(5/9) Krishna, Stealer of Pride

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
20 November 2020, noon, part 5
Translated from Bengali

One day, Nanda Maharaj was doing Indra-puja (offering worship to the King of Heaven, Indra) because he knew that if you worship Lord Indra, there will be rains, and if there are rains, there will be grass, and if there is grass, then all the cows will have food. Nanda Maharaj had 900,000 cows, and if there was no grass, what would they eat? That is why everyone in Vrindavan used to worship Indra. So, when it was the time of Indra-puja, Mother Yasoda cooked and arranged on a plate many beautiful preparations – laddus, narus, kachoris, singaras, luchis, puris, cakes, various fruit. But then Gopal came. Waking up, He came out of His room and saw that His mother had prepared so many nice things. He took one sweetball. Mother Yasoda saw it and scolded Him, 'Hey! Put that down! Do you not know that it is Indra-puja day today? We are worshipping the Lord today, how can You eat before Him? It is bhoga, put it down!'

'Oh, you are worshipping the Lord today... What Lord?'

'Indra-puja. Do You not know who Indra is?'

'Indra's mother should make sweetballs for Indra! Why must My mother make sweetballs for him?'

'Stop Your tricks,' said Mother Yasoda to Gopal Krishna and told Him to go.

Gopal went to complain to His father, 'Father, Mother has scolded me. She did not give Me a sweetball! She says she must first worship Indra. Why is it necessary to worship Indra? We have Govardhan here. Worship Govardhan instead!'

'My boy, what will we get if we worship Govardhan?' Nanda Maharaj asked Him.

'You must worship Govardhan. Govardhan will protect you! If you worship Govardhan, he will give you everything.'

That day, Nanda Maharaj started Govardhan-puja. All the Vraja gopas and gopis started worshipping Govardhan, but Indra's pride was hurt, 'On the order of some small boy, they are now worshipping Govardhan stopping my worship! I will show them!' For seven days, Indra was sending non-stop rains – there were very dark clouds, thunder and continuous rain. All the land and houses became flooded. Where were all the residents and cows to go? Everyone came to Nanda Maharaj, 'Maharaj, what will we do now? Where will we go with our cows?' Nanda Maharaj asked his son, Gopal, 'We listened to You and did Govardhan-puja, and now it is raining so heavily. Where will we go?' Then, Gopal picked Govardhan with the little finger of His left hand and kept it above everyone like an umbrella. Because the water was still going underneath Govardhan, Krishna called the serpent Anantadev, who came and surrounded Govardhan on all four sides with his body, forming a fence. No water came underneath Govardhan after that. Despite all the rains, Indra could not do anything.

Then, Indra understood that he had made an offence. He thought, 'How will I ask forgiveness? If I come in front of the Lord, He will be angry...' Then, he remembered that Krishna loves cows very much. He came to a surabhi cow and said, 'Mother, Krishna loves you very much, and He becomes very happy when ones serves cows. That is why I have come to you.' Then, he asked for some milk from the cow (surabhi cows give milk without any milking – if anyone comes and asks a surabhi cow for some milk, she gives it freely), and the cow gave him much milk. Indra took that milk and made abhisekh (bathing) of Krishna and Govardhan with it. Krishna Himself said, 'I am Govardhan!', so He said, 'Before you do My abhisekh, do Govardhan's abhisekh!' And Indra bathed Govardhan and worshipped Krishna. Krishna accepted Indra's offering.

That is how Krishna got His name Darpa-harankari ('stealer of pride'), and this is how the annakut mahotsav was first observed in Dvapar-yuga.

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Language: Bengali

READ OTHER PARTS:

1) Result of Great Fortune
2) Beyond the Walls of Your Ego
3) Hanker and Try
4) Govardhan's Arrangement
5) Krishna, Stealer of Pride
6) Annakut Mahotsav
7) Who Are You? Where Are You?
8) Enter Service Plane
9) Taking the Holy Name