Krishna explains in Gita the value of devotional service the one who offers Krishna even a small leaf a flower or little water if it is offered with devotion he accepts the quality of that devotion
patraà puñpaà phalaà toyaà
yo me bhaktyä prayacchati
The perfection of our life is simply when Krishna accepts the offerings of our devotion. That is the goal the be all and end all of all our aspirations. That somehow by his causeless mercy Krishna will accept whatever offerings we may present to him. It is a great thing because is unlimited he is vibhu. He is the supreme absolute truth. He is atmaram, perfectly self sufficient. He is the proprietor or everything. He needs nothing from us. But the nature of his love is that he accepts our offerings just to give us bliss. Because it is the bliss of the soul to reciprocate love with Krishna. Many devotees have done so much wonderful service preparing these mountains of preparations making them into such a beautiful site for Krishna to see throughout the day they have been working for many days they have been cooking. Also Sri Nitay Gorachandra, Radhagopinath, Sri Gopal they are all decorated in beautiful new dresses, which has been made by devotees, beautiful jeweller made by devotees. The decorations of flower garlands around the deities, sihnasan, the temple made by devotees. In this way Krishna Consciousness is a dynamic process by which we could all participate in the glorious activities of the spiritual world of pleasing Krishna and Sri Radharani. And these festivals give us such invaluable chance to participate in these most pleasing spiritual activities and Lord Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu considered it very, very important that our each devotee in their homes as well as in the temples should have grand and wonderful celebrations of these festivals according to our capacity. Because they invigorate the spiritual lives of all of us. Krishna reveals himself according to the enthusiasm of our devotional service. And we find the devotees who put the most time and energy and perform the greatest sacrifices they are able to proceed the wonderful glory and bliss of spiritual life the most during these festivals. But of course, everyone gets the opportunity to participate in the most important of all offerings to Lord Krishna and that is the congregational chanting of the holy names Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare, Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Hare Hare’.
In one sense all these wonderful arrangements which Krishna so mercifully accepts are various means of bringing us all together in a more devotional mood to dance to the kirtan of the Krishna’s holy name Hare Krishna Hare Krishna, Krishna, Krishna Hare Hare, Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Hare Hare’.
Govardhan Puja
Today we are celebrating Govardhan Puja. In the Srimad Bhagavatam Shukadev Goswami described this beautiful narration, Vrindavan is the place where all the residents they know no one but Krishan. Their heart, their soul, is simply dedicated to giving pleasure to Krishna. So for the pleasure of Krishna they would perform so many various religious activities, because they were thinking Krishna to be their own child. They loved him so deeply and so intimately that Krishna covered his supreme positions as being Godhead and gave them entrance into a deeper and sweeter relationship as a friend or a mother or father or a lover of the lord. Where their loving exchanges were not limited or restricted by reverential conceptions. The acharyas explain to us that this is an advanced stage that cannot be imitated artificially, but it comes when we are genuinely freed from all the temptations of the modes of material nature and we actually have developed true unalloyed love for Radha and Krishna.
So even when the Brij basis would worship various demigods we should know than in their heart of hearts they were only doing it for the pleasure for Krishna, for the service of Krishna. So on one occasion Nandaa Maharaja was arranging with a cowherd men a very, very grand ritual. So much food was being gathered, so much ghee Brahmins, it was going to be a big yagya. So Krishna asked Nanda Maharaja what is this you are doing and why are you doing it? And who are you doing it for? And Nanda Maharaja said this is our tradition. Every year we have this ritual. It is called Indra Puja. Because we are cowherd men vaishya community and our livelihood is through protecting the cows and with the bows we plough the fields and grow grains and in order for all of this to happen nicely there has to be sufficient rainfall and Indra is that great personality who provides rain. So for so many generations we have in our family tradition worship Indra on this day. And actually we should know that this type of worship can be done in various levels of consciousness. For most of the demigod worshipers it is like a business contract that we will perform this Puja and in return you give us the material facilities that we need. That is not love. And that is not categorized as Bhakti or devotion. It is categorized by Pralhad Maharaja and simply a business exchange. Others because they are receiving so many gifts they actually want to express their gratitude. You are giving so much we want to show how grateful we are. And others it is all mixed up. But for the Brij basis they were so pure and advanced they were not doing business with Indra. But they understood that if the cows are happy and if the bulls are happy and Krishna will be happy so we need these rains ultimately to make Krishna happy. So let us worship Indra.
