Glory of Govardhan

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Sri Govardhan Parikrama, Day One
7 November 2018, part 2

When Vraja-basis started to worship Govardhan, Indra became very angry. He said, "I have so much power! I can do everything!" Angry, Indra sent so much rain on Vrindavan. Vraja-basis worshiped Indra for rains because if regular rains come, there is a good harvest, there is grass, and cows are able to eat, but if there is no rain, then the grass will not grow and the cows will have nothing to eat. So, when they stopped worshipping Indra and Indra got angry and sent so much torrential rains, the entire Vrindavan became flooded. Where were all the Vraja-basis and their cows to go now? They all came to Gopal and took shelter at His feet. Nanda Maharaj said, "Gopal, we listened to You and worshipped Govardhan, but now so much rain has started—all fields are flooded and the water is coming to our houses now. Where will we go?"

Everybody took shelter of Gopal—surrender is the main thing; without surrender you cannot get anything. We need surrender. What does surrender mean? You sing in the kirtan,

দৈন্য, আত্মনিবেদন, গোপ্তৃত্বে বরণ ।
'অবশ্য রক্ষিবে কৃষ্ণ'—বিশ্বাস পালন ॥
ভক্তি-অনুকূল মাত্র কার্য্যের স্বীকার ।
ভক্তি-প্রতিকূল ভব—বর্জ্জনাঙ্গীকার ॥

dainya, atma-nivedana, goptrtve varana
'avasya raksibe krsna'—visvasa palana
bhakti-anukula matra karyera svikara
bhakti-pratikula bhava—varjanangikara

"(1) Humility, (2) self-submission, (3) embracing the Lord's guardianship, (4) maintaining the faith that 'Krishna will certainly protect me', (5) engaging only in activities that are favourable to devotion, (6) rejecting everything unfavourable to devotion."

This is the sad-anga saranagati—the six types of surrender. We must have faith that Krishna is our protector. Rakhe Hari mare ke, mare Hari rakhe ke? (রাখে হরি মারে কে, মারে হরি রাখে কে)—if the Lord protects you, who will kill you? If the Lord kills you, who will protect you? Marabi rakhabi yo ichchha tohara (মারবি রাখবি, যো ইচ্ছা তোহার)—You can kill me, You can save me, as You wish. If the Lord decides to kill you, He will kill you, and if the Lord decides to protect you, He will protect you. You think that a doctor, your friend, your wife, son, brother, sister, father, mother can protect you, but this is temporary 'protection'—the only protector is the Lord. We must have faith in this. It is necessary to be surrendered.

So, when the Vraja-basis surrendered at the feet of Gopal, Gopal told them not to worry and lifted Govardhan Hill with His little finger—now Govardhan has become smaller, but originally it used to be millions of miles long!

You will say, "When He lifted Govardhan, the water must have gone under Govardhan then!" At that time, Krishna called Anantadev who then expanded himself and surrounded Govardhan with his serpent-like body forming such a high wall that no water could come through. In this way, everybody took shelter of Govardhan and in this way, the Lord gave shelter to His devotees. This is the glory of Govardhan.

At the outskirts of Sri Aanyor village.

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