STO-503 – The Lifting of Govardhana Hill
Krishna and Balarama saw that the cowherd men were preparing for a sacrifice to petition and placate Indra, the King of heaven, who is responsible for supplying water. A pure devotee of Lord Krishna doesn’t have to perform any of the ritualistic functions enjoined in the Vedas; nor is he required to worship any demigods.
In order to stop all such activities by His devotees, Krsna wanted to firmly establish exclusive devotional service unto Him during His presence in Vrindavan. Because He is all-knowing, Krishna knew this preparation was for the Indra sacrifice, but as a matter of etiquette He began to enquire with great honour and submission from Maharaja Nanda.
Krishna asked His father, “Please let me know the purpose of the sacrifice you are going to perform. Is it according to Vedic injunction? Or is it simply a popular ceremony?”
On hearing this inquiry from Krishna, Maharaja Nanda replied, “My dear son, this ceremonial performance is more or less tradition. Because rainfall is due to the mercy of Lord Indra and the clouds are his representatives, and since water is so important for our living, we must show our gratitude to the controller of this rainfall, Lord Indra. We are therefore arranging to please King Indra, because he has very kindly sent us clouds to pour down a sufficient quantity of rain for successful agricultural activities. Water is very important. Without rainfall we cannot farm or produce grain, and without grain we cannot live. Rain is therefore necessary for religious ceremonies, economic development, and ultimately liberation. So we should not give up this traditional ceremonial function.”
After hearing this, Lord Krishna, the Supreme Lord, spoke to make the heavenly King Indra very angry. He discouraged the sacrifice performed to please Indra with two reasons. Firstly, he stated that there was no need to worship any demigods for material benefits, since all results derived from demigod worship are temporary, and only the less intelligent are interested in temporary results. Lord Krishna’s second reason was that any temporary results obtained by demigod worship are actually granted by the Supreme, since without His permission, one cannot bestow any benefit upon others.
In this instant, Lord Krishna clearly wanted to make Indra angry. Although King Indra was a devotee of the Lord, he was puffed up by the influence of material nature, and Krishna wanted to teach him a lesson.
With this purpose in mind, Krishna began to talk as if He were an atheist, a person that does not accept the authority of the God. He said to Nanda Maharaja and the other cowherd men of Vrindavana that there is no need to worship any demigod, since every living being is born according to his past karma and leaves his life simply taking the result of his present karma. Krishna explained that different grades of happiness and distress are results of different kinds of activities, from either the past or present life.
Nanda Maharaja and other elder members argued that one cannot derive any good results simply by material activities and without satisfying the predominating deity. He argued that in order to achieve good agricultural results they must satisfy Indra who is in charge of rain supply. Lord Krishna nullified this argument, saying that the demigods only give results to the persons who have executed there prescribed duties. Lord Krishna said, “Let us, rather, perform our prescribed duties very nicely. The demigods will be satisfied by proper execution of all duties, so there is no need to worship them.” Krishna further explained to his father that “the cosmic manifestation is going on under the influence of three modes of material nature – goodness, passion and ignorance. These three modes of material nature are the causes of creation, maintenance and destruction. The cloud is caused by the action of the material mode of passion; therefore what has Indra to do with this affair? We do not derive any special benefit from Indra.”
After hearing this from Krishna, Nanda Maharaja agreed to his son’s wishes and prepared to satisfy the Govardhana Hill and the local brahmanas instead. Nice food preparations were made, charity was given to brahmanas and prasadam was distributed. When everything was complete, Krishna assumed a great transcendental form, and declared to the inhabitants of Vrindavana that He Himself was Govardhana Hill in order to convince the devotees that Govardhana Hill and Krishna Himself are identical.
When Indra understood, the sacrifice that was to be performed to him had been stopped by Krishna, he became extremely angry. As the director of different kinds of clouds, Indra called upon the Samvartaka cloud, which is invited when there is a need to devastate the whole cosmic manifestation. This cloud Indra ordered to go over Vrindavana and flood the whole area. Indra thought of himself as the Supreme controller, puffed up by his material position.
All the dangerous clouds appeared above Vrindavana, poured water over the land with constant lightning and thunder. The rainfall seemed to fall like piercing sharp arrows, and the clouds gradually filled all the lands of Vrindavana with water. The rainfall was accompanied by severe winds and cold. With no other source of shelter, all approached Govinda, and began to pray at his lotus feet. They prayed, “You are very affectionate towards your devotees, please protect us, who have been harassed by the angry Indra.”
Krishna could understand that Indra’s feeling of humiliation caused all this rain with heavy pieces of ice and strong winds, all out of season. He therefore concluded, “This demigod who thinks himself to be the Supreme has shown his great power, but I shall answer him according to my position, to teach him I am the Supreme Lord over all, and I shall thus take away his false prestige.”
In this way Krishna immediately lifted the Govardhana Hill with one hand, just as a child picks up a mushroom from the ground. Thus He exhibited this transcendental pastime of lifting Govardhana Hill. Lord Krsna then assured His devotees not to be afraid, and to be happy along with their property and animals underneath this great umbrella.
The inhabitants of Vrindavana remained there with their animals for one week, without being disturbed by hunger, thirst or any other discomforts. They were simply astonished to see how Krishna was holding up the mountain with the little finger of His left hand. Seeing Krsna’s extraordinary mystic power, Indra, the King of heaven, was thunderstruck and called for all the clouds to stop. As the sky became clear again, the sun rose and the winds stopped. Krishna, now known as the lifter of Govardhana Hill, said to His devotees, “My dear cowherd men, you may now leave with your wives, children, cows and valuables, because the destruction has ended.”
After the inhabitants had cleared out everything, Krishna very slowly replaced the hill in exactly the same position it had been in before. When everything was done, all the inhabitants of Vrindavana approached Krishna with great love and embraced Him with ecstasy. In the heavens, different demigods began to show complete satisfaction. There were showers of flowers on the surface of the earth and conch shells sounded. Lord Krishna, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, returned to His home surrounded by His dear friends and animals.