In fact the great acharyas, so Srila Prabhupada so beautifully represented explained that to worship the demigods to increase our devotional service to Krishna it is perfectly acceptable. It is not necessary, but it is acceptable. It is good as long as the goal is not our own personal materialistic desires, but Krishna’s pleasure. So in this way Nanda Maharaja explained and Krishna responded that there is no need for this Indra Puja, because after all there are three modes of material nature and according to our particular activities in this life and previous lives we create karma and we will get the reactions to our karma and the demigods are bound to give the reactions to our karma. So because you are all pious Indra has to send rain whether you do this Puja or not. He is even sending rains on the oceans, where there is no need. So my opinion Krishna explained is we should use all these paraphernalia and we should worship Govardhan Hill.
Temporary Benedictions
Krishna wanted to bring out several points according to Srila Prabhupada’s commentary. One is for an instruction to the general classes of people he wanted to teach us that materialistic people who approach the demigods for material benedictions are less intelligent because the results of whatever yagyas they perform are temporary.
ä-brahma-bhuvanäl lokäù
punar ävartino ‘rjuna
mäm upetya tu kaunteya
punar janma na vidyate
What to speak of the luxuries and opulence of this world, but even in the most highest of the heavenly planets, life is temporary and all facilities are temporary, so why should we approach superior powers for temporary benedictions, they can give us no real satisfaction. We find even the great devatas who posses the opulences that we are begging them for a little charity from they are not satisfied. They are always in fear of losing what they have. There are so many stories of Indra in the Vedas and the puranas, which very clearly illustrate this principle. How out of fear of Vishwamitra muni’s tapasya he sent down Menaka thinking that he may lose his position and on fear of Bali Maharaja he had to desert his own abodes, swarga loka on so many occasions. How he has so many eyes all over his body is also illustration of how he is not satisfied with what he has, he is always looking something more.
So why should we worship these demigods who are not even satisfied with everything they have and we just a little part of what they have from them and we are performing so much ritual and Puja and making it our whole religion. So Krishna says this type of religious performance is for the less intelligent. But it is better than the gross materials who are so apastic that they are not willing acknowledge that there is a superior power above them.
Another reason is Krishna wanted to illustrate that ultimate everything is coming from him. He is the source of everything that exists. Whatever the demigods have Krishna says in Gita they are getting it from me. They are just my agents. So better you worship me. So Krishna explained that here in this very land of Vrindavan we don’t need to go anywhere else there are big cities and there are big beautiful palatial buildings, but we don’t care for any of them. We have our trees, we have our Jamuna, and we have our paster grounds and our grass. And we are satisfied just living with the cows and taking care of each other in this way. And in all of Vrindavan just see this Govardhan Hill how much seva he is performing. Providing so much nice water, so many waterfalls. So many beautiful reservoirs so many trees with fruits, such unlimited fresh green palatable grasses for all the cows, and cowherd boys and cowherd girls to enjoy. So we should worship the Govardhan Hill, because after all immediately it is Govardhan that is providing the real necessities and opulences of our life. So when Krishna would speak he had such a potency that no devotee could refuse. He had such a charming way of presenting things and he was so logical. Yesterday his holiness Giriraj Maharaja was explaining how Srila Prabhupada his transcendental bargaining how he could convince devotees of so many things by his charming way of doing things and speaking. Because such great devotees they are empowered in a wonderful way by the opulences of Sri Krishna. When he was speaking I was remembering a particular story of our Guru Maharaja Srila Prabhupada. How expert he was at convincing people to surrender to Krishna. Should I tell the story?
