Appearance of Sri Giriraj Govardhan

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Sri Govardhan Puja Adhivas day
Kolkata—Worldwide, 15 November 2020, part 2

There is one island province to the west of India called Salmalidvip (an island of Salmali). This is the place where Govardhan appeared as a son of Drona Parvat, Drona Hill. When Govardhan appeared, all demigods became very happy and showered flowers from the sky. All demigods praised Govardhan, "Govardhan is the King of Giri Samaj [Assembly of Hills], the Crown of Goloka, He is like an umbrella. Vrindavan is situated on His lap." That is how Govardhan became known as Giriraj [King of Hills].

One day, a sage called Pulastya Muni was visiting various holy places, when he came to that Salmalidvip. When he saw Dronachal-nandan Giriraj Govardhan, he was astonished and very charmed by its beauty. Pulastya Muni came to Dronachal, and Dronachal worshipped Pulastya Muni, paid obeisance to him, give him all possible respect. Then, Pulastya Muni told that Dronachal, "I live in Kasi where there is Ganga and Mahadev, and it is universally known that if any sinner comes to Kasi, all their sins and offences are removed. It is my desire to bring Govardhan to Kasi. Please give your son to me so that I can take him to Kasi, Benares." Hearing Pulastya Muni's prayer, Dronachal became very sad. He thought, "If I do not give my son to this muni, he can curse me." After much deliberation, Dronachal told his son Govardhan, "You can go with Pulastya Muni..." Now, you know that now Govardhan is seven miles long (eight-four krosh), but originally Govardhan is eight yojanas long (100 km, or 65 miles), five yojanas wide (65 km, or 40 miles), and two yojanas high (25 km, or 15 miles). How will Pulastya Muni take Govardhan from Salmalidvip to Kasi? Hearing his father's order, Govardhan asked Pulastya Muni, "How will you take me there?" Pulastya Muni assured him, "Do not worry, I can do it on the strength of my mystic powers." Then, Govardhan said, "I will go with you, but on one condition. If you cannot carry me all the way continuously—if something happens and you keep me in any place on the way to take rest—then I will stay there, I will not move from there." Pulastya Muni promised, "Yes, I will not put you down anywhere on the way. I will go straight to Kasi." Then, Maha-bala Govardhan offered obeisance to his father Dronachal and Pulastya Muni easily picked him up in his hand and carried away.

They were going slowly to Kasi, but on their way they were passing Vraja-mandal. When they came there and Govardhan saw how beautiful and sweet that place was, when he understood that Sri Krishna's childhood pastimes would take place there, that Yamuna, gopas, gopis, Radhika, all this would appear there, he thought, "I will not go anywhere! I will not leave this place! I will stay here." Then, Govardhan gave so much pressure to Pulastya Muni's hand with his weight that Pulastya Muni could not tolerate it and had to keep Govardhan down. He put Govardhan down at that same very place in Vraja-bhumi where he is now.

After that, Munibara went away for a while, bathed, recited mantras, etc. and when he came back, he said to Govardhan, "All right, let us go to Kasi now." Govardhan said, "I will not go. You have broken your promise!" (It was not even so much because Pulastya Muni had broken his promise—Govardhan himself wanted to stay there.) Then, Munibara tried to again pick Govardhan up in his hand, but he could not do it. He prayed to Govardhan, "Please come with me!" but Govardhan did not agree to go. Then, Pulastya Muni became very angry and cursed Govardhan, "If you do not come with me, if you do not fulfil my desire, then I curse you! Every day you will decrease in size by one sesame seed!"

It is said in the scriptures that for as long as there is Ganga, Yamuna, Govardhan in this world, everything in this world will be going on perfect...

— : • : —

{ 2001  |   2002  |   2003  |   2005  |   2009  |   2010  |   2011  |   2012 }
{ 2013  |   2014  |   2015  |   2016  |   2017  |   2018  |   2019  |   2020  |   2021 }

• Listen to the audio or download (2.2 Mb, 6 min)