appeared in Gokula. This Krsna is running - his shark shaped earings are going to and fro. Shining earings (lasat kundale) - Yashoda bhiyolula madam - out of fear of mother Yashoda. Why is he running? Who is Krsna - he is the supreme lord but even he is scared (leela) He is truly scared of mother yashoda. How is this possible - his yoga shakti is so powerful - he forgets that he is God and he only remembers that he is the child of mother Yashoda - if not the past times are not going to be real. He is scared of mother Yashoda. This is what happens with a devotee - Krsna gives up he is God and then Krsna wants to please his devotee - he becomes the servant of the devotee.

Even though he was running, mother Yashoda caught him as she was running with greater speed. Same time, another demon was trying to catch him, or so many important yogis are trying to catch Krsna but they cannot even when travelling at the speed of mind no body can catch Krsna -Krnsa is not a cheap thing, but here we see mother Yashoda is catching him effortlessly. as he is the __ of the devotee. This is Braja. This is enough to bring us to Vrindavan dham - we should meditate on this and make the month of Kartik successful. Another past time where Radha binds him with a rope and he is hence called Radha Damodara.

Significance of offering the lamp in month of Karthika - Lamp signifies the offering of love. When we are offering lamp - through that lamp we are offering our love, our heart our life to Krsna. Similarly, offering anything to Krsna is like offering our heart and love to Krsna. Point is with complete devotion and love to offer to Krsna.

Kartik - The holy month

Kartika - This month is Radha rani's month. She is the labhini shakti. She is the internal energy of Krishna and is the presider of bhakti and hence she is also known as bhakti devi.

Hence, it is her purrogative to give bhakti to a soul. she is the supreme mother and is very kind. When a devotee shows interest, she makes the facility and will help them come closer to Krishna. Our only hope is the mercy of Srimati Radharani so we can come closer to Sri Krishna. Our spiritual path can progress only by her mercy and as this is Radha rani's month - this is a very dear month of Krishna.

Hence, one should utilize this month to do lots of austerities. Intensity one's devotional service in this month. Whatever activities we are doing, put lot more focus in that - reading the SB, BG, Chanting and make the best prayer to Radha - the blessing of pure devotional service. Devotional service free from any tinge of material sense enjoyment and when you pray like that she will soon fulfill our desires.

Pasttimes of Krishna -

1. Sharada poornima - After performing the Govardhan puja (6th year of Krishna) - Krishna also rescued Nanda maharaj from the ropes of Varuna and he waited one long year for the night of Sharada poornima - The first night of Sharada poornima. This night is the most beautiful night in the lavana. (this year 29th). He chose this night to perform rasa leela with the gopis. Because Krishna desired like that, material energy started preparing for this night - moonlit night was so beautiful, weather was pleasant, sun was set - just wonderful setting and Krishna wanted to enjoy with the best of his devotees. 5 principle rasas - madhurya, vatsalya, dasya, sakhya and ____. Though the madhurya rasa is the highest, we can't understand with our lusty senses and we aren't capable to understand them. Hence read all the 9 cantos before reading the 10th canto.  Eternally this pastime is being performed.  When the Lord wanted to call the gopis, he played the 5th note on the bansi flute. That 5th note would stop everything and attracted the gopis - they knew he was calling them. They wanted to responsd to the call of Krishna.Actually Krishna is calling us every moment - so we can be with him back to Godhead. Gopis left what they were doing and they just left what they were doing they just ran to Krishna - some were serving food, some were serving food to their family, some wore their clothes upside down. Hence that is the topmost service to Sri Krishna. When it comes to surrender to krishna we should not hold back. With an honest heart - we will be able to reach Krishna. They didn't think about the society or anything - it wasn't a show - they just were so honest in reaching Krishna and to please Krishna. Krishna is calling us and if we go Krishna is going to be very pleased and our liffe will be successful.

ex - Lots of disciples went to Krishna and asked what is the best service - book distribution, pujari, make food etc - He said the biggest service is to unconditional love to Krishna, please Krishna .That platform of complete bliss that consciousness is Krishna consciousness when we are completely absorbed in Krishna 24*7. That consciousness was given to the Gopis. Vraja vadhus - follow the footsteps of the Gopis - nothing in return, they just served Krishna unconditionally. My dear Lord, whether you accept or reject me you will remain my worshipabale master.At least if we are conscious of chanting, reading, cooking, working in KC and it's for Krishna our life will be successful. Hence Krishna was very pleased with the gopis and hence he performed the rasa leela for the pleasure of gopis. On the spiritual platform - there was exchange of love. This was also spoken by hthe 6 goswamis. This is not something mundane. Hence on Sharad poornima he wanted to tell the world that nobody was even close to the devotion as the gopis. The wonderful mood of surrender should be the mood of Kartika.