Radhanath Swami shares a Story of his Guru Srila Prabhupada
One of my god brothers his name was Hayagriva, he was one of the most original devotees of the Hare Krishna movement. He joined in 1966. And a couple years after this the new Vrindavan community was established and it began to develop and Srila Prabhupada wanted Hayagriva to be the president of new Vrindavan. But that means a lot of responsibility and it means a lot of hard work, because in those days new Vrindavan was about 120 acres, but you had to go up the road which was called Aghasura. Because anything or anyone that try to go up this road was devoured by the road. It was not a road, it was a mountain and about 3 miles about 5 kilometers, so you had to walk 5 kilometers to get where new Vrindavan was. And it was all mud up to the knees in most places and there were points where there small rivers that you had to up to your waist sometimes and you had to just go across it. There was no bridges. Sometimes once Prabhupada came and they decided we cannot ask our Guru Maharaja to walk up this terrible just mud packed up mountains through forest. So they tried to bring him in a car and half way the car got stuck, not even half way. And it is interesting because 20 years later that car is still there. Nothing you can do. So it got stuck and you walk the rest of the way, Prabhupada was transcendental.
So anyways Hayagriva heard the news that Prabhupada wanted him to be the president of New Vrindavan and he decided there is no way that he is going to the be president of New Vrindavan, too difficult too much work too much responsibility not his propensity, so he was talking to other devotees how I am not going to do it. Somehow or other I am going to convince that I am not going to do it. Now Hayagriva was an English professor before he was a devotee and he was also the first editor of Srila Prabhupada’s books and he was one of the original contributing writers to back to Godhead. So he was very literate. He was actually a fantastic writer, very intelligent. So he was making all sorts of notes of arguments and he was memorizing them. That if Prabhupada tells me I should do it for this reason, I will say like this and if he was covering every possibility of how Prabhupada would convince him to be president and he had very very excellent arguments against each one.
So then Srila Prabhupada called for him and he was prepared, he was like a warrior with so many astras to defend himself against the order of his spiritual master. And not that he did not want to surrender, but he did not want to surrender to this, he wanted to surrender to anything else. So he came into the room and he had so many logic philosophy memorized. He had his notes with him. He bows down to Srila Prabhupada. Srila Prabhupada very gently sweetly he said “Hayagriva” he said I would like to ask if you would do a particular service to me. And Hayagriva just he was ready. He said “what service Srila Prabhuda”. And Prabhupada said “I want you to take sanyasa“ Hayagriva is completely taken off guard. He had not prepared any notes for this. He was completely stunned, shocked. He never would have considered in a million years if Prabhupada would ask him this. He said “but Prabhupada, sanya?” He said “yes I think you should take sanyasa immediately.” He said “but, Prabhupada I cannot control senses.” Prabhupada said “but where is your faith? If you surrender to my instruction I will protect you, but Prabhupada what about my wife? What will happen to my wife?” Prabhupada said “you think you are maintaining your wife? I will take care of your wife, I will personally look after her.” He said “but Prabhupada…” Every argument he presented, Prabhupada completely defeated until he was breathless and speechless and completely defeated and he did not know what to do. He was on the verge of death – his ego, not his body, but his ego. And then Prabhupada looked at him and said “I will tell you what, if you just be the president of New Vrindavan then you don’t have to take sanyasa. And Hayagriva said” Prabhupada I will be the president, I will accept immediately this service.” So he became the president of New Vrindavan. So Srila Prabhupada was very expert.
