Worshiping Govardhana Hill

According to Śrīla Śrīdhara Svāmī and other ācāryas, the words tatra eva in this verse indicate that Lord Kṛṣṇa stayed in the village of the brāhmaṇas whose wives had satisfied Him by their devotion. Thus He gave His mercy to those brāhmaṇas as well as to their chaste wives, who had no one to associate with except their husbands. In that place the cowherd men, headed by Lord Kṛṣṇa’s father, Nanda Mahārāja, were somehow or other preparing an elaborate sacrifice to Lord Indra, and Lord Kṛṣṇa reacted as follows.

Lord Kṛṣṇa was eager to enact His pastime of lifting Govardhana Hill and defeating the false pride of Indra, and thus He cleverly inquired from His father about the imminent sacrifice.

Lord Kṛṣṇa’s father might have thought that his son was a mere child and thus could not properly question the validity of a Vedic sacrifice. But the Lord’s clever statement here would certainly have convinced Nanda that Śrī Kṛṣṇa was making a serious, not a whimsical, inquiry and that a serious answer should thus be given.

Even if Nanda Mahārāja did not see friends, enemies and neutral parties as entirely equal, Lord Kṛṣṇa, being Nanda Mahārāja’s son, was certainly a most trustworthy friend and should therefore not be left out of intimate discussions. In other words, Nanda Mahārāja might have thought that as a householder he could not act on the highest saintly platform, and thus Lord Kṛṣṇa furnished additional reasons why His father should trust Him and reveal the entire purpose of the sacrifice.

According to Śrīla Jīva Gosvāmī, Nanda Mahārāja stood silent, doubting his position of parental aloofness, since Garga Muni had predicted that his son would be “equal to Nārāyaṇa in His qualities,” and the young boy had already conquered and killed many powerful demons.

The Lord here informs His father that people should perform a particular ceremony or activity only after thoroughly understanding it through discussion with friends. We should not be blind followers of tradition. If a person doesn’t even know what he’s doing, how can he be successful in his work? This, essentially, is the Lord’s argument in this verse. Since Śrī Kṛṣṇa, as the young child of Nanda, would naturally be expected to show enthusiasm for His father’s religious activities, it was the father’s duty to give the son a thorough explanation of the ceremony.

Without clean rainwater, the earth could not possibly provide food or drink for anyone, nor could there be cleanliness. Thus it would be difficult to overestimate the value of rain.

Nanda Mahārāja patiently tried to explain the “facts of life” to his young son, Śrī Kṛṣṇa, but in fact Nanda and all the residents of Vṛndāvana would learn an astonishing lesson, as explained in this chapter.

One might object that people sustain themselves by farming, industry and so on. But as previously mentioned, all human and nonhuman endeavor depends on food and drink, which cannot be produced without ample rain. By the word tri-varga Nanda further points out that the prosperity achieved through sacrifice for Indra is meant not merely for sense gratification but also for religiosity and economic development. Unless people are well fed, it is difficult for them to execute their duties, and without performance of duty, it is very difficult to be religious.

If a person neglects his religious duties because of lust, envy, fear or greed, his life will never be brilliant or perfect.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Svāmī explains that Lord Kṛṣṇa’s intention was not simply to insult a demigod, but rather to knock down the great mountain of false pride that had arisen within the Lord’s tiny servant, who was supposed to represent the Lord as Indra. By lifting Govardhana Hill Lord Kṛṣṇa would thus initiate a blissful annual festival called Govardhana-pūjā, and He would further enjoy the pleasant pastime of dwelling for several days beneath the hill with all His loving devotees.

Lord Kṛṣṇa minimized the importance of the demigods by speaking the philosophy known as Karma-vāda or Karma-mīmāṁsā, which, basically, is atheism with a belief in reincarnation. According to this philosophy, there are subtle laws of nature that reward or punish us according to how we act: “As you sow, so shall you reap.” In a future life one reaps the fruit of his present work, and this is the sum and substance of reality. Lord Kṛṣṇa, being God Himself, could hardly be a serious proponent of this mediocre philosophy. In the role of a young boy He was simply teasing His pure devotees by preaching it.

