Go-Astami

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Sri Nabadwip Dham
14 November 2010

Gopastami. Today is a good day to feed the cows.

Feed the cows, give some garland to the cows, give some sweets to the cows. When Srila Jagannath Das Babaji Maharaj got some pranami, he would buy sweets and give them to the cows.

It is Indian, Bengali, culture that if the fruit comes, the owner of the tree gives the first fruit to the Deity because they think, "Then more fruit will come to my tree!" Once, a lady brought the fruit of batabi-lebu (pamelo) to Babaji Maharaj. Babaji Maharaj became very angry, "What are you doing?! Why have you brought it here?! You want to have more fruit for yourself?! You will give only one fruit to the Deity and not come again! In lieu of that you better go water your eggplant tree!" He said like that.

Babaji Maharaj would also tell his servitor named Bihari Das, "Buy some sweets for the cows." He did not have a cow, but other people had cows, so he ordered his servitor, "Buy some sweets and go there, feed the sweets to the cows."

So, today is a good day—gopastami, go-astami—to feed the cows, to serve the cows. But be careful with the bulls! [His Divine Grace laughs.]

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