Govardhana lila’s significance in establishing the Bhagavatam’s worldview

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
Hare Krishna. On the occasion of Govardhan Puja, let’s meditate on the significance of the Govardhan past time within the Bhagavatam’s worldview.
The Bhagavatam is called as Amala Purana. Now, the Bhagavatam’s worldview is significantly richer and higher than the worldview of the Vedas, the Upanishads and even the Puranas. In what ways is it higher, richer, In many, one of the focuses is on that it talks about the principle of pure devotion to a personal absolute and that as in the Gaudiya tradition, Chaitanya Mahaprabhu has talked about the how it is the highest dharma, Paradharma and that’s what makes Bhagavatam the Amala Purana or as Yugoswami calls it Sarva Chakra Pramana Chakravarti Buddha.
Now, let’s try to understand this particular pastime, the Govardhan pastime. What does it depict essentially? It basically there are three levels of reality. There is a human reality, there is a celestial reality and there is the transcendental reality.
So, now, let’s try to understand how things worked. If you look at the Vedas themselves, the primary focus is on the terrestrial that is the human-related reality, the terrestrial and the celestial and in the Vedic worldview, there are hints of Vishnu and his transcendence and the eternality of his abode but that is not much talked about. That is not the focus of the Vedas.
The Vedas are the Karmakandi books and they focus on doing good works, Punya, to attain Swarga. So, now, that means in this worldview, among these three levels, only the celestial and the terrestrial are talked about and the interactions between them. Now, in the celestial world, Indra is considered the foremost of Gods.
So, he is accorded a huge amount of respect in Samveda and the other Vedas because after all, the celestials are the, to become a celestial is the aspiration of the Karmakandis and the Karmakandis need to have adequate amount of reverence and adoration and you could say in today’s terms, fan worship of their hero. So, only then they will want to emulate just like in say, Sachin Tendulkar has millions and millions of fans and then, there are many people who want to become like Sachin Tendulkar. So, like that, Indra is the hero and there are many people who want to do similar sacrifices like do similar Punya, do very strict Karmakandi activities and by that, they can also attain Svarga and in this way, the progression towards Svarga goes on unimpeded.
The progression towards Svarga goes on unimpeded and Dharma is maintained at a preliminary level even in this world. Now, the spiritual reality is not talked about in this world. Significantly, this worldview of the creation basically as an arena of terrestrial celestial interaction is similar to the Greco-Roman worldview or the basically, the Indo-European civilization that is talked about by historians, they all had this interaction of celestial and terrestrial.
So, there are gods who come down to earth, gods who are attracted to human women and marry the human women and humans go to the realm of the gods and none of the gods are really considered the absolute singular supreme. Now, this Greco-Roman worldview was superseded by the appearance of Christianity which established a monotheistic God. Now, independent of what happened there in the West, actually, now from the Vedas which talk about, say, the celestial terrestrial interactions, then the scriptures move on to the Upanishads.
Now, in the Upanishads, there is, the focus is primarily on the Brahman and the idea is don’t get enamored by all these heavenly forms and heavenly enjoyments because they are all temporary, go beyond it all and people go beyond it all towards the Upanishadic Brahman and then it is said that in realizing the Atma, there is so much bliss. So, some of the people talk about a hierarchy of bliss, how much is there and they say the bliss of Brahmananda is much higher than the bliss of Swargananda also. So, then that means the celestial is displaced as the destination and what is put there is the spiritual but it is the non, it is a depersonalized spiritual reality.
Now, the Puranas move forward and they talk about both the Swarga and they also talk about the Brahman. Now, the Itihasas, for example, the Mahabharata and the Ramayana, if we look carefully, they talk about Brahman and they talk about the personal absolute also beyond that but the focus is again in the Puranas, most of the Puranas as well as in the Itihasas is they demonstrate an extra level Karmakanda reality. That is why it is said that Indra, if you see in the Mahabharata, Indra has a very respectable role.
Even the Ramayana, Indra has a very respectable role. No, actually Lord bows down and folds his hands in front of Indra and offers him great respect. So, now that means there is a devotional layer, there is a devotional essence which is there in the Ramayana Mahabharata but it plays on with the Karmakandi reality and also gives some reference to the impersonal reality.
Now, the Bhagavatam has a worldview which integrates and subordinates all these. So, now in the that means what? In the Bhagavatam, there is a multiple level reality. There is the terrestrial reality, then there is the celestial reality of the Gods, then there is the impersonal Brahman reality and then beyond that there is the personal Brahman, there is Bhagavan and Bhagavan manifests most attractively as Krishna.
So, now actually Bhagavan manifests in many forms as Vishnu and then but within that the most intimate form of Bhagavan is Krishna. So, now when the Europeans came to India and they studied the Bhagavatam worldview, they basically came to India and the first impression of India was oh these people are polytheistic, there are so many Gods. But then they found that actually this is very peculiar.