Śrīla Jīva Gosvāmī points out that Lord Kṛṣṇa was thinking, “Why are these eternal associates of Mine, appearing as My father and other relatives and friends, so caught up in this worship of Indra?” Thus although the Lord’s main purpose was to take away the false pride of Indra, He also wanted to remind His eternal devotees that they need not divert their attention to other so-called gods, since in fact His devotees were already living with the Supreme Absolute Truth, the almighty Lord Himself.

Here Lord Kṛṣṇa argues that if there is a supreme controller, He must depend on a performer of activity to reciprocate with and must therefore also be subject to the laws of karma, being obliged to award happiness and distress to conditioned souls according to the laws of good and evil.

This superficial argument neglects the obvious point that the laws of nature that prescribe the good and bad results of pious and impious acts are themselves creations of the all-good Supreme Lord. Being the creator and sustainer of these laws, the Lord is not subject to them. Furthermore, the Lord is not dependent on the work of the conditioned souls, since He is satisfied and complete within Himself. Out of His all-merciful nature He awards the results appropriate to our activities. That which we call destiny, fate or karma is an elaborate and subtle system of rewards and punishments meant for gradually encouraging conditioned souls to evolve to the stage of perfect consciousness, which is their original, constitutional nature.

The Supreme Personality of Godhead has so dexterously formulated and applied the laws of material nature governing punishment and reward for human behavior that the living being is discouraged from sin and encouraged toward goodness without suffering any significant interference with his free will as an eternal soul.

In contrast to the material nature, the Lord exhibits His essential nature in the spiritual world, where He reciprocates the eternal love of His pure devotees. Such loving affairs are based completely on the mutual freedom of the Lord and His devotees, not on a mechanical reciprocation of coinciding selfish interests. The Supreme Lord, assisted by His pure devotees, repeatedly offers the conditioned souls of this world the opportunity to give up their bizarre attempt at exploiting the material universe and go back home, back to Godhead, for an eternal life of bliss and knowledge. Considering all these points, the atheistic arguments given here by Lord Kṛṣṇa in a playful mood are not to be taken seriously.

Lord Kṛṣṇa’s argument here is not a negation of free will. If one accepts the existence of karma as a system of laws awarding reactions for our present activities, then we ourselves, according to our nature, will decide our future. Our happiness and distress in this life have already been adjudicated and fixed according to our previous activities, and not even the demigods can change that. They must award us the prosperity or poverty, sickness or health, happiness or distress due us by our previous work. However, we still retain the freedom to select a pious or impious mode of activity in this life, and the choice we make will determine our future suffering and enjoyment.

For example, if I was pious in my last life, in this life the demigods may award me great material wealth. But I am free to spend my riches for good or for bad purposes, and my choice will determine my future life. Thus, although no one can change the karmic results due him in this life, everyone still retains his free will, by which he determines what his future situation will be. Lord Kṛṣṇa’s argument here is quite interesting; however, it neglects the overriding consideration that we are all eternal servants of God and must satisfy Him by all that we do.

Lord Kṛṣṇa here elaborates upon the argument given in the previous verse. Since everything depends on svabhāva, or one’s conditioned nature, why bother worshiping God or the demigods? This argument would be sublime if svabhāva, or conditioned nature, were all-powerful. But unfortunately it is not. There is a supreme controller and we must worship Him, as Lord Kṛṣṇa will emphatically reveal in this chapter of the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. For now, however, He is content to tease His relatives.

Even the demigods are bound and limited by the laws of karma. That Indra himself is subordinate to the laws of karma is explicitly stated in the Brahma-saṁhitā (5.54): yas tv indra-gopam atha vendram aho sva-karma-bandhānurūpa-phala-bhājanam ātanoti. The Supreme Lord, Govinda, awards all creatures the appropriate results of their work. This is as true for mighty Indra, the lord of the material heavens, as it is for the germ called indra-gopa. The Bhagavad-gītā (7.20) also states, kāmais tais tair hṛta-jñānāḥ prapadyante ’nya-devatāḥ. Only those who have lost their intelligence because of various material desires surrender unto demigods rather than worship the Supreme Lord. In fact, the demigods cannot award benefits to anyone independently, as stated by Lord Kṛṣṇa in the Gītā: mayaiva vihitān hi tān. All benefits are ultimately issued by the Lord Himself.

