Sri Govardhan Puja (3):
Full Service

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Sri Govardhan Puja Programme
29 October 2019, translated from Bengali, part 3

I have told you before that it is not necessary to know any mantra to worship the Lord—it is necessary to have a clean heart. "I am worshipping the Deity!", "I am doing service!"—such thoughts must not come to you. We must think and pray that the Lord, to Giriraj, that He may give us His mercy and engage us in His service.

I have told you the pastime of Govardhan's appearance before. I will tell it today again.

Govardhan Parvat appeared as a son of Drona Parvat (Dronachal) in the west of India in Salmaladwip. At that time, there was a sage named Pulastya Muni who lived in Kashi (Benares). You know that even in Mahaprabhu's time Kashi was a place of jnana-margi (followers of the path of knowledge) and mayavadi (impersonalists) who always pursued liberation. Pulastya Muni was a powerful yogi who was travelling around India visiting all holy places. One day, as he was travelling, he came to Salmaladwip where he saw Govardhan Parvat and became very much attracted to Him. Pulastya Muni thought to himself, "If I take this Govardhan to Kashi, then Kashi devotees could serve and pray to Him and they will all get liberation!" So, Pulastya Muni asked Drona Parvat, the father of Govardhan, "Give me your son, I want to take Him to Kashi." Drona Parvat was a little sad at first, but then he thought, "What am I to do? Pulastya Muni will curse me if I do not give him what is he is begging for." So, Drona Parvat had to agree and give up his son, but he had one condition, "You can take Govardhan, but once you start carrying Him, you cannot put Him down anywhere."

We always say that we have crossed eighty-four million species before getting this human birth. Anyone who does the parikrama of Govardhan does not have to wander throughout those eighty-four million species ever again—one returns to the Lord. Originally, Govardhan's area was also eighty-four million miles, but now He has become smaller. Why?

Pulastya Muni accepted Drona Parvat's condition and, having mounted Govardhan onto his shoulder, started carrying Him to Kashi. When they were passing Vrindavan, Govardhan knew that Lord Krishna would appear here and perform His Radha-Krishna pastimes, so Govardhan decided, "I will not leave this beautiful place—I will not go to Kashi!" Then, Govardhan started pressing Pulastya Muni's shoulder so much that he could not carry Him any more—not being able to tolerate so much pressure, Pulastya Muni had to put Govardhan down. Moreover, Govardhan had given so much pressure to him that he actually had to go to the bathroom. He went to pass stool, took bath, and then came back, but when he tried to lift Govardhan again, Govardhan said, "I will not go from here! You know the condition—when you took Me up, you had to carry Me without putting Me down anywhere, but you have put Me down here, so I will not go to Kashi—I will stay here!" Pulastya Muni got angry, "You will not go?! Then I curse You! You will not remain this big—every day You will become smaller in length and height by the size of one sesame seed!"

This is how Govardhan appeared. Life and good people will continue existing on this earth for as long as there is Govardhan, for as long as there is Yamuna, for as long as there is Ganga, and for as long as there are sadhus and Vaishnavs bathing in Ganga and Yamuna.

[At the end, His Divine Grace mentions the example of young Doyal Nitai Prabhu of Singapore:]

You must have seen yesterday—we came late and everybody was very tired, but you saw that one small boy did the whole parikrama playing a mridanga! Service is necessary, but service must be full. You start something and then leave it half-way—not like this. This small boy played a mridanga to the end yesterday.

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