So Krishna he is the supreme origin of all experts. So he convinced Nanda Maharaja that we should not wait, Nanda Maharaja said “okay we will worship Govardhan Hill, but first we will worship Indra.” He said “no forget this Indra, we cannot wait, whatever you have arrange for Indra, we should immediately use for Govardhan Hill.” So Nanda Maharaja even though the wrath of Indra was there to destroy them if they just pleased him. Nanda Maharaja would do anything for Krishna. How should we worship Govardhan Hill. He said “you should get so much food and you should make wonderful preparations. You should make laddu, sandesh, rasagulla, halawa, rice, chapatis, sweet rice, kheer, so many, make mountains, gulab jamuns.” Krishna did not mention cooking. He did not say they should not make cooking. So this is somehow or other, that is our biggest mountain is here. Believe it or not it was cooked by the brahmacharis who are the stalwart orthodox Vaishnavas. And then you make wonderful mountains of bhoga and offer it to Giri Govardhan and afterward you should just distribute to everyone, the brahmanas, the common people even the beggars should have some choice feast everyone should have nice prasada. So they began to perform this Govardhan Puja and they made mountains and mountains and mountains and mountains of bhoga and they decorated the cows and the calves and the bulls and they gave so much charity to all of the brahmanas and then after the offering was being made Krishna himself entered into the form of the mountain of Govardhan. He assumed a gigantic form and right in front of everyone’s eyes he ate all of the mountains of dry prasada and all of the kunds or lakes of the liquid prasada or bhoga. And when the Vrajavasis saw this they were struck with wonder. In fact Krishna although he assumed a form of Govardhan to just convince everyone for all time that he was none different than Govardhan Hill he still remained in his small cowherd form next to Nanda Maharaja bowing down to this great phenomenon that was being revealed. And then after he ate it all he gave it all back and all the mountains remained and it was prasada. And then they distributed the prasada profusely to everyone without discrimination and there was a wonderful wonderful feast and then they took the cows in front beautifully decorated and they circum ambulated the Govardhan Hill, which is still a great tradition at Govardhan or Giriraj even today. So from this pastime the great devotees of the lord throughout history worship Govardhan Hill. They understand that it is none different than the very body of Lord Krishna. In fact Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu he taught his devotees even through his own example, not to ever step on any stone of Govardhan Hill because we should not put our feet on Krishna’s body.
When Sri Gopal who later became known as Srinathji when he was up in his temple on top of Govardhan Hill Lord Chaitanya Mahaprabhu was longing to see him, but he would not step on Govardhan Hill so he could not go to see him. But in the mood of Srimati Radharni in the mood of a greatest of devotees he was praying to Sri Gopal for his darshan. So Gopal made wonderful arrangement. He arranged for rumor to come to that village near Anivar on the top of the hill. The rumor was that the Muslim soldiers who were then ruling India were coming to terrorize and break the ditties. So the devotees and the pujaris secretly brought Sri Gopal with kirtana half of Govardhan and Lord Chaitanya was waiting right at the bottom and he joined and had the beautiful darshan and began to dance and chant in front of Sri Gopal to its hiding place and there for sometime all day and all night he worshiped Sri Gopal and wonderful kirtana took prasada, beautiful darshna and when hew as completely satisfied through this they realized that there was no Muslim soldiers coming. There was all just some rumor. So they brought him back. When Lord Chaitanya first came to Govardhan and he saw the first stone he began to embrace that stone in such love weeping tears all over it, knowing that this is none different than the very body of Krishna. In fact for sometime he would wear a shila from Govardhan Hill around his neck and he would worship it in great love and later he gave it to his most intimate associate Sri Raghunathdas Goswami to worship. And he personally taught him how to worship Giriraj. Giriraj is a name or Govardhan Hill. In Vrindavan one of the most common chants is Giriraj Maharaja ki Jai. This means all glories to that great king of all mountains Govardhan Hill. So it is a wonderful wonderful festival. All the Vrajavasis were so happy. The cows even the animals were fed. Everyone was joyful. And then they all return to their homes. When you water the root of the tree every part of the tree is satisfied. When we please Krishna we become satisfied.