Thus it is not altogether incorrect to say that demigod worship is useless, since even the demigods are under the laws of karma. In fact, this is the case. But Lord Kṛṣṇa, the Supreme Absolute Truth, is not subordinate to the law of karma; rather, He can independently offer or withhold His favor. This is confirmed in the verse from the Brahma-saṁhitā quoted above, the third line of which is karmāṇi nirdahati kintu ca bhakti-bhājām: “The Supreme Lord burns up all the accumulated karma of those engaged in His loving service.” Not only is Lord Kṛṣṇa above the laws of material action and reaction, but He can immediately dissolve these laws for anyone who satisfies Him through loving service. Thus the almighty God is supreme in absolute freedom, and by surrendering to Him we can escape the bonds of karma and stop accepting their dismal rule as supreme.

Lord Kṛṣṇa here proposes the modern if absurd philosophy that our work or occupation is really God and that we should therefore simply worship our work. Upon close scrutiny, we observe that our work is nothing more than the interaction of the material body with material nature, as Lord Kṛṣṇa Himself states in a more serious mood, in the Bhagavad-gītā (3.28): guṇā guṇeṣu vartanta. Karma-mīmāṁsā philosophy accepts that good activity in this life will give us a better next life. If this is true, there must be some type of conscious soul different from the body. And if that is the case, why should a transcendental soul worship the interaction of the temporary body with material nature? If the words sampūjayet karma here mean that one should worship the laws of karma governing our activities, then one may astutely ask what it means to worship laws and, indeed, what might be the origin of such laws and who is maintaining them. To say that laws have created or are maintaining the world is a meaningless proposition, since there is nothing about the nature of a law that indicates it could generate the existential situation it is supposed to govern. In fact, worship is meant for Kṛṣṇa Himself, and this real conclusion will be clearly revealed in this chapter.

The word kṣemam means actual prosperity, not merely the accumulation of money. Here Lord Kṛṣṇa boldly argues that just as a woman can never achieve actual dignity or enlightenment from an illicit lover, the residents of Vṛndāvana will never be happy by neglecting the real source of their prosperity and worshiping Indra instead. According to Śrīla Jīva Gosvāmī, the audacity that child Kṛṣṇa displayed before His father and other elders should be understood as an exhibition of transcendental anger aroused when He saw His eternal devotees worshiping an insignificant demigod.

After glorifying karma, or work, Lord Kṛṣṇa now explains what He means by prescribed duties born of one’s nature. He was not referring to any whimsical activity, but rather to the religious duties prescribed in the varṇāśrama, or Vedic social system.

Anticipating the possible objection that a livelihood based on cows certainly depends on Lord Indra, who supplies rain, Lord Kṛṣṇa here introduces a mechanistic theory of existence known as atheistic Sāṅkhya. The tendency to attribute exclusive causality to the apparently mechanistic functions of nature is an old tendency indeed. Five thousand years ago Lord Kṛṣṇa referred to a doctrine already well known in human society.

Lord Kṛṣṇa continues His mechanistic explanation of existence, concluding mahendraḥ kiṁ kariṣyati: “Who needs the great Indra, since the rain, sent by the clouds, which in turn are impelled by the mode of passion, is actually producing everyone’s food?” The word sarvataḥ indicates that the clouds magnanimously send their rain even on the ocean, rocks and barren land, where there is no apparent necessity for such sweet water.

Lord Kṛṣṇa here points out that the residents of Vṛndāvana should recognize their relationship with Govardhana Hill and with the forests of Vṛndāvana, and not worry about a distant demigod like Indra. Having concluded His argument, Lord Kṛṣṇa makes a radical proposal in the following verse.

Lord Kṛṣṇa is famous as go-brāhmaṇa-hita, the well-wishing friend of the cows and the brāhmaṇas. Lord Kṛṣṇa specifically included the local brāhmaṇas in His proposal because He is always devoted to those who are devoted to the godly Vedic culture.

The word sūpa indicates bean broth and also liquid vegetables. Thus to celebrate the Govardhana-pūjā, Lord Kṛṣṇa called for hot preparations such as soup, cold preparations like sweet rice, and all types of milk products.

According to Śrīla Śrīdhara Svāmī, Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa instructed His father and other residents of Vṛndāvana in the technical details of this Vedic sacrifice to assure the quality of the sacrifice and also to inspire Nanda and the others with faith in the concept of such a sacrifice. Thus the Lord mentioned that there must be orthodox brāhmaṇas, regular sacrificial fires and proper distribution of charity. And things were to be done in the order given by the Lord.

