SB.10.24.30. Govardhan Puja
Бхакти Вигьяна Госвами · Говардхан · 2023
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Mangalacarana and introductory prayers
Djamandya ton vaya de Tarataschar Teshba Bigya Swarat, Tenibrahmahridayadikaye, Muhyandya Surayaha, Te Jovariim Ridam Yathini Yatri Sargom rishad, Damnas Vina sadani rasta kuhakam, satyam paramit satyamparam
Dimahi, Narayanamaskrityanaramchaivanarotamam devim sarasvatimyasam, ta tou djaamudir, nasta prayeshva Badrishunitam Bhaga seva, Bhaga Watju ta mašlo kebhaktir Bavadina Stiki Hare Krishna.
So happy Govardhana Puja to all of you And I will read one verse from the 10th canto of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam from the 25th chapter, worshiping Govardhana Hill. Verse number thirty. So let's let's chant the verse together.
Verse number thirty from the twenty fourth chapter of the tenth canto of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, etan mama matam ta ta etan tant, Kriata Dirčate, Kriya Tamja Diruchate, Iam
gobrahmanadrinam, Iam Gobanadrina, Iam Gobrahmanadrinam, Iam Gobradrina. Mahiamchaito maka, Mahiamchaito Makaha, It this Mamma my Matam opinion O Father Kriatam may be carried out Yadi if rochate it is pleasing.
I am this Gobramana Adrinam for the cows, brāhmaṇas and Govardhana hills Maham for For me, Cha also Daitaha Cherished Makkaha Sacrifice.
Translation: This is my idea, O Father, and you may carry it out if it appeals to you. Such a sacrifice will be very dear for the cows, the brāhmaṇas, and the Govardhana Hill, and also to me. Purport.
Whatever is pleasing to the brāhmaṇas, the cows, and the Supreme Lord Himself is auspicious and beneficial for the entire world.
Spiritually blind modern people do not understand this and instead adopt a scientific approach to life that is rapidly destroying the entire Earth etan
mama matata kriyatam yadi rocha te ayam gobrahmanadrinam mahjam cha da makaha. This is my idea, O Father, and you may carry it out if it appeals to you.
Such a sacrifice will be very dear to the cows, the Brahmanas and Govardhana Hill and also to me.
Namaḥ oṁ viṣṇa-pādāya kṛṣṇa-preṣṭhāya bhū-tale śrīmate bhaktivedānta- svāmin iti nāmine. नमस्ते सरस्वती देवे गौरवाणी- प्रचारिणे, निर्विशेष-शून्यवादि-पाश्चात्य-देशारिणे, पञ्च-कल्प-तरुभ्यश्च कृपा-सिन्धुभ्य एव च पतितानां पावनेभ्यो वैष्मवेभ्यो नमो नमः।
जय श्री कृष्ण चैतन्य प्रभु नित्यानंद श्री अद्वैत गदाधर श्रीवास आदि भक्त वृंद हरे कृष्ण हरे कृष्ण कृष्ण कृष्ण हरे हरे हरे राम हरे राम राम राम हरे हरे हरे कृष्ण हरे कृष्ण कृष्ण कृष्ण हरे हरे हरे राम हरे राम राम राम हरे
हरे यः कश्चित् प्रदिषि ममावचसाम् प्रसुप्तम् संजय किला शक्ति धरस्वदाम्ना, अन्यं सहस्त चरण श्रवणाद् वगादिम्, प्राणान् भगवतत पुरुषः।
स्वस्ति अस्तु विश्वस्य खलः, प्रसीदतां, ध्यायन्तु भूतानि शिवम् अभूतुर धिया मनश्चाभद्रम् जाततु द्रोक्षज, अलेष्यं तन्मना मति अद्यहैतु हौ
Krishna's approach to redirecting Indra's worship
Adyahaitu How did this know? So I was thinking to speak a little bit about the significance of worshipping Govardan Hill. Why Krishna wanted to divert the attention of his people from worshipping Indra.
And of course, we all know the story, so I I will not so much speak about the story as such. Rather I will try to emphasize the inner meaning of Krishna's request to his father.
He's very politely saying here in this verse that, my dear father, if you like this idea, do it. If you don't like, don't do it. That's a very liberal approach which Krishna usually takes.
In the same way, the end of Bhagavad-gītā. He spoke at great lengths to Arjuna and then the end as he says, think about it. If you like it, do it. If you don't like it, don't do it. So that's the true attitude.
Krishna does not want us to become blind followers. Krishna does not want us to become to become you know something which we don't want. He wants our heart.