Radhanath Swami describes breaking of Indra’s Pride
But Indra, he was not satisfied. In fact one of the principle reasons that Krishna performed his wonderful pastime was because he knew that Indra was too much proud. Indra is the king of heaven, Svarga loka and he is a devotee and he is a very great devotee. But sometimes even great devotees become influenced by their surroundings. And it is Krishna’s love that somehow or other he protects his devotee under all circumstance. How he protects his devotee is a wonderful side. Krishna has his perfect intelligence to bring us all closure to him.
So he was thinking that this Indra he is my devotee, but he has so much power. He is the king of the davatas and he has so much luxuries and opulence and he is being glorified by Apsaras, Gandharvas, Kinnaras, so many people, that he has become proud. He is thinking that he is the enjoyer. He is thinking that the power that he has is his own. In fact the great acharyas explain that too much exposure to material sense enjoyment and opulence has made even great stalwarts on the spiritual path to become bewildered. Therefore it is always best to live a very simple life, especially since a devotee never thinks himself a great stalwart. A devotee always considers himself just a very very small condition soul, ordinary soul trying to serve the lord. The purest greatest Paramahamsas always consider themselves very ordinary. Just see the Vrajavasis, the Gopis and the Gopas of Vrindavan they are in the most exalted position of spiritual realization. They never thought themselves great. They just considered themselves such ordinary people and this is part of their greatness their humility. Because it is this humility that charms Krishna, not our self a steam. So Indra was infatuated and intoxicated. And Krishna decided that I am going to smash his pride out of my mercy and love for him. So Indra was says that the sacrifice that was meant for me has been taken by someone else. This is a great danger, when you are the proprietor of so much, you become so much attached to those things. It is very difficult to conceive that it could belong to anyone else or it can be taken by anyone else. So Indra was thinking like this that the honor, the respect that was meant to adore and glorify me has been taken away by the small talkative cowherd boy name Krishna. And the residents of Vrindavan have stopped by Puja because of him, therefore I will teach them all a lesson. I will destroy everything in Vrindavan. And he called Samvartaka clouds, which are the clouds that are used at the time of dissolution of the planet and he told him that “you go to Vrindavan and you destroy it with rains.” Now the Samvartaka clouds were afraid, because they did not know what is this Krishna, he is a little cowherd boy, but we don’t know what is his powers. After all He killed Putana, He killed Trinavarta, He killed Bakasura, He killed Sakatasura, He performed so many wonderful activities. The Samvartaka clouds were thinking we don’t like this mission. But Indra said “don’t worry I am here, I will be following right behind you I and may elephant Airavata, nothing to fear Indra is here.” If he is going to come, then we will go. So they came and they began to shower so many thorn s of rain, that was freezing cold winds and the rains was shooting down with such speed it was piercing beer, and it was coming so thick that the rain was like various series of pillars just pulling down from the sky. And meanwhile Indra was throwing his thunder balls and it was terrible thunder and lightening. And within a matter of seconds Vrindavan was flooding, you could not see what was the high lanes and what was the low lanes and the cows and their calves and all of the Vrajavasis there were trembling in cold and fear and wet. And they understood that there is no other shelter except Krishna. Within their heart of hearts they knew that only Krishna could save us. So they all approached Krishna. They put the cows first, knowing that Krishna is always the protector of the cows. namo brahmanya devaya go brahmana hitaya ca jagad hitaya krishnaya govindaya namo namaha.
And they approached and said “Krishna because of you we have performed this yagya and now Indra is very angry. Please protect us.” And Krishna said “why you are, there is nothing to fear, just see what I will do.” And effortlessly as a little child picks up a mushroom from the ground Krishna lifted this huge wonderful mountain called Govardhan and he held it over his head like an umbrella with the little finger of his left hand. And then he told the Vrajavasis that “come under this umbrella it will protect you from all the winds and all rains, come and enjoy. So the residents of Vrindavan with their cow and their bulls, and their calves and their family and all the other animals they all came under the Govardhan hill and in this way Krishna performed his lila as Giridhari, Giridharilal ki jai.
