Govardhan Puja – The rising of consciousness from anna-maya kosha to ananda-maya kosha

[Festival talk at ISKCON, Columbus, USA]

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Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
Krishna.
Today is the festival of Govardhan Pooja and I will speak on this topic of how the Govardhan Pooja represents the raising of consciousness from Anandamayi Kosh to Anandamayi Kosh. So, I will talk about this in three parts. First, what are the Koshas and how the various Koshas, consciousness rises from one to another and then the Govardhan pastime, how it demonstrates that.
Essentially, our state of life, our state of happiness is determined by our consciousness. We may have the best of possessions around us but if our mind is agitated our consciousness is thinking of something unpalatable. We can’t be happy.
So, now the study of consciousness has been central to the Dharmic texts of ancient India. You can say that most of the Dharmic texts they are highly consciousness conscious. Very conscious of their consciousness.
To today’s world, most of modern science is very matter conscious. If you are conscious of matter, now matter interacts with other matter and you have found a lot of knowledge about that. And there are various frames in which the study of consciousness has been analysed.
A study of consciousness has been undertaken. And one such frame of analysis is the koshas. So, kosha is basically, you could say, it has I’ll take multiple meanings but let me take one meaning first.
It basically refers to the level of consciousness that determines one’s conception of life. So, level of consciousness So, let’s look at the five broad koshas. Does anyone know the names? The koshas? Annamayi, Pranamayi, Jnanamayi, Annamayi, Jnanamayi, Anandamayi.
Yes, thank you. Sometimes in the Upanishads, nomenclatures might be slightly different. And hierarchies are sometimes slightly over.
So, there might be slightly difference in the hierarchies. But broadly, if we consider the Pranamayi kosha. So, Maya means full of.
So, Pranamayi kosha is where one is concerned primarily with Prana, with survival. And, we could say this is the level where most biology conceives life. The purpose of life is survival.
Survival and reproduction. And that is where all living beings come into existence. Living beings have incredible creativity to maintain their existence.
So, we could say the purpose of life is the perpetuation of life. That is one conception of life. What is the purpose of living? I just want to keep living.
I want to keep living or I want to make sure that I reproduce and through my descendants I keep living. Whichever way. That is the Pranamayi kosha.
Then there is the Annamayi kosha. Annamayi kosha is where so, I need to survive. But for surviving, I need something outside of myself.
This is the outside world. In the Pranamayi kosha, you see the outside world primarily as a source of danger. The outside world conceives so many dangers which can threaten and destroy my life at any moment.
And I have to protect myself. So, the idea is that I am pitted in a battle against the outer world. Which is true at one level, but that is not the only truth.
While the outer world causes a lot of dangers, the outside world also provides me a lot of things. So, at the Annamayi kosha, my vision changes that I need food to it and I get that from the outer world. So, newborn babies are often in the Annamayi kosha.
For them, all of existence is potential food. They will experience the world through their tongue. They will suck their finger, they will suck their toe, they will take a toy and put it in their mouth.
Because they have got nourishment from their mother’s breast, which has come from their mouth. So, they see all of existence as potential food. Now, this Annamayi kosha, when we rise to higher koshas, it is not that the lower koshas are eliminated, but rather they are built on.
These are like, if you say, consider a staircase. When you go to a higher level in the staircase, you are already there on the lower step. The height which one had come to on the lower step, we are on that height and we are built on it.
So, when one is at a higher kosha, one is also in the lower kosha, but one is moved. So, at the level of Annamayi kosha, the consciousness is very much about food. And from the Annamayi kosha onwards, humanity starts differentiating itself from other species.
At the level of survival, we all are struggling to survive. But at the level of eating, we humans are much more creative than other animals. A cow will keep eating the same grass among all species, no other species known to cook food.
There are hundreds and thousands of ways in which we cook and make so many delicious cuisines. So, basically, in the human form, we have the capacity to seek more pleasure than what nature naturally offers us. So, a cow gets some pleasure in eating grass, but that’s what nature has naturally offered us.
But we humans have the capacity to seek more pleasure than what nature naturally offers. And that’s why we take what nature has given, say, the four ingredients, and then we combine them in various cuisines, and we make more delicious food. And a large part of humanity exists at the Annamayi kosha.
So, when we have festivals, festivals serve many purposes. Festivals serve the purpose of just breaking the monotony of our life. We have something new to do.
We go to a new place, we do certain new activities which we don’t do everyday. At one level, they just break from the monotony of life. But another sense, especially the festivals which are sacred festivals, festivals centred on Krishna, on God, they have this purpose of raising consciousness.
Now, there are different ways to raise consciousness. One is when we reject what we have, and we go higher. Okay, all this is temporary, all this is material, I give it up, and I go higher.
