Govinda Kunda
Bhakti Vijnana Goswami · Govardhan · 2023
Chapters
Opening prayers at Govardhana
Nam Vishnu Baday, Krishna Prestaya Bhutale, Srimate, Bhakti Vedanta, Sami Dinami, Namaste Saraswati, Bauravracharine, Nires, Shundyavadi, Paschatade, vanchakaupatarubiśch, Kripa Shindu bevach, patianampa. Vaisnavebonaha Sri Krishna Chaitann Prabunitananda, Sri Advaita Gadhara Srivassadhi Guru Bhakta Vrinda, Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare, Hare Rāma Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare, Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare, Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Hare Hare, Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare, Hare Ram Hare Rama Hare Hare, Ajanu Banditupu Jokanaka Yuga dharma palavande jagat priya karo karunavata ro Namastegi Raja Govardhana Namine Sejlesanaya Paramanandai Krishna.
So I'm very happy to see all of you. We are sitting at the slope of Giriraj, the place which is called Govindakund. You can feel that this is a very peaceful place where
Where Krishna was awarded the title Govinda on Pratypath of Kartik Mas Krishna arranged Govardhan Puja in a very grand way.
On Vityya Krishna visited her cousin's sister and they were celebrating uh Bratri Dwitiya And Madhu Mangal was in complete ecstasy.
He said that Lord Brahma was completely stupid because he didn't do everyday Brath Vidvitiya. He was fed such a nice sweet by Danishta and other Gopis that he wished to have this celebration every day.
And on Tritia little rain started. Indra being very angry, sent his rains and winds to Vrindavan to destroy everyone. And that went on for seven days till Navami.
And then on Navami, all the Bridg Bhassis went out from Govardhan and Krishna put Govardhan exactly at the same place where he was before. Not even small stone was different.
Krishna in a very careful way preserved Govardhana as he was.
Indra seeking forgiveness from Krishna
And then on Tashami there was this discussion about the nature of Krishna. And on Akadeshi, and today is Akadeshi too. Krishna was alone here. His friends went somewhere else.
Krishna arranged it in such a way that he is alone at Govardhana.
And Indra, who became very remorseful the day before and very fearful actually, because he understood that he messed up with somebody whom he should not be messing up with.
So Indra came to him and other Devas came to him. First Indra went to Brahma and he asked Brahma, What shall I do? And Brahma said to him, don't go to Krishna alone because he will be very angry at you.
Take Surabhi cow in front of you and let her first please Krishna because Krishna, his heart will melt when he will see Surabhi cow. And then you can do whatever you like. When Krishna is happy with you, you can do whatever you like.
And as a result of the long prayers of Lord Indra, Krishna was awarded the title Govinda, which means that from now on Indra said, I am Indra. Indra means the king. But you are real Indra.
Because you are the king of the cows. I am ruling all these useless demigods. And I am the Indra. I am the king of all the demigods. But the real wealth in this earth and in this universe is the cows.
Why cows are so important? Because cows teach us the most important qualities by their example. They are completely selfless, they're ready to do service, they are giving milk, they are giving everything.
Everything which they do because of the purity of their heart is completely pure. There is nobody else whose stool is pure. There is only one creature in the universe who is pure up to the stool. So why?
Because because of the purity of the heart. The uh cows they have these two glorious qualities. They are completely selfless, they are ready to serve anyone and everyone, whoever comes to them, and they are niraparadhi.
They are very innocent in the heart. They are not offensive in the heart. So these two qualities which we have to learn from them. And that's why this service is important. Actually, service is the way to learn.
Service is nothing but the way to approach somebody in such a way that his qualities will come to us. So when we serve cows, what is this, you know, what is the meaning of the serving of the cows?
Śrīla Rūpa Gosvāmī says that go-sevā is the item of pure devotional service. What does it mean in reality? In reality, it means that while serving them, we adopt certain qualities which will please Krishna.
He knows that if we serve the cows, then actually we declare that we want to be near to Him. To become near to God, we have to become Niraparadi and we have to become Paropakari, desiring to do some service to other people.
And then for Indra here he declared, you're the real Indra, you're Govinda, The Indra of the cows, you're the king of the cows, you're the king of those people who are innocent, those people who want to serve.