He stood there in such a beautiful posture holding up the Govardhan hill. And the residents of Vrindavan were struck with wonder seeing the beauty of Krishna in this pose. Our deity on the altar of Sri Gopal is this form of Krishna performing his lila of Giridhari, Girivaradhari. And this pose of Krishna appearing as Sri Gopal was so wonderful that the devotees of Vrindavan they simply without blinking their eyes for 7 days were perfectly satisfied simply seeing Krishna lifting the Govardhan hill.
They were so much satisfied this seeing this beautiful form or Krishna protecting them, that they completely forget everything except Krishna. They forgot about eating, they forgot about sleeping, they forgot everything. They were simply captivated by the beauty of Krishna. In this way Krishan revealed the ultimate fulfillment of all our souls’ desires, to find ultimate complete satisfaction in Krishna. There is nothing else that will give us real complete satisfaction. So much so that we forget everything else. So therefore we want to somehow or other attract Krishna’s attention by which he will attract our hearts in this way.
And we have seen in the lives of the six Gosvamis of Vrindavan, they were so much attracted by Krishna in the mood of separation that they practically gave up all eating and sleeping. They were so absorbed in simply crying for Krishna, in the ultimate ecstasy of spiritual emotion. So the Vrajavasis, Krishna fulfilled all of their desires. And when Indra saw that 7 days are passed and he was pounding the Govardhan hill with thunder ball, trying to somehow or other make it go away, so he can get at all the people under it. Now these thunder balls of Indra, we have read in the puras what they do to asuras. It is one of the most powerful weapons, in fact Krishna says in Bhagavat Gita weapons are in the thunderbolt speaking of Indra’s thunderbolt. But Govardhan Hill, even though being lashed smashed by thunderbolts of Indra did not feel the slightest little pain, why? Because underneath was Krishna’s little finger. The pleasure that Govardhan was deriving by being touched by the tip of the little finger of the left hand of Krishna was so ecstatic that the thunderbolts of Indra were like insignificant in comparison. Indra saw that was defeated by this little child of only 7 years old. So he told Samvartaka clouds go home, there is nothing you can do. And when that rain stopped and again the sun came our Krishan told the Vrajavasis that you all go to your homes, everything is now very safe. So they all loaded up their carts with all of their belongings and took their animals and they returned to respective homes and after everyone came out from under Govardhan Krishna very slowly replaced the mountain just as it was. And all the Vrajavasis began to glorify Krishna, wonderful Krishna, remembering the beautiful pastimes that he had performed asking Nandaa Maharaja who is this Krishna? Is he just a child, is he a demigod, is he the supreme Godhead, how could he lift the Govardhan Hill for 7 days with his little finger. How could he kill the demon Putana who was so powerful and so many other they were glorifying Krishna. How he could tear down these twin Arjuna trees which were so thick and so high to the sky. And Nandaa Maharaja explained that actually when he was just an infant child Gargacharya came and actually indicated that he was the supreme personality of Godhead Vishnu. So even though Nanda Maharaja knew that Krishna was Vishnu at certain times he would reveal it. But at every other time he was so infatuated by parental affection that he completely forgot. Not forgot, but rather, you see in this higher rasas of intimate association all the realizations of lower rasas are contained, but there is something so much more. The ecstasy is so higher that it just becomes that understanding become so insignificant that we do not even consider it.