The other is, we use what we have for a higher purpose. We use what we have for a higher purpose. So, that is what is done in the many of the festivals.
In most festivals, if you consider Govardhan Puja and Diwali, most, many of us who grew up in India, Diwali basically meant two things, firecrackers and food. So, there’s not much conception of anything sacred being the centre of it. And while at one level it is unfortunate, but at another level it is predictable.
Most people will be at a particular level of consciousness. And that’s how humanity is. So, the idea of festivals is the consciousness at which everybody is, use that consciousness for spiritualising.
Everybody wants to have a break, everybody wants a break from monotony, yes, have a break from monotony. And then Govardhan Puja is a festival which is centred on food. Broadly speaking, there are these, there is, within the Vaishnava Bhakti tradition, there is the Krishna Bhakti and the Rama Bhakti.
And both of them are very powerful traditions. Millions and millions of followers going on for thousands of years. Hare Krishna.
Hare Krishna. Am I audible? It’s difficult. Okay.
Hare Krishna. Krishna Bhakti and Rama Bhakti traditions, they all have their own festivals, but there are some times when both of them come together. And this Diwali, Govardhan, this whole month of Kartik, there is Diwali festival which is often centred on Lord Ram and his, is it? Okay, it’s difficult.
It’s down here. Okay. Am I audible? Yes.
So then, what happens is, that when these two festivals come together, so there is a historical origin of the festivals at a particular time. But when they are celebrated, often they are celebrated together. So the Govardhan Puja festival is especially celebrated commemorating commemorating Krishna’s pastimes.
And we could see from a functional perspective, what the Govardhan Puja involves is cooking a lot of food, offering that food, and not only offering that food actually, we often make that food into mounts, replicating what the Govardhan Puja did. And then that food is distributed. Where food is distributed.
If, if we are kind, we distribute it to others. Otherwise, we distribute it to ourselves. So, on the Govardhan Puja day, if we go to Govardhan, we do Parikrama.
Actually, there are so many places where people are distributing foods. We do the Govardhan Parikrama. Actually, that whole day, you don’t have to make any arrangement for meals.
It’s a festival of food. Now, the idea is, as I said, everybody is at a particular kosha. And Annamaya kosha is a place where everyone is, more or less.
Then, use that kosha, that level of consciousness to connect people with higher consciousness. So, when the food is offered to Krishna, when the food is offered by devotees of Krishna to others in a devotional context, it is a way by which we all can remember Krishna. This is from the functional perspective.
Now, if you look from the historical perspective of the Leela itself, the Bhagavatam has a particular purpose. At one level, the purpose is to help Parikshit Maharaj to remember Krishna. And another level, the Bhagavatam’s purpose is to establish that Krishna is the most intimate and the most loving form of divinity.
And, in many ways, the whole idea of Krishna as God is highly counterintuitive. Because, Krishna doesn’t look any way like a stereotyped conception of God. Krishna is, in the Abrahamic religions, for example, they have the idea of God as an old man wearing a beard, sitting on the clouds, sending thunderbolts on the sinful, to cast them to hell forever.
And then, people with these conceptions, they came to India, they came to North India, to the Mathura area, and they saw these beautiful temple carvings and wall paintings of this sweet little boy all over. They asked, who is this? This is God. God? What is he doing? He is stealing butter.
He just became intellectually short-circuited. One of the qualities of God is that he can never do anything immoral. So, how can God steal? And even if he has to steal, why butter of all things? It is a very difficult, and it’s not just for people who are unfamiliar with the Vedic tradition, to appreciate this Krishna conception of divinity.
Krishna is God, but he doesn’t delight in his Godhood. He delights in the full gamut of emotions that comprise a rich relationship. And thus, he doesn’t want just people to ask him.
He doesn’t want a master-servant of parent-child relationship. He wants the inverted relationships. He wants it, and his devotees also want it.
So, Krishna offers that. So, he becomes a child, and his devotee becomes his mother. So, Krishna, this form of divinity is difficult for anyone to appreciate.
And this happens even to those within the Vedic tradition, even to the devatas. They find it difficult to appreciate Krishna’s divinity. And the Bhagavatam, in the 10th Canto, describing certain pastimes shows how… Am I audible? Like this? What happened? So, Krishna is Hare Krishna.
So, I’m empowered again, no? Then everybody will become disempowered. Okay. Hare Krishna.
Okay. Is it okay? So, when Krishna is this particular form of divinity, it’s something which is very difficult to appreciate even for the devatas. It is described that the devatas themselves, they came and they prayed to Krishna when he was in the mother’s womb.
