Parikrama of Sri Govardhan

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
11 November 2015

Mahaprabhu said,

vrndavane giya na thakiya chira kala
govardhane uthiya na dekhiya gopala

"You can go to Vrindavan, but do not stay there long, and do not climb Govardhan to see Gopal."

After Jagadananda Prabhu had had a fight with Mahaprabhu, his mind was disturbed and he wanted to go to Vrindavan—he was ready to go when Mahaprabhu told him (He wanted to test him), "OK, you can go, but here is My advice for you. If you listen to it, it will be good for you. You can go see Vrindavan, but do not mix with other people, only stay with Rupa and Sanatan." We read in Prema-vivarta how Mahaprabhu told it to Jagadananda Pandit.

Jagadananda Pandit had fought with Mahaprabhu and become angry with Him, but later he said, "My mind is so disturbed—I went to Vrindavan but could not see anything in Vrindavan: I got no mercy from Mahaprabhu... It was not Mahaprabhu's will." Jagadananda Pandit says he did not see anything in Vrindavan, then you can understand...

How do we do parikrama? We do parikrama of Govardhan during two days because we do not walk so much, we take half a day at a time. Govardhan is like a peacock, and our temple is near Manasa Ganga, at the mouth of Govardhan (mukhara bindu). So, we start the parikrama from the tail and do half portion one day and the second half the next day. Those who live in Govardhan do a full parikrama around Govardhan one or two times every day—they walk fast, chanting on their own, but when we go, we go with two-three hundred devotees, with kirtan, and we stop at some places, sit, and speak Hari-katha, that is why it takes us two days.

But I am afraid, still I am afraid when we go to Radha Kunda—my whole body shakes when we go there because I do not know where I am putting my legs. Every step I make there, I am thinking how much offence I am doing because I do not know whose samadhi can be inside, who can be inside. Pancha Pandavs are there, Krishna Das Kaviraj Goswami's, Raghunath Das Goswami's, Jahnava Devi's samadhis are there—so many big and great Vaishnavs' samadhis are there. They made some new construction, changed many things and I do not know where they put the samadhis, so I am thinking what if I am putting my leg on their head!

Raghunath Das Goswami prays, "Nija-nikata-nivasam dehi govardhana tvam: please give me a dwelling near you, O Govardhan!" and Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati Thakur also said, "I have no quality or qualification to stay in Vrindavan and Radha Kunda, but I can stay in Govardhan and from there I can go to Vrindavan to serve."

Actually, Raghunath Das Goswami wanted to commit suicide because his Guru had left, but then he stayed with Rupa and Sanatan and it changed his mind. When Sanatan Goswami became old, he could not do parikrama around Govardhan any more, and Jiva Goswami Prabhu gave him a Govardhan sila, saying, "Prabhu, you have become old now, it is very difficult for you to do parikrama around Govardhan... I am giving you this small Giriraj, you can do parikrama around the sila"—and every day Sanatan Goswami did parikrama around the Govardhan sila.

Sanatan Goswami stayed at Manasa Ganga, near Chakreshwar Mahadev (Lord Siva), and there were so many mosquitos there that one day Sanatan Goswami Prabhu prayed to Lord Siva, "I cannot stay here any longer—there are too many mosquitos..." From the next day there were no mosquito there...

People are now doing parikrama around Govardhan for the whole month. Do you know how they do the parikrama? They do sastanga dandavat, full obeisance, then put one stone in front of them, get up, and again do sastanga dandavat from the place they had marked with the stone, again put a stone in front of them, and so on. This is how they do parikrama, day and night. But Gurudev is very merciful to us, he manifested Govardhan here—he made this Gupta Govardhan temple right here in Govinda Kunda, and every day we can do parikrama here...

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