Radhanath Swami explains about Indra Feeling Ashamed
So Indra feeling very much ashamed, descended along with the cow called Surabhi. Brahaspati told Indra that you have made a great offense to Krishna, you have tried to destroy him and all of his loved ones and you cannot approach Krishna directly. If you want to get his favor you should first be recommended by somebody he loves and he loves cows. And this is a transcendental truth, which Krishna confirms in Gita.
tad viddhi praëipätena
paripraçnena sevayä
upadekñyanti te jïänaà
jïäninas tattva-darçinaù
tasmäd guruà prapadyeta
jijïäsuù çreya uttamam
When someone that is surrendered to Krishna, someone who is so dear to Krishna approaches Krishna on our behalf then Krishna naturally becomes very soft and merciful toward us. Actually Srila Prabhupada said like about Srimati Radharani that she is dear most to Krishna and if she is favorable toward us, she will approach Krishna then she will say “Krishna please accept this devotee he is better than me or she is better than me.” And if Srimati Radharani says this Krishna cannot refuse, Krishna must accept that devotees. But how to gain the favor of Srimati Radharani. If we want the same principle holds to get her favor. We have to approach her through somebody she loves and how to approach that person? Through somebody that person loves.
Therefore Sri Chatanya Mahaprabhu has given us the most perfect and complete process of approaching god. Gopi bhartuh pada kamalayor das anudas anudas To be the servant of the servant of the servant of the servant of Sri Giridhari Gopinath Srikrishna. So Surabhi came forward and said Krishna please forgive Indra, he is very sad. He is very much ashamed of what he has done and then Indra came forward and bow down to lord Krishna and surrendered and began to offer beautiful prayers. Indra came on his be beautiful decorated elephant Airawata which was born of the churning of the ocean of milk and as the king of the demigods you can imagine what type of wardrobe he wears. And Krishna he was just covered with the dust of Braja and he had some wild flowers as a garland around him. He was a cowherd boy, Gopal. But Indra fell at his feet and with tears of love and shame he began to offer prayers. How he was so much illusioned by his high position that he actually thought that he was the proprietor of all that he had apparently control of. But he realized that Krishna is the proprietor of everything. And all the fame and distinction and influence he has over others he was thinking that, that was meant for me. But actually it is all meant for Krishna. He is giving us our powers, he is giving us our wealth. Everything is his. So we should never be proud.
Smashed Pride
Prabhupada said the popper is proud of his penny. In this world everybody is proud. The multi multimillionaires are proud, this is mine. See my home, see my cars, see my companies. See my name. See my expertise. And the beggar in the street amongst other beggar is same. See how I could beg so nicely. See whenever the Hari Krishna is come I say “prasada, prasada” and they give me prasada. I drink 5 cups of chai today because my begging was so good, you only drink 3. So even amongst beggars. Because when I was a sadhu I use to see these people and how they were talk to each other. They are all everyone is proud of what they have and what they can do. But the more you have the more deep routed this misconception becomes. So Indra was explaining that now I understand that I am no the enjoyer, I am not the lord, I am not the controller I am your most insignificant servant. And Krishna responded he said, yes Indra this is true. I saw you are very proud and therefore I performed this wonderful pastime just to smash your proud and make you again a humble servant. Now you can go back to the heavens. And don’t get proud, don’t think you are Indra. I am the supreme Indra. You are servant of the servant of the servant of the supreme Indra, don’t forget that, go home. And then Indra bow down and returned to his abode and the heavenly damsels…. but before he went down he decided to perform an abhisheka for Krishna. Surabhi approached Krishna and said “You are our Indra, we don’t like this Indra, we don’t need him, we only need You, You are our Supreme Indra, so we want to coronate You as the King.” So with the milk from the Surabhi cow, there was a wonderful abhishek and Indra also performed a wonderful abhishek just to confirm and express that he was accepting Krishna as his King. And this all took place at Govinda Kunda and then they returned to their abodes.