Lord Kṛṣṇa wanted all the human beings and even the animals to eat nice bhagavat-prasādam, sanctified foods offered to the Lord. To enthuse His relatives with a festive mood, He requested them to dress beautifully with fine clothes and ornaments and to refresh their bodies with luxurious sandalwood paste. The essential activity, however, was the circumambulation of the holy brāhmaṇas, cows, sacrificial fires and especially Govardhana Hill.

Whatever is pleasing to the brāhmaṇas, the cows and the Supreme Lord Himself is auspicious and beneficial for the entire world. Spiritually blind “modern” people do not understand this and instead adopt a “scientific” approach to life that is rapidly destroying the entire earth.

The residents of Vṛndāvana were simply devoted to Lord Kṛṣṇa; that was the sum and substance of their existence. Being the Lord’s eternal associates, they were ultimately not concerned with Lord Indra or ritualistic sacrifice, and they were certainly not interested in the mechanistic philosophy that Kṛṣṇa had just spoken to them. They simply loved Kṛṣṇa, and out of intense affection they did exactly what He had requested.

Their simple loving mentality was not small-mindedness or ignorance, since they were devoted to the Supreme Absolute Truth, who contains within Himself all existence. Thus the residents of Vṛndāvana constantly experienced the highest, essential truth underlying all other truths — and that is Śrī Kṛṣṇa Himself, the cause of all causes and that which sustains the existence of all that exists. The residents of Vṛndāvana were overwhelmed in loving service to that Supreme Absolute Truth; therefore they were the most fortunate, most intelligent and most pragmatic of all living beings.

In Chapter Twenty-four of Kṛṣṇa, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Śrīla Prabhupāda writes: “When everything was complete, Kṛṣṇa assumed a great transcendental form and declared to the inhabitants of Vṛndāvana that He was Himself Govardhana Hill in order to convince the devotees that Govardhana Hill and Kṛṣṇa Himself are identical. Then Kṛṣṇa began to eat all the food offered there. The identity of Kṛṣṇa and Govardhana Hill is still honored, and great devotees take rocks from Govardhana Hill and worship them exactly as they worship the Deity of Kṛṣṇa in the temples. The followers of the Krsna consciousness movement may therefore collect small rocks or pebbles from Govardhana Hill and worship them at home, because this worship is as good as Deity worship.”

Lord Kṛṣṇa had induced the residents of Vṛndāvana to assume a significant risk on His behalf. He convinced them to neglect a sacrifice to what is, after all, the powerful government of the universe and to worship a hill called Govardhana instead. The cowherd community did all this simply out of love for Kṛṣṇa, and now to convince them that their decision was correct, Lord Kṛṣṇa appeared in an unprecedented, huge transcendental form and demonstrated that He Himself was Govardhana Hill.

It is clear from this verse that Lord Kṛṣṇa had expanded Himself and was appearing in His normal form among the festival-goers of Vṛndāvana while simultaneously manifesting Himself as the great form of Govardhana Hill. Thus, in His form as a child, Kṛṣṇa led the residents of Vṛndāvana in bowing down to His new incarnation as Govardhana Hill, and to all He pointed out the great mercy bestowed by this divine form of Govardhana. Lord Kṛṣṇa’s amazing transcendental activities were certainly in keeping with the festive atmosphere.

Kāma-rūpī indicates that the form of Govardhana can manifest as poisonous snakes, wild animals, falling rocks and so on, all of which are competent to kill a human being.

According to Śrīla Śrīdhara Svāmī, the Lord presented six theoretical points in this chapter: 1) that karma alone is sufficient to determine one’s destiny; 2) that one’s conditioned nature is the supreme controller; 3) that the modes of nature are the supreme controller; 4) that the Supreme Lord is simply a dependent aspect of karma; 5) that He is under the control of karma; and 6) that one’s occupation is the actual worshipable deity.

The Lord presented these arguments not because He believed them but rather because He wanted to stop the impending sacrifice to Indra and divert it to Himself in the form of Govardhana Hill. In this way the Lord desired to agitate that falsely proud demigod.

Although the Govardhana-pūjā was performed in a blissful and successful way, the matter was hardly finished. Lord Indra is, after all, tremendously powerful, and he received the news of the Govardhana sacrifice with burning anger. What ensued will be described in the following chapter.