And in reality, uh you know, we want to become like cows of Krishna. Here is a little herd of cows who came to Govardhana. And here we're celebrating this, you know, we're not cows, we're candidate to become cows.
Krishna is not yet ready to rule us. He is testing us.
Legacy of Madhavendra Puri
And here we are sitting and pretending to be cows. So this is a very beautiful place and in this place exactly where we see there is little mūrti of uh Madhavendra Puri, the great saint.
And Kṛṣṇadāsa Kavirāja Gosvāmī says that Madhavendra Puri is the root of the tree of Lord Chaitanya. Lord Chaitanya's movement became a huge tree, and it brings the fruits of love of God.
Those people who become part of this tree, they can ultimately partake into this fruits of love of God. But the root of this tree is Madhavendra Puri. Madhavendra Puri was from Madhva Sampradāya,
but somehow or other he's supposed to be his svarūpa in the spiritual world, the kalpa-vṛkṣa. He is the desired tree in the spiritual world and uh he uh came here to Vṛndāvana. Actually, it is very interesting.
Vrindavan is a very mysterious place. Whoever comes to Vrindavan, he undergoes some transformation.
So much so that even great saints who come to Vrindavan they become completely different after coming in contact with this holy Dhamma, with this holy place.
That's actually the reason why we are coming to And we can see that the great saints of different sampradaes, when they come here, they become completely different.
Madhavendra Puri was from Madhva Sampradaya. And Madhva Sampradaya is a very aiśvarya driven sampradaya. There is a lot of awe and reverence which is cultivated in this sampradaya.
Madhvacharya, the great saint and incarnation of Vayu, he brought this spirit of unreserved devotion and complete dedication and service.
But as a result of this emphasis on the service, there is a lot of aiśvarya emphasis. But when Madhavendra Puri came here, his heart melted under the influence of this holy Dham.
And when his heart melted under the influence of the holy Dham, he started feeling the exalted emotions of love and separation, and therefore he composed the verse Aīdīna-dayā-nidhe, hē, madhura-pā. He
says that in the whole universe only three persons could understand the inner meaning of this verse. It basically means, to understand means not just, you know, everyone can understand because every word is translated.
Or you may know Sanskrit and uh think that you understand the verse. No, but to understand the verse you have, to understand the inner meaning.
It means that you have to reflect the feelings which are invested into this verse.
And the feelings of separation which Shrimati Radharani feels when Krishna lives Vrindavan are completely manifested in this verse which was uh which actually was the mantra manifested by Madhavendra Puri.
And Kṛṣṇadāsa Kavirāja Gosvāmī says that only three persons could really realize this verse. Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu, Śrīmatī Rādhārāṇī herself and Madhavendra Puri. Nobody else can do it.
We can have some little glimpse of this intense separation which Śrīmatī Rādhārāṇī would feel towards Krishna when Krishna left from Vrindavan. You know, he left.
He was here, he was the hero of everyone, he was the most beautiful person Krishna was joking all the time.
And all of a sudden, you know, he was the life and soul of every inhabitant of Vrindavan, and all of sudden he just left them without even saying goodbye to them. Well he said, yeah, I I will come.
But you know, nobody believes inhabitants of Vrindavan. They don't speak truth. So he left. And nobody knows whether he comes or not.
And every day uh is long like a yoga and she Matyradharani in this uh complete humility of separation complete total humility of separation because separation is supposed to make you humble. Separation is supposed to make you completely worthless.
Who am I? Somebody whom I love left me. I'm nobody.
Krishna bringing milk to Madhavendra Puri
And in this complete humility, crying in separation, she speaks this verse which Madhavendra Puri was reciting again and again and again.
And here on the bank of Govindakun the beautiful Lila took place, his uh habit was that he would not uh stay any prasadam if somebody would not offer it to him. He would not beg prasadam.
But if somebody would come to him and say, please take some prasadam svamiji, he would take. And sometimes, you know, many days in a row, nobody would offer him prasadam. And he will wait.
Because he has the complete faith within his heart. If Krishna wants me to eat, he will arrange, he will make the arrangement. And uh if he doesn't make arrangement, it does it means that he doesn't want me to eat.