Garbha Stuti, you know, the celebrated section of the 10th Canto, the Bhagavatam, when they offered prayers to Krishna, that you have defended for everything. You are the ultimate truth. So, there are many beautiful verses over there.
But, the very nature of Krishna’s pastimes is such that Krishna acts like such a sweet, helpless, dependent boy that everyone forgets that he is God. So, what the Bhagavatam does is, it repeatedly reminds and it reminds by showing how even great personalities. So, in the hierarchy, there is the terrestrial level, the humans are there and above us, the gods are there.
So, the celestial is above us. So, the terrestrial, celestial and above this is the transcendental. So, the earthly, the heavenly and the spiritual.
Now, Krishna descends from the spiritual level to this level. So, in a sense, Krishna exists above the devatas. But when he descends to the world and he functions in this world, he acts almost like an ordinary human being.
And thus, even the devatas get deluded, thinking that he belongs to this level. And when this perception might come, Krishna suddenly manifests his own voice. And he demonstrates how, although he is existing at this level, he doesn’t belong to this level.
There are some traditions who say that God is infinite, this world is finite. And they say that the infinite can never descend into the finite world. How can the finite house the infinite? I mean, that is true at one level, but the proper understanding is that God is infinite, but he is not stuck with his infinity.
Some people are very tall. They can see above everybody’s head. But then, if there is a load over, they are stuck with their height.
They cannot suddenly decrease their height. They have to go down, they have to come inside. So, somebody who is tall, they are tall, but they are stuck with their height.
Krishna is infinite, but Krishna is not stuck with his infinity. Krishna is infinite, but his infinity is such that he can manifest in a finite form and still remain infinite. So, the infinity is not that he cannot come in the finite, in the more infinite world or in a finite form.
He can come in a finite form, but still he can manifest in a finite potency through that infinite world. So, when Krishna descends to the world, even though Indra, Brahma, all of these devatas have come and they pray to Krishna earlier, but when Krishna’s leela starts, then they become bewildered. And there are two main devatas who are bewildered by Krishna’s Vrindavan pastimes.
Who are those devatas? Brahma and Indra. Now, Brahma and Indra, both of them are very great devatas and specifically mentioned in the Garbhasutra, Brahma and Indra both had come over. Both of them get bewildered.
And there is a slight difference, which we are not going to write now. But in the case of Indra, it is that he, at one level, Krishna provokes him. There are times when maya provokes people and there are times when Krishna provokes people.
Now, at one level, maya and Krishna are very different. Maya is the force of illusion and Krishna is the ultimate reality. That’s true, but ultimately, both of them are serving the same purpose.
So, both of them are ultimately drawing us to a higher understanding. So, when Krishna provokes, it is like, say, suppose the spiritual master tests us. And at that time, there is some other option which the spiritual master doesn’t want us to do.
We have to do this. So, actually, it is being done to check what is our understanding. So, I was in Australia and somebody asked me this question.
If God is good, then why are there so many bad options in the world? If God is good and wants us to do good, then why are the bad options so many and the good options so few? So, I answered that’s how it always is in any multiple choice exam. Laughter So, four wrong options, only one right option. You know, maybe in America the students can sue the teacher.
You who have rigged the game in such a way that I’ll pay. You set the passing marks at 40% and the probability is only 20% I’ll get right. Well, you are not meant to answer the question based on probability.
You are meant to answer based on your learning, your education. So, Krishna only gives us the right options and Krishna only gives the wrong options. And he gives us the knowledge if we want to choose the right option.
So, in this particular Leela, it is Krishna who provokes him. And why does he provoke? Because, at a bigger picture level, it is that the Bhagavatam and Krishna is acting as a human being. Those who may misconstrue that Krishna is an ordinary person, for them it is demonstrated.
Krishna is greater than you in the greatest cause. But at other level, Krishna is also educating the students. So, how does Krishna provoke Indra? Every year, the Brajwasis perform this Indra Puja.
And Indra Puja centres on making offerings. The idea is that we live in an interconnected cosmos. And at the earthly level, we get many gifts from the celestial level.
We get air, water, we get grains from the earth. And then we need to offer tributes. Just like we offer taxes to the government.
Similarly, we as a government also need to offer. So, the Brajwasis accordingly are performing the Puja. And the Yagya is performed at one level.
Just like if you consider the government. The government needs taxes to function. But at other level, if a particular part of a state or a country stops paying taxes, it’s not just the government’s revenues cut off, but that is an act of defiance.
You are rejecting our authority. And then, the government may take action because of that also. So, the Brajwasis at one level are doing the right thing.
They are offering Indra Puja. But in general, whenever anybody is in a position of authority, the tendency is that when we are in a position of authority, we forget that there is a higher authority above. That is the nature of Maya.