So we need not concern ourselves with anyone or anything if we are properly engaged in the worship of lord Krishna. We should know that simply by pleasing Krishna we are fulfilling all of our duties all of our responsibilities in the purest and highest way. The process of how to satisfy Krishna is the most important science in life. And we should learn this science very nicely. It is simple for the simple it is very complicated for the complicated.
patraà puñpaà phalaà toyaà
yo me bhaktyä prayacchati
All of these wonderful wonderful scriptures and all of their commentaries great great philosophers like Jivagoswami. They all comminute in the simplicity of just doing the best we can for Krishna and chanting his holy names Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare, Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Hare Hare’.
Be Careful From Pretenders – Radhanath Swami warns
When Srila Prabhupada was in Vrindavan he would tell us sometimes be very careful when you go to Vrindavan. He said there are many babajis who are sahajiyas. They are pretenders they are showing all ecstatic symptoms just to cheat you, you be aware and he also said they were many mayavaris who worship Krishna and worship the ditties and chant in Kirtana, but their ultimate goal is to merge into the wellness of Godhead and give up the ditties and give up devotional service when they come to a higher state of consciousness.
Radhanath Swami shares a Story of a Little Old Lady
So he was very, but there was one person he praised very much, a little old lady. He said when even when he was in Los Angels big big beautiful temples that were established in the Western world he remember this little lady at Radha Damodar temple. He said everyday she would take a little bucket old bucket and she would go to Jamuna and she would fill the bucket with water from Jamuna and because she was very old and very thin with great efforts she would somehow or other drag that bucket to the right of Damodar temple and she would offer that Jamuna water to Radha Damodar for his bath, every morning. She had nothing, just an old widow. She is living some place in Vrindavan, begging for food. But Srila Prabhupada said because she was so sincere to offer that water to Radha Damodar everyday her service was so pleasing. Prabhupada said that she will most certainly go back home back to Godhead. Here is a great acharya who is translating and writing commentaries on the most profound and the deepest philosophical books in the whole planet, A.C. Bhaktivedant swami, who had become the founder acharya of the widest spread vaishnava community in the whole world. Temples all around. Millions of books being distributed, such a scholar, such preacher, such a manager, such an everything Prabhupada was. And yet he was thinking and sharing with his disciples of his appreciation of this old lady. We don’t even know what her name was, but we remember her with our hearts because Prabhupada had so much respect for her devotion.
So this is the perfection of our life simply to develop the simple mood that if Krishna is satisfied by our endeavors our life is perfect. And how to please Krishna by pleasing his devotees, by living very purely, by observing very wonderfully his instruction. Krishna explained his instructions in Srimad Bhagavatam he said “you should worship this Govardhan Hill and you should perform this Govardhan Puja every year and he said for those who do not they will get bit by the snakes at Govardhan Hill. Hari bol.
He stress to us that this is a very simple process, but it is a wonderful process. So by coming to Sri Radha Gopinath’s temple and other authorized temples we are educated in the wonderful divine process of how to please Krishna. By having these nice festivals. By coming together to hear nice lila, nice philosophy by taking nice prasada together by worshiping the ditties in a proper way according to Krishna’s principles. By becoming humble and by working very hard to help others to also. Find the glory and the pleasure of Krishna consciousness. And Lord Chaitanya Mahaprabhu who was Krishna himself has extenuated the very essence of all the Vedic literature’s. That in his age of Kaliyuga the most vital and essential spiritual activity that gives pleasure to Krishna is the conjugational chanting of his holy names Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare, Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Hare Hare’. And lord Chaitanya taught that we chant and then we dance and then we take prasada by Krishna’s arrangement there is sufficient prasada.
But according to the quantity of prasada we should have that much quantity of chanting and dancing on this day. There is no prasada, we still chant and dance with full enthusiasm. But on this particular day we should offer Krishna a mountain, the supreme most wonderful mountain of devotion in the form of our kirtana together. Sri Giriraj Maharaja ki jai. Sri Giridharilal ki jai, Sri Girigovardhan ki jai, Sri Govardhandhari ki jai, Sri Harinam Sankirtana ki jai, Sri Gorang Mahaprabhu ki jai. Haribol.