And therefore he says here to Nanda Maharaj: I told you my idea, and you think about it if you like it, do it. But uh if you do it, it will be pleasing to me.
Actually, before that, Krishna explains so many let us say politely strange reasons for cohort people to worship God on him. -> coerce people to worship God or him.
Silad Jiva Gaswami, while describing this past times, he says that -> Śrīla Jīva Gosvāmī, while describing these pastimes, he says that Krishna was preaching atheistic philosophy. Sometimes Krishna does this for fun.
You know, he comes like Buddha and says, yeah, yeah, no, no, no, no Vedas, nothing, you know just follow me and
in this episode of Shimad Bhagavatam Krishna also preaches -> in this episode of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam Kṛṣṇa also preaches a funny philosophy which is called karma vada. -> a funny philosophy which is called karma-vāda.
Basically, the main essence of what he's saying is that you know there is no need to worship anyone because your work is the real cause of everything.
Whatever you do is the real cause behind everything which is happening to you, so become very self-reliant and do whatever you feel is right. And if you do it, you know there's no need to worship anyone.
Anyway, all this demigod sindra and all these guys there, -> Anyway, all this demigod's Indra and all these guys there, you know, even if they exist.
And when Krishna explains this, uh, you know, he speaks in such a way that this is a big if. We don't know whether they exist or not, but you know if you do the proper work, the work itself will save you.
The human being being dependent by nature, being limited, being insecure, because internally we all feel some sort of insecurity. We also feel because of this, we feel the need to worship somebody.
To worship the power which is greater than us, and in this way to obtain something which is insufficient, something which we don't which we lack and uh something which we require.
So this urge this desire this need not even desire but the internal need to worship somebody is very deeply ingrained. And therefore, everyone is a worshiper.
Some people say, you know, we don't believe in God, we don't worship anyone. Still, they worship somebody. They worship some great man, some you know some president or king or whatever.
Everyone is worship is a worshipper. -> Everyone is worship, is a worshipper.
But the problem is that that, and's exactly the problem which Krishna wants to -> But the problem is that, and that's exactly the problem which Kṛṣṇa wants to point out is that even though everyone is worshiping, most of the people worship somebody which is not worthy of worship. They just worship something or somebody which is actually useless. You know we want to give ourselves. Worship basically means to give ourselves. And to give ourselves fully.
Wholehearted sacrifice versus independent mentality
That's the internal meaning of sacrifice. And even though we do have this need uh to worship, but at the same time we do have reservation.
Therefore, when we choose the object of worship, when we choose to whom we want to sacrifice, we want to sacrifice ourselves to somebody in such a way that we sacrifice and at the same time don't sacrifice.
Actually, this is the wrong motivation, this is the cheating mentality which every one of us has. We do want to worship, but we don't want to worship wholeheartedly.
We do need to worship, but we prefer to worship in such a way that we worship and at the same time we remain independent.
This desire from one point we want to worship because we are dependent, but at the same time we have this very strong tendency to remain independent. And we try somehow or other to satisfy both tendencies.
One tendency is to worship or become dependent on the object of worship, another tendency is to remain independent. And in this way, we are trying to cheat somebody whom we worship, but at the end we just cheat ourselves.
And Krishna really, what he wants to say or what he wants to point out, he wants to point out this particular mistake. You know, if you worship, worship wholeheartedly.
If you really want to worship, and if you really want to obtain the proper result of your worship, the total security, total happiness, and total feel of complete fullness, completeness, then you should worship wholeheartedly.
Not this game of worshiping. So, and therefore he's you know cleverly trying to convince Nanda Mahārāja and other people, senior people of the cowherd community to worship Govardhana hill.
But ultimately, you know, Śukadeva Gosvāmī doesn't describe what was the reaction of Nanda Mahārāja while he was listening to the scholarly quote unquote uh speeches of his little son. But it seems like.
And also Śrīla Jīva Gosvāmī indicates that Nanda Mahārāja was not very impressed by his arguments. You know, ultimately arguments of Krishna are not very solid and strong.
But what Nanda Mahārāja was really impressed by, He was impressed by his son. He was listening to the speeches of his son.
And ultimately, when Krishna said, please do it because it will please me, that was the deciding argument. Everything else could have been dismissed easily.
You know, don't force Indra because Indra depended on karma and ultimately, you know, Rajagun is sending the rains and all this kind of strange philosophies which Krishna said they could be argued.
But when Krishna said, do it because it will please me, Nanda Maharaja. That's a good idea. You know, I like your idea, Krishna. And if you want me to do this, let's do it.
And actually, that reveals the heart of all the inhabitants of Vrindavan. And that reveals the heart, and basically, Krishna wants to show their greatness.