In the 16th chapter of Krishna Siddhanta Bhagavad Gita, Who is there like me? Who is there like me? So, Indra is in a position of authority. And at one level, he is a Devata. So, he is authorised to receive sacrifices.
But when we are in a position of authority, the tendency is to think that we are the supreme authority. And Krishna wants to correct that. So, here, what does Krishna do? Krishna very sweetly speaks to the Brajwasis and says, You don’t have to do a sacrifice to Indra.
But Indra, he means, Indra is simply an officer who has to do his duty. So, if we do our dharma, then he has to cure it. He is not doing any favours for us.
Because if we do our dharma, if we take care of our cows and we take care of our We do our duty as cow-girls, Indra has to cure it. So, basically, what Krishna does is, Krishna speaks the Karma Vimamsa philosophy. Karma Vimamsa is described by Acharya Baldev Devoshan.
Suppose somebody hears a class, it’s a complicated class, and they don’t understand the class properly. Generally, it is said that if the audience is attentive in a class, they will get about 20% of the class. If they are attentive.
And only God knows which 20%. So, the six systems of philosophy. In India, the Vedas are generally considered to be authority.
But the Vedas, when they are heard, they are quite complicated. So, if you ask six different people, what is spoken in the class? It’s quite likely they will give quite different versions. Because everybody registers something, then it’s natural.
But then, if somebody says, this is all that is spoken in the class, then it is a problem. So, what happens is that when the Vedas are heard, then these different sages hear the Vedas, and they gain certain understandings, and they teach those understandings. So, that’s how the six systems of philosophy.
One of those is the Karma Vimamsa. Karma Vimamsa is progressive. Different people, they hear somebody who is a very new person, they hear one or two points and they understand it.
Somebody who is a very seasoned devotee, very attentive, they themselves are a speaker. Then, if you ask them, you are most likely to get the most accurate understanding of what is spoken. So, similarly, it is said that the six systems are progressive.
So, there is Yoga, Samkhya, Karma Vimamsa, there is Vedanta, Vedanta is the final one. So, Karma Vimamsa is one of those philosophies where one hears the Vedas and gets a partial understanding. The Vedanta is the most conclusive understanding.
And in the Vedanta Sutra, Vande Vidya Bhushan, Vasudeva himself in Vande Vidya Bhushan’s commentary establishes how Vedanta is the highest. So, Krishna here speaks the Karma Vimamsa. Karma Vimamsa means that he speaks he speaks a slightly distorted understanding of things.
Sometimes you can just tweak a sentence and give a completely different meaning. Let’s suppose some devotee is to be recommended for some post-mortem initiation or some responsibility, responsible service in the temple. So, somebody who wants to recommend him, let me say, he had problems earlier, but he is stable now.
Somebody who doesn’t want, who opposes the recommendation, let me say, he is stable now, but he had problems earlier. So, the facts are the same. But the twist that is given to them is completely opposite.
So, what Karma Vimamsa does is, it is true, that if we do our duty, we will get the results. But it is not simply our duty that produces the results. It is our duty that it is sanctioned through some higher authorities.
So, what happens? Krishna, he just removes Indra from the picture. And so, here Krishna is the absolute truth, but he is not speaking the absolute truth. He deliberately speaks something else to provoke Indra.
And when he speaks this, naturally Indra becomes provoked, agitated. Indra is agitated. Rajivasi, they stopped, they stopped the sacrifice.
They don’t do sacrifice for me. Suppose there is a big programme and say, suppose you are invited as a speaker for a programme, or a chief guest of honour for a programme. And now suddenly you come to know that you are not invited as a speaker.
Oh, really? Then you ask, who is inviting? And then you find some utterly unknown nobody is invited. It’s one thing to be it’s one thing to be replaced, but it’s another thing to be replaced by somebody who is utterly unworthy. It’s like say some big cricket player is there and expects to be in the team.
He is considered as the star of the team. And then they are not included in the team. Some utterly unknown player, nobody has heard about that player.
He is replaced by somebody so insensitive. To be removed itself is bad enough, but to be removed and replaced by somebody who is not even worthy, that’s outrageous. So Krishna, when he wants to provoke, he does a full provocation programme.
So, he decides, he tells them, he tells, there is no need to worship him. And then after that, he tells a philosophy that is actually wrong. I was once at a mediation, and then one devotee told another devotee, if you want to speak a lie, at least respect my intelligence by speaking a believable lie.
So, Krishna speaks a philosophy which is not the ultimate philosophy. And he starts to sacrifice. And then he starts to sacrifice to Indira.
And he replaces her that way too. With a sacrifice to whom? To cover them. Now for Indira, it’s just a hill.
The God, the King of the Gods is replaced by a hill. It’s just unbearable. How dare? How can anyone do like this? He just becomes furious.