Their familiarity was with the Greco-Roman Gods where each God was a competitor for the Gods who used to have fight and they used to have their own limited jurisdictions but they found here that actually Vishnu although there are many other Gods, Vishnu is considered to be supreme among those Gods or if you look at some other tradition in Shaivism, Shiva is considered to be supreme but the idea is that if we look at the Bhagavad Gita, if you look at the Bhagavatam, there are descriptions of the absolute truth which are very similar to the Christian conception of the one monotheistic God that means for example the Bible says I am the Alpha and the Omega of all things and Krishna says He says I am the beginning so in the Bible it is said that I am the beginning and the end of all things and Krishna says the same thing So the attributes that are given to the one supreme God those attributes are talked about as belonging to the one supreme even in the Vedic tradition even in the Vedic tradition especially the Vaishnava tradition so now the point is that in Christianity to establish the supremacy of that one God all other Gods who are considered to be false are to be desecrated and rejected and that’s not just rejected they are to be destroyed that’s why not just Christianity but Islam also have this whole idea of destroying all other Gods and destroying their images so that the glory of the one true God can be established but the Bhagavatam through the Govardhan Leela does multiple things so here we see a tussle of power you could say at one level between the celestial level of reality and the spiritual level of reality so at the celestial level we have Indra who wants to actually go ahead and enjoy control people over here but it is said that no he can’t control so there is a competition between the celestial level and the transcendental level and Indra wants to have the worship of the demigod worship that is due to him as per the tradition and Krishna says there is no need to worship why? because Indra has become proud and Krishna gives actually a spurious reason that actually nature will provide everything if we just do our work work produces results so he talks about approximately the philosophy of Karmanamamsa over there so what is happening over here actually is that Krishna is Karmanamamsa is not considered entirely false it is a part of the truth Karmakanda is also not considered false it is a part of the truth so rather than rejecting the false gods for the worship of the true god the lower gods subordinate gods who are competitors are shown to be subordinate very graphically in this past time so in this past time this two three things happen Indra uses his full might against this against whom against what would seem to be like a small cowherd boy and a cowherd community now there are so many cowherd communities on the planet and why would the god of the heavens be bothered about one particular cowherd community but that cowherd community had defied him and basically generally when one is attached to material opulence then one also has ego and when that ego is upset one can do any kind of things that is precisely what this cowherd cowherd community is doing and that that is what this cowherd community and that is what cowherd community is doing and that is what this cowherd cowherd doing and that is this cowherd community is doing and to be irresistible, the attainment of the powerful position of Indra is shown in the Bhagavatam to be insignificant when compared with the, not just the supreme position of Krishna, but also when compared to the position of Krishna’s devotees. So Krishna actually does not care much for Indra, but he cares so much for Vrachavasis. And in this way, Bhakti, the supremacy of Bhakti and the supremacy of Bhagavan are demonstrated so graphically in this past time that Indra is one sense, either we could consider him as God, then he is shown that this God, although not a false God, the false Gods are generally destroyed in the Abrahamic tradition.
But here, he is a subordinate God who sometimes becomes insubordinate and tries to become a competitor. And his competition is thoroughly crushed by the supreme God and Krishna is shown to be the one God of monotheism who has all powers, but the false God is not destroyed. He is corrected and reinstated with a warning.
So, Krishna in that sense, although he has the supreme power to be the exclusive sovereign, he allows other souls to also join in the universal administration and he gives them powers so that they can do the administration and gradually get purified of their lust, of their power lust or whatever. So, the harmonization of the terrestrial, the celestial and the spiritual in a progressive hierarchy is demonstrated through the Bhagavatam’s Govardhan Leela and another thing is that actually, it’s not the Vrajavasi, Krishna, if he is God, then he should be subordinate to the supreme God. But Krishna, Indra is also the supreme among the exemplars of Karmakand.
That he is among the exemplars of Karmakand, those who attain success, best ways, if somebody performs Karmakand, say if somebody is a hundred Ashwamedha Yagyas, then that person becomes Indra. As compared to that, the Vrajavasis are considered to be the perfect devotees and the Vrajavasis are shown to be more powerful than Indra. Although Indra has a lot of personal prowess, but the Vrajavasis have the personal protection of Krishna and in this way, the Bhaktas are demonstrated to be superior to the perfect Karmakand.
The topmost Bhaktas are shown to be way, way superior to the topmost Karmakand. Even though the topmost Bhaktas don’t look any way powerful, they look like simple cowherds and Krishna, the supreme God, also looks like just one of the cowherds. Now, not only are the devotees under greater protection from God, then the protection that is got by the devotee, by the Karmakandis, by their own personal prowess also, but there is one more truth.
Now what does Krishna do in the Govardhan Puja? That whatever worship was to be given to Indra, that is given to Govardhan. And what does this demonstrate? Krishna considers his devotees to be more worshipable than even the Gods. This is not meant to be a disrespect of the Gods, although that may be seen by some like that.