So this complete dependence in the heart on Krishna is something which we should learn here. So he was sitting here, he didn't eat for three days in a row. He's sitting here and he's not concerned. He is not really hungry.
He is just feeling separation from Krishna, looking at Govardhana, meditating on him. Actually, it's interesting, one devotee told me a story, real story which happened to him.
He also read this story about Madhavendra Puri. And he decided from now on I will not beg prasadam, I will not go at the scheduled time of prasadam, I will only wait till somebody offers me prasadam for today.
So uh he's very enthusiastic in the morning, time passing by, and nobody offers him any prasadam.
And hour goes after hour after hour and he becomes more and more hungry and more and more desperate and more and more atheistic. Because he thinks what the heck is going on? Krishna doesn't know that I'm hungry?
What's going on? What's the problem? And he has this, you know, challenge within his heart, you know, what's going on? I'm surrendered soul, I'm not going to eat anything unless somebody offers to me.
You know, and it's late. Seven o'clock in the evening. Nobody offers to me. And it's becoming dark. It's already dark. You know, and there is no hope, and he is just struggling within his heart whether God exists or not.
He chants Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna, Krishna, Hare Hare, Hare Rāma Hare Rāma, Rāma Rāma Hare Hare Rāma. Eight o'clock in the evening. No chance. The last offering was already done.
Nobody is approaching him. He's walking around, you know, in a very, you know, mm with a very meaningful look on his face. Nobody takes him seriously. And all of a sudden Aindra comes. Aindra was living there in Guruku.
And he is there and he already gave up hope that he will eat something. And then Aindra comes and then he runs and he yells, hey, somebody else, come here, prasāda is here.
And he said, Aindra says that usually there are five people who come to partake in this prasāda. Today nobody came. Only you, my dear friend, have to take all the prasāda which I offer. So this is how it works.
So for three days Madhavendra Puri went hungry, but on the third day he's sitting here by Govinda Kuṇḍa meditating on Govinda Kuṇḍa and meditating on Krishna and praying to Krishna.
And Krishna comes in the form of a little boy and he brings a pot of milk.
And he says, Swamiji, why you not eating anything? My mother told me to come to you and to give you some milk because nobody should go hungry in my village.
You know, this is the village of Govinda Kuṇḍa. In this village nobody should go hungry. That's the verdict of Krishna.
And Krishna comes to him, gives this milk, and Madhavendra Purī takes this milk and then he disappears, Krishna disappears.
Unearthing of the Srinathji deity
And Madhavendra Puri starts drinking this milk and this milk tastes like nectar of the heaven.
And Madhavendra Purī, uh, he starts looking for this boy and he couldn't find this boy, and ultimately he goes to sleep, and in the sleep, uh, Krishna comes and says, I came to you. I gave you this pot of milk.
This milk from Surabhi, from the spiritual world. And actually I'm sitting here uh in the earth. If you want to see me, you should go to a certain place and you should dig should dig
this place, this uh Govardhana Sthali is not far away from here in your village, where Krishna pointed out that this is the place where I am, and I was hidden here by Pujaris who were afraid of the Muslim invaders.
And Madhavendra Puri goes with all the villagers and digs out the beautiful form of Śrīnāthjī, who is now in Nāthdvārā. And he builds a beautiful temple which is uphill and Govardhana hill, little the way of Anyor.
So that's the place where this līlā took place, when Madhavendra Puri found Krishna. And if we are in a proper mood, we can also find Krishna. Somebody may come to us and may give us some milk.
Madhavendra Puri, he took this pot which Krishna personally brought to him with the milk. And he would take a little piece of this pot every day after that. That was prasāda for him.
He was taking the little pieces of this pot. He didn't leave anything to us. He ate everything himself. But so that's his place of bhajan and that's his place where Krishna came to him.
And if we are doing this parikrama in the proper mood, Krishna can come to us and also bring us something, maybe some tofi or something. I don't know. Whatever.
Anyway, this is the līlā and we should go because Govardhana is looking at us and saying, you know, don't sit too long Sigiri Raja Maharaja, Daura Prabadandi, Jai Jai, Shiradhi, Sja Yeah.