And in his fury, generally, all of us become angry. That’s just natural. Because life provokes attacks.
But all of us, to our anger, have certain limits. If I get angry, I might yell at someone. But I am not physically maybe I assault someone.
Or even if I physically assault someone, I just use my fist. I am not using a knife or a gun or something like that. But, depending on the kind of sanskaras, the kind of impressions we have, our impressions create our boundaries.
That these are the boundaries I will not cross, no matter what happens. It’s not that these boundaries are entirely non-negotiable. Some types of associations that we are having, the kind of people we see and perceive, the boundaries may also be negotiated.
But we all have certain ideas this is unacceptable. No matter how angry I get, no matter how I am proved, I will do this. But beyond this, I cannot go.
Generally, the difference between the devatas and the asuras is not that the devatas are spiritually conscious and the asuras are materially conscious. Devatas are also materially conscious. Devatas also want worldly pleasures.
But the devatas have boundaries. The devatas Vishnu Vishnu Bhakta Suto Devo Asuras Rajipanya However, when the Mahabharata describes, at times, the devatas they cross their boundaries. And one time I was asked this question that Indra, he keeps committing so many mistakes.
Why is that? Why do we consider Indra to be a respectable person? But he keeps committing mistakes after mistake after mistake. So we have to understand that actually bhagavatam is demonstrating the glory of bhakti as compared to punya. So Indra is the highest position to be attained by living the life of punya.
Somebody lives very virtuously with all the good things in life. Good, not necessarily devoted to God, but good, punya. Then they can attain the post of punya.
The bhagavatam is showing that punya is good but it is not punya. Bhakti is far greater. So, to demonstrate how bhakti is greater than punya, time and time again, the bhagavatam uses the summit of the path of punya as a tool to demonstrate the glory of bhakti.
So if we read the Rig Veda, which is primarily a book of punya, then the glory of Indra is talked about in great terms. So context is very important. It is not that Indra is not a respectable person.
But in the bhakti text, the purpose is to demonstrate the glory of bhakti over everything else. That’s why this particular angle is taken. So, suppose, to give a simple example to understand this, suppose, maybe there is a video which is going to teach some cricket players legspin bowling.
And if somebody wants to teach legspin bowling, you don’t say just some ordinary player getting out. Maybe some world champion player. Until this time, this legspin made an out like that.
This legspin made an out like that. And somebody sees only that scene. This batsman only gets out.
He never scores any runs. No! That batsman is a champion batsman. And if you want to know more about that batsman, read other books about it.
Read other things. This is a CD about legspin bowling. And then how even a batsman as great as that can be clean bowled? Can get out? That’s described.
Sometimes we start thinking of Indra almost like a cartoon character. He always keeps doing these two things which are inappropriate. But it’s not like that.
Krishna is using Indra to serve a particular purpose only. So when Indra gets angry, he crosses all limits. And he is provoked.
Like earlier I said that a particular district or a particular county doesn’t pay taxes to the state. And then the county can impose some sanctions or have some disciplinary action. On the county some disciplinary action can be done.
But suppose the state comes and drops a nuclear bomb and destroys the whole county. That is disproportionate. So what Indra does is the equivalent of dropping a nuclear bomb on Govind.
He just gets all the power in his command. There are severe rains, kind of rains that he can dispatch in the time of universal destruction. And not only there are rains, there are severe storms, there is thunderbolt, there is lightning.
And he makes his full effort to destroy the government. So he it’s significant. Anger is very peculiar.
In the sense that when anger comes and whom the anger will target, it’s not so easy to understand. When we get angry quite often, generally if we consider most other weapons, there is lust or there is greed, usually the trigger for the lust and the target of the lust are the same. Trigger for the greed and the target for the greed are the same.
That means, I see this, I want to kill. But in anger what happens, often the trigger is one and the target is another. And sometimes we happen to be the target.
And we don’t know, what did I do? We may have done nothing. So in one sense, Krishna has provoked Indra. But Indra’s anger goes towards the Brajwasis.
He is still not digested the idea that Krishna is God. And he thinks, Krishna is a child. He is a small child.
He thinks he speaks very small. But his anger is not with Indra. His anger is with all the Brajwasis.
Because he is a child. He may speak whatever he wants. How dare you listen to him? How dare you listen to him and you stop my sacraments? You are doing the sacraments.
If you stop it, you deserve to be punished. And also he thinks that if the Brajwasis are punished, then Krishna is also punished. So he tries to destroy all of Indra.
And at that time, what Krishna does is that Krishna basically, first Krishna has replaced Indra with Govinda. And then after that, that itself is a very big blow to the ego of Indra. But as I said, Krishna wants to give a treatment.