How for the sake of Krishna they are ready to sacrifice everything because their sacrifice is the real sacrifice.
And he wants to remove this external show of worship to Indra to reveal their internal mood or internal desire to worship wholeheartedly and one-pointedly, Krishna and nobody else.
But what is interesting and what is important for us to note that
Krishna even though he mentions himself, Mahyam, do it because it will be pleasing to me, do it because this is the most important thing which you should do. But before that, he doesn't mention about himself.
It's just probably because he noticed some doubts on the face of Nanda Maharaja. He's explaining and explaining, giving the long speech how it should be done.
But then at the end of the day, at the end of it he still says that Nanda Maharaj is little hesitant and therefore Krishna gives the strongest argument: do it because I like it.
So, but what is interesting and what we should consider what is the intention of Krishna. Because in reality, this is a very important lesson for all of us. As I said, we all worshipers.
We are all trying to worship something in the wrong way, but still nevertheless we need to worship something. But what Krishna wants us to worship. Yes, ultimately he wants us to worship Him, that's true.
Significance of cows, brahmanas, and Govardhana
But He doesn't mention himself till the very end of his speech. And he says, let's worship cows, let's worship Brahmanas, and let's worship Govardhana hill.
So I wanted to elaborate a little bit about the internal idea of this.
Cows in Sanskrit, as we all know, is go and Govardhana is something which is nourishes the cows or increases, Vardan means to increase, Vardan means to nourish, Vardan means to emphasize and Brahmanas.
So, what's common in all these three entities which Krishna wants us to worship? He mentions himself the last because of a very important reason.
These three things, cows, Brahmanas and Govardhana, are visible, tangible in our life.
But as Krishna, you know, he's at odds, He is not easily accessible by our senses in fact he will be experienced by us only if we worship these three items. So, what's common among these three items?
It's actually very interesting because in Sanskrit: all the verbs which indicate movement and and the word go, uh, cow, the cow in Sanskrit, uh comes from the verbal root ga which means to go.
The cow is somebody who is you know going somewhere. Sometimes she stops, but normally she just wanders here and there. And you know the English verb go also is derived from this verb ga.
But what is most interesting, so we have Govardhana, we have uh uh, cows, and what is most interesting is that in Sanskrit all the roots which indicate movement at the same time indicate knowledge.
It's a very profound idea. In Sanskrit, there is plenty of different roots which indicate movement. But according to the wisdom of the uh of those people of God from whom Sanskrit is coming. Movement means knowledge.
It's interesting because it also corresponds to the modern scientific understanding because according to the science of neurophysiology, in our brain there is this black substance. How is it called?
Substantia Nigrum, Substantia Nigrum. So the black substance is there in the brain which is responsible for our movement. This is actually the substance which produces the famous dopamine,
the neuromediator, which is responsible for the reward for the reward and yeah, for the rewarding activities. But the same substance, this black substance within our brain is also responsible for knowledge.
And the whole thing is actually the mechanism of our education. How in our life we should actually obtain knowledge.
This whole reward mechanism, which is there, is the mechanism which is the learning mechanism, the mechanism of our brain which pushes us to learn something new. So, when in Sanskrit all the verbs which indicate movement at the same time indicate knowledge it reflects a very fundamental truth: that knowledge means movement, knowledge means progress. Knowledge means development.
And when Krishna says you should worship cows, you should worship Govardhana, which increases cows, and you should worship also brāhmaṇas, he also indicates that we should be worshipers of knowledge. That the real essence of our life and the real object of our worship should be knowledge.
Because also we know Śrīla Prabhupāda very often uh would say that gāḥ means vedas, gāḥ means cows, go means voters, go means knowledge, go means land.
So, this idea is a very profound idea that if we want to dedicate our life, we should dedicate our life to the pursuit of knowledge. Govardhana is not only increasing the cows, Govardhana is also increasing the knowledge.
And Govardhana is also increasing go. Śrīla Prabhupāda also often translated go as the senses.
So Govardhana is increasing the cows, Govardhana is increasing the knowledge and nourishes the knowledge, helps us to get the deeper knowledge and deeper understanding.
And Govardhana is also nourishes our senses. Govardhana gives satisfaction of the senses. These three seemingly unrelated ideas is actually very intricately internally related to one another.
You know, Śrīla Prabhupāda also used to say that if you want to obtain knowledge, you should drink the cow milk.
Prabhupāda's explanation was that the cow milk nourishes the subtle tissues of the brain, whatever it is. But we know that this is the truth.
