Sri Govardhan Puja (1):
Sevya and Sevak

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Sri Govardhan Puja Programme
29 October 2019, translated from Bengali, part 1

Jay Om Vishnupad Jagad-Guru Srila Bhakti Sundar Govinda Dev-Goswami Maharaj ki jay.

Today is a very auspicious day—today is Sri Giriraj Govardhan Puja. By the mercy of Gurudev, we are present here in Govardhan. Srila Raghunath Das Goswami composed Sri Govardhana-astakam where he writes, "Nija-nikata-nivasam dehi govardhana tvam (নিজনিকট-নিবাসং দেহি গোবর্দ্ধন ত্বম্): please, keep me near Govardhan..." Srila Raghunath Das Goswami wanted to stay at Govardhan. Here are Radha Kunda, Shyama Kunda, Uddhav Kunda and many other places...

Today is a very auspicious day for us as we have got an opportunity to do the abhisekh (bathing) of Srila Giriraj. Gurudev writes [in the Giriraj Govardhan Arati arati song] that Giriraj assumes the form of both sevya and sevak. The Lord is always sevya (the object of service, or worship)—Giriraj is always our Master. At the same time, in His form of Giriraj Hill, the Lord Himself also becomes a servitor (sevak). You can all look at the bas-relief of lifting the Govardhan above the altar and you can notice that Giriraj is like an umbrella over Krishna and He is also under Krishna's feet. Krishna is very short at this time, so He could not lift Govardhan high enough at first, that is why He kept one Govardhan sila under His feet and lifted Govardhan with His little finger high enough for everyone to take shelter underneath. In this way, Govardhan (sevya, the worshippable) becomes a servitor (sevak). Have you never noticed that? You can see the bas-relief above the altar. In this way, the Lord is always worshippable, but in Govardhan-lila, He also assumes the form of a servitor. That is why Srila Gurudev writes in the arati song,

sevya o sevakarupe nitya parakasa
sanande arati dekhe e adhama-dasa

"You are eternally manifested both as the worshipable Lord and as the servitor Lord. This fallen servant sees Your arati with great joy."

This is how Giriraj Govardhan manifests to us.

This temple Srila Sridhar Seva Ashram of our Guru Maharaj is located right in the middle of Govardhan, near Manasi Ganga (Mukharabindu, the mouth of the peacock-like Hill). We are very fortunate to be here.

Gurudev always wanted to stay here, and he is staying here now. He has made this chabutara (a raised hut) for himself and now he is staying there, engaged in his bhajan. Gurudev wanted to come here in his lifetime, but his health did not permit it because there is too much problem with electricity, it gets very hot and very cold so, so he could not come. However, now, by the mercy of Gurudev, we have made this puspa samadhi mandir, the Temple of Love and Affection and he is doing bhajan there. This is how we must see it. It is a very auspicious place, and it is our great fortunate to be able to come here.

We come here every year to do the parikrama of Govardhan and this abhisekh. We have already done half of the parikrama and today, after prasadam, we will do the rest of the parikrama. After that, tomorrow, we will go to Varshana, the house of Raja Vrisabhanu and Radharani, to Lalita Devi's house in Uchagaon, and to Nandagram...

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