It’s like a pro-treatment. In the Acharya Panchayat, an expert physician, when they do a surgery, they remove all traces of the disease. So here what Krishna does is, he doesn’t just say that Govardhan is to be worshipped.
But Krishna shows how Govardhan is stronger than Indra. How he does that is, the Brajwasis stop worshipping Indra to worship Govardhan. And then Krishna uses Govardhan to stop the entire attack of Indra.
And Krishna lifts Govardhan and he calls all the Brajwasis. And Krishna calls all the Brajwasis to come. Now somebody might ask you, how can a small boy lift up a whole hill? Now if somebody is, rational is good, but to be ultra-rational is not.
Somebody says, I have this phone. I don’t know if I can do anything to the phone now. So, if I try to hold it on my little finger, it’s very difficult.
I’ll have to find the centre of gravity. And then balance it perfectly. So, even if it is not too heavy and even if I could balance it, but still I have to first find the centre of gravity.
How did Krishna find the centre of gravity of Govardhan? To hold it aloft. Krishna doesn’t have to find the centre of gravity, because he is the source of gravity. So, Maya did say in her prakriti, that the laws of nature work under you.
And God performs miracles. Miracles are not against science. They are above science.
We still accept the validity of science. But then, God is above that. And sometimes God can intervene in miracles.
And Krishna had a particular purpose. So, Krishna used Govardhan to lift, to protect, to protect the vijwasis. And Krishna’s mother, Yashoda, became very anxious.
She says, Krishna, how can you lift this big Govardhan? And mother Yashoda said, actually, Krishna has to pacify it. She said, actually, I am not lifting Govardhan. This Govardhan is so satisfied and happy with all the bhoga that we offered him, that he is himself risen in ecstasy.
And he said, I am keeping my finger just for you. So, in the yajna, the vijwasis have prepared big, big sacrifices to give to Indra. But all that was given to Govardhan.
So, Krishna says that Govardhan is risen in ecstasy. And mother Yashoda says, if it is limited to that Govardhan is risen in ecstasy, then remove your finger. And all the vijwasis, no, no, no! They don’t remove the finger.
So, Krishna holds on to the finger. And, in the Anubandhama Champu, Kali Kalapu describes, normally, we do hear that, actually, nobody was hurt in Vrindavan. Nobody at all.
Everybody was perfectly protected. Not even the hair of anyone was hurt. But, Vishwanatha Jagraku says, then what to speak of? The hair of any Vrajvasi being hurt, not even a leaf or Govardhan was broken.
So, he says, not only those under Govardhan were protected, what was above Govardhan also protected? So, it’s like, sometimes, you see a boxing match, and it’s a big ball, a boxer comes, and it’s a big blow. And the other person, nothing happens. He says, what happened? He comes again, nothing happens.
He says, again, it’s dangerous. Nothing happens. So, Indra comes and keeps hitting blows for seven days, and nothing happens at all.
Not only nothing happens to Vrajvasi, nothing happens to Govardhan. So, what Krishna does is completely demolish Indra’s pride. So, He describes that Krishna didn’t even lift Govardhan on his little finger.
The little finger itself is one of the weakest part of our functional limbs. So, now, Krishna lifted Govardhan on the nail of the little finger. Caught him with the little finger.
And he used that. A wrestler comes, and somebody with the left hand catches him and knocks him away. He humiliated him with left hand.
Or somebody just comes and touches the left finger. Bad enough. Somebody just comes and scratches with the nail of the little finger.
So, Krishna, when he wants to take away the pride of someone, Krishna does that. And Indra is completely mortified with that. The whole universe, he has exhibited his power, and he is realised and powerless.
After seven days, he gives up because he just has nothing left. And then, generally what happens, as long as we are caught in thoughts of our own power, we don’t think of any power bigger than ours. But when we start finding that our power is not adequate, maybe there is a higher power.
And maybe somebody can help. So, Indra is not demoniac, but in this particular purpose, in this particular context, he gets caught in demonic consciousness. And then he starts thinking.
And gradually, when the intoxication of his own power goes down, then he starts thinking. Is there some higher peak? A few months ago, there was Cricket World Cup. I was in Australia at that time.
One of my friends had gone from India to UK for watching the Cricket World Cup. And at that time, the India-Pakistan Cricket Match was supposed to be at the height of the championship. At that time, a lot of matches apparently were wiped out because of freaks.
And he called me when I was in Australia. And he said, I have purchased this India-Pakistan match ticket for 1,000 pounds. One ticket.
1,000 pounds. Now it’s much more. It’s 1,800.
1,500 dollars. One ticket. And he said, I know you are devoted to God.