Krishna’s purpose is to respect his devotees. So Govardhan is considered to be like that. Haridasa Varya, as the 10th canto of Bhagavad Gita says, Haridasa Varya is the topmost among the Haridasas.
So what does this pastime show over here? That actually Krishna considers his devotees so venerable, so worshipable, that instead of worshipping Indra with whatever paraphernalia was acquired for his worship, the worship is offered to Govardhan. And in this way, actually, the supreme perfection of life is demonstrated, that Govardhan is shown to be the topmost devotee, topmost not in an absolute devotional hierarchy, but as a devotee is higher even than Indra. And in this way, the Bhagavatam’s worldview to show the supremacy of Bhagawan over the of the spiritual over the celestial in both ways is established.
Of the Lord, the Lord of spiritual is far more superior to the Lord of the celestial. Krishna is far more superior to Indra. Not only that, the law, the residents of the spiritual level are far superior to the topmost among the celestial level.
The Brajwasis are superior to Krishna, to Indra. And not only that, even an insentient ceiling hill at the spiritual level, because of being imbued with devotion, is superior to the highest in the Karmakandha path, that is Indra. So Govardhan is superior to Indra, as more worthy of receiving worship.
And Indra humbly acknowledges this. He acknowledges the glory of Krishna by offering heartfelt prayers of repentance. And in this way, the Bhagavatam’s worldview is a worldview in which love reigns supreme.
Love reigns supreme. So the Brajwasis, how do they worship Krishna? Spontaneous love. How do they worship Govardhan? It is a spontaneous love.
And this spontaneous love that attracts Krishna far, far more than ritualistic worship. So Indra is often worshipped with rituals, and Indra actually also padas yajna to worship the Supreme with rituals. But they are not considered as important as the spontaneous loving service that the Brajwasis offer to Krishna.
And in this way, the supreme perfection of life is unequivocally, unambiguously demonstrated to be pure devotion to the transcendental Bhagavan. And this pastime comes, it occupies four chapters in the 10th canto. And then after this pastime, soon will come the Rasa Leela pastime.
So before this pastime, 13 and 14 chapters, the 10th canto, Brahma has also been shown to be subordinate to Krishna. Brahma, who is considered to be the source of the Vedas, at least in this world, who is considered very wise, his wisdom is… So Brahma’s opulence is not so much power in terms of military power. Brahma is more of a brahmana than a kshatriya.
He is a brahmana, no doubt. So his power is the power of learning. He gives counsel to the gods and he, like a brahmana priest, acts as the via media between the gods and the supreme God.
But he is shown to be overcome by illusion when he tries to test Krishna. So that, then the focus is primarily on exposing Brahmaji’s illusion. So that person who is considered Lord of Saraswati, who gives learning to everyone, he becomes overcome by illusion when he tries to test Krishna.
In this way, the power of his learning, no matter how great it is, it is shown to be lesser than the power of Krishna’s learning. And that way Krishna’s position is established there. But here, in this particular pastime, Indra is considered, he is not considered very learned, although he has learning also, but he is considered to be very powerful in terms of having military power as a quintessential kshatriya.
But his power is also shown to be lesser than that of Krishna, far, far lesser. In general, in Vedic culture, there are these two centers of power, the brahmanas, who are the centers of spiritual power, and kshatriyas, who are the center of martial power. And the Bhagavatam demonstrates how both these centers of power, not just in the particular kingdom on the earth, but at the universal scale, that both the centers of power, the brahmanical center of power, Brahmaji, and the martial center of power, Indra, both of them are subordinate to Krishna.
And this way, after showing the subordination of even the best of material things to Krishna, then Krishna’s subordination to the Gopis is shown. When Krishna performs the last love with the Gopis, and then he says, नपारयेहम् I cannot repay the debt I owe to you. So that God, whose power, who makes the power of Indra and Brahma, the wisdom of Indra insignificant, feels that I am powerless in front of the love of the Gopis.
And I cannot repay the extraordinary service that they have done to me. And therefore, I remain indebted to them. So this is how the Bhagavatam demonstrates the purity, the potency, the primacy of पराभक्ति, of केवलाभक्ति, of the अनन्याभक्ति of the Prajavasis and especially the Gopis.
In this way, the Bhagavatam, what, कैतवधर्म कैतवतपईपरमोनिर्मतसरणामसताम So, कैतवधर्म it is pushing out, and परमधर्म it is establishing. So, the कैतवधर्म of कर्मकांड़ is thoroughly dismantled through the Indra in the Govardhan Leela. And then, the पराधर्म of केवलाभक्ति, of pure love for Krishna, as demonstrated by the Prajavasis and especially the Gopis, is demonstrated in the Bhagavatam a few chapters after this.
And this is the glory of the Srimad Bhagavatam. By studying and relishing this Bhagavatam, we all can relish, slowly but surely, the manifestation of the all-attractive Lord in our heart, and thereby, that we can relish pure love for Him. Thank you.