Can you pray to God that at least the Cricket World Cup… He said, I am not even praying that India should win. Just the match should happen. Apparently, the ICC has the rules that if even one ball is… if no ball is bowled, then you will get a complete refund.
If one ball is also bowled, then there is no refund. But he said, I haven’t got this ticket in black. So, I am not going to get any refund.
So, please. So, generally, when we start realising that it’s beyond my power to do anything, then we start thinking of surviving. So, Indira was exercising his power to the full extent.
And when it just didn’t work, that’s when he said, you are very lucky. And then he realised that I have made a very big mess of things. And then he called Suryakumar.
He said, please help me. And then, when generally, when somebody is angry with us, they feel afraid to approach that person. So, they are already angry with us.
But if there is somebody who is dear to them, we go to them. Then what happens? They may see us and become angry. But they will see that person and feel happy.
And hopefully, the happiness will trump over the anger. I will not use that word, trump. It will conquer over the anger.
So, with that hope, you know, the cows are very dear to Krishna. So, he goes to the Surabhi cow. And Indra thought earlier, I am the shelter of everyone and they don’t take shelter of me.
Out there, they don’t take shelter of me. So, he saw that he was replaced by Govardhan. But then, now, that same Indra had to take shelter of a cow.
So, Krishna demonstrates the glory of Govardhan and also the cows. And then, when he comes with the cow, now, Krishna has served his point. So, Krishna doesn’t Krishna will take away our ego and whatever he has.
But Krishna doesn’t humiliate more than necessary. So, Krishna, he doesn’t demand that Indra come in the middle of Vrindavan and in front of all the Rajavasis, seek forgiveness. It’s privately.
And Krishna is going out holding the cows. The cows go a little farther away. And Krishna goes away and Indra takes their time to come.
Now, at that time, Indra offers beautiful prayers. He says, please forgive me for what I did. And Krishna says, actually, all this was done by me so that I can free you from your pride.
And he says, I want you to retain your position. But, don’t have that same disposition. So, remember that you are myself.
And have this position in the mode of service. So, devotion is not so much about changing of position as about changing of disposition. So, the disposition is, I am the enjoyer, I am the controller, I am the boss.
Whereas, I am the servant, I am the contributor. I am here to assist and serve him. So, Krishna is the motive.
He says, I am that mode. And with that mode, you can go back. And Krishna at that time doesn’t express much anger towards Indra.
Because the whole idea there is that Krishna has served his purpose. So, Indra, he had this early this, all his offerings were made to him. And he was furious because the offerings didn’t come to him.
But then what happened? Those offerings, they are not, for him as a devotee to get the offerings is not the problem. But for him, to develop the entitlement mentality, to think that I am the lord, that is the problem. So, Krishna did not deny him that, but gave him a higher consciousness.
So, we all may be at a particular kosha. We cannot suddenly leave pranamaya kosha or annamaya kosha and suddenly jump to the ananamaya kosha. But the level at which we are at, from there, we spiritualise our consciousness.
So, bhakti is a process which can take us to the highest level. But it can also come down to the lowest level where we are at and take us up from there. And that inclusions of bhakti is what is demonstrated repeatedly in the Mahabharata.
And even people who are considered to be low mood, even they are elevated. And that same potency of bhakti is what Sri Prabhupada brought to the world. The Govardhan Puja is not a very wide view festival outside of the Krishna bhakti tradition in India.
So, by Sri Prabhupada’s mercy, the Govardhan Puja is now celebrated all over the world. And we all have the opportunity to relish Krishna’s mercy through hearing the pastimes, through meditating on the lessons that Krishna conveyed through the pastimes. And of course, we relish through offering Krishna wonderful prasad and offering wonderful bhoga and then honouring and sharing the prasad.
This is the wonderful blessing of the Govardhan Puja. From where our consciousness is, we connect that and relish it through Krishna. So, let us conclude with a prayer to Govardhan.
Namaste Jivirajaya Namaste Jivirajaya Govardhan Namane Govardhan Namane Ashesh Klesh Kesh Kesh Parmananda Daane Parmananda Daane Jiviraj Govardhan Ki Govardhan Puja Ki Govardhan So, let me summarise. So, I spoke today on this schema from Anandamayi Kosht to Anandamayi Kosht. So, the Kosha says levels of consciousness which shape our conception of life.
So, survival is the purpose of life or food is the purpose of life or experiencing spiritual ecstasy is the purpose of life. So, from the position of Vakti is from wherever we are, we rise higher. So, in the Bhagavatam, because Krishna is a very counterintuitive conception of divinity.
The God is a small child and he seems to be such an innocent and almost helpless kind of child. So, the Bhagavatam alerts us that this is not the God. Don’t get carried away by this.
God is infinite but he is not limited by his infinity. So, manifest in a finite form also. And we talked about how repeatedly the Bhagavatam demonstrates how even the greatest of Gods are proven to be lesser than Krishna whether it is Brahma or Indra.
And that doesn’t mean that they are not small beings. They are great beings. But when Indra is shown to be given in the state that is to show how the summit of the path of Punya is also inadequate as compared to the path of Bhakti.
And Krishna deliberately provokes Indra to purify him of his pride. Krishna provokes him first by taking away the sacrifice that is meant for him. And then giving justification of Karma Vimamsa, which is like a partial understanding of the Vedic teachings.
And then Indra gets angry although Devatas are meant to have boundaries he loses all sense of perspective. And he begs help. But then Krishna uses the same Bhagavatam to worship and offer it to Indra.
He has thwarted Indra completely. And then Indra realises his powerlessness and then turns towards Krishna with Surabhi. And then Krishna doesn’t humiliate him any further.
Krishna tells him that you don’t have to give up your position but just change your disposition. Don’t think that because you have position of authority that means you have supreme authority. Rather be in the position of authority and serve the supreme authority.
So we all can improve the festival of Bhagavatam, remember this past time remember these past time and its lessons and deepen our Krishna consciousness. Thank you very much. Thank you very much.
So why is that learning this lesson Indra still opposes Krishna afterwards? Yeah that is the nature of the material world that forgetfulness comes repeatedly. Indra although he learns a lesson and learns quite a painful lesson but still the nature of illusion is surrounded by heavenly opulence and in that heavenly opulence its easy to forget. So the Bhagavatam demonstrates through the repeated mistakes that Indra commits that the power of illusion especially, see Indra is the king of the gods and he lives in opulence.
And they said in the Ramayana we have Sugriva. He was devoted to Ram but after a long time when he came back to the palace, I just forgot himself into that. So Indra because he could say although he has access to great sages but he is constantly surrounded by heavenly opulence, the Apsaras and all the power and the enjoyment.
So the tendency to forget is there. we need to, we are all existing in the world and we are surrounded by worldly temptations and worldly distractions. So we have to be cautious and that’s why we need regular association, regular reminders.
So it’s that if we can learn by hearing, then we don’t have to learn by experiencing. But Indra somehow he has to repeatedly learn by experiencing. Okay.
Yes. Yeah. From what we gathered in this class of yours, the power of water and the power of wind did not affect Govardhan.
What we also know that during that period there was a flood all around and Krishna was using this as an umbrella. But what we know even umbrellas don’t work but the Brajavasis were saved. Both Govardhan was saved as well as Brajavasis were saved.
How do we understand this? From where do we understand this? Okay. So if there was a flood all around then you could say the water coming from above did not affect. But what about the water coming from all around? So it’s described that Gopalachandra also said that Krishna he when he comes to Govardhan he climbs up a small stone.
And then on that stone he lifts up Govardhan. And then what happens is that that stone by Krishna’s mystical potency expands. And so everybody comes at a level that is slightly higher than the normal level.
And then whatever water comes that water comes but it doesn’t overflow in that particular area. So that’s how Krishna he expands that stone and he mystically uses the water so that the water doesn’t flood over there. So that’s how we have a Jyotish.
Any problem with Govardhan Leela? Okay when the Govardhan Leela happened in the next Manvantara also when Bali Maharaj became Indra. See generally the Govardhan Leela happens only when Krishna descends into the world. And Krishna doesn’t descend that often in the material existence.
His descent is very very infrequent. You know that whole cosmic cycle. The way in which it’s we are all in a sense very very fortunate.
So when Krishna descends to be not very far away. Just 2000 years away as compared to millions of years ago in the cosmic cycle. And even if it is say Bali Maharaj becomes Indra then also sometimes even the great devotees of the Lord they apparently get deluded and it’s just a part of the Leela of the Lord.
So we have these examples of sometimes great devotees they just say like Naraguni it is said that Naraguni also offered obeisances to Hiranyakashipu. Only Prahlad didn’t offer obeisances to Hiranyakashipu. Lakshmidevi was also afraid of Narsimha Deva but only Prahlad offered obeisances to him.
So is it that Naraguni was also in so much bodily consciousness that he was afraid of Hiranyakashipu? No. In that particular past time the glory of Prahlad is reduced. And the Lord inspires all other devotees to take roles in a way that will further Prahlad’s glory.
So similarly whatever is required. Sometimes devotees may also act in non-demotional ways because some purpose of the Lord is to be served. Just like Bhishma fights against the Pandavas.
So even if a great devotee like Bali Maharaj becomes Indira he can still act in this way just to purpose the Lord’s pastimes. Thank you very much. Krishna Prabhupada.