You know, these people, brāhmaṇical people, they are very much dependent on the cows, the whole brāhmaṇical culture dependent on the cows, and the whole brāhmaṇical culture is dependent on the knowledge. So internally, there is this very strong and very intimate connection between these things.
And uh ultimately, Krishna knows that's uh or Krishna wants us to become knowledgeable because he is the essence of knowledge.
We know that you know go means vedas and Govardhana is something which increases our knowledge of the Vedas as well.
So when Krishna recommends Nanda Mahārāja and his followers or his relatives Krishna's relatives to worship Govardhana, He also he directly says do it because it's pleasing to me. Bat he also indirekt det indicates the same because if you increase
knowledge the pinnacle of all knowledge the understanding of the real understanding and the real experience of all knowledge is to understand Krishna he himself
says, Vedais ca sarvair aham eva vedyo, vedanta-krt veda-vid eva caham. I am the essence of all knowledge. I am the essence of all Vedas.
And ultimately if you increase or nourish your knowledge, nourish your understanding, the culmination of it will be in understanding Krishna. That Krishna is the essence of everything.
So, Krishna in this verse basically says that there are two ways of worshiping Him: one is direct and another one is indirect.
Directly we may worship him, but it's also important to have a supportive process of worshipping Krishna or understanding Krishna by studying the Vedas and ultimately understanding him and coming to this uh to this point of uh being the true worshipper of Krishna.
When we worship the Vedas, when we understand the knowledge which is there in the Vedas, we ultimately will become the true followers of Krishna.
What is a very again a very important idea behind this connection between knowledge and the movement. By the way, Śrīla Prabhupāda called our ISKCON society as the movement.
And we all know we're always moving almost like chaos. Non-stop. Moving here, moving there, exploring, expanding.
Dynamic nature of sattva-guna versus dogma
But what is very important, there is also connection as we know, very important and valuable connection between knowledge and sattva-guna. Sattva-guna is dynamic. Sattva-guna is moving. Tamo-guna is stale.
Tamo-guna is stable and very static. But as sattva is moving, so knowledge gives the dynamic essence within our life. Sattva helps us to understand in which direction we should move. Everyone is moving.
Rajas is also very dynamic. But Rajo-guna is also very chaotic. Rajo-guna is, you know, pushing you in this direction, that direction, all kinds of directions.
But Satvagun is dynamic but it's one directionary. It pushes you in the proper direction.
Whereas Rajagun confuses you, Rajagun pushes you in many different directions and ultimately doesn't give you the proper understanding.
So the idea is that when we properly worship Krishna and when we properly worship cows. And when we properly worship Govardhana.
And that's why actually Krishna said if you want to worship Govardhan you should walk for 22 kilometers. You should move and that will increase your knowledge. It will increase your clarity of understanding.
But what is also very important is that if we have the proper knowledge, then our life will become very dynamic. You know, I observed our glorious Iskon society for many many years.
I started as a very impartial observer, looking at it from the outside, but then gradually, gradually, I was dragged in in the middle of it, and for some time I was right in the epicenter of it.
Now I begin prefer to become a little impartial observer. But what we can see, and that's also an important aspect of this festival which seems to be very simple, you know.
Let's do a lot of let's cook a lot of halava and eat it, and then Krishna will be happy with us. So, externally, it is like this: no doubt about it.
Let's cook a lot of halava, and Krishna will be happy when we're eating this halava.
But at the same time, what Krishna wants to say to us, what Krishna wants to explain to us is that you know knowledge means broad-mindedness Krishna demonstrates this broad-mindedness in this verse.
When he says, You know, I told you, do whatever you like. Knowledge implies this broad-mindedness. Whereas Tamagun implies fanaticism.
You know, sometimes people think that, you know, they are true believers if they become fanatical. But actually, when the knowledge turns into dogma, which we oftentimes see in Iskon unfortunately, when
the true knowledge, true knowledge of the Vedas, which is very dynamic and which is very lucid and very you brad kärs into dogma. It basically vi are trying by hör habit to fin sattvogun into tamagun.
Dogma is the knowledge in Tamagun. When we become dogmatic, when we just blindly follow something without understanding the internal intention or internal idea behind this, then we lose the essence.
So Krishna here says directing or approaching Nanda Mahārāja, that actually you lost the essence. By worshipping this Indra, who is the manifestation of ignorance, and that we will find out why very soon.
Basically, you are betraying the true purpose of your life.
What I want to say here is that if we remain the true followers of Krishna, if we remain the true followers of the Vedas, and if we remain truly devoted to the Vedic knowledge. Our life will always be dynamic.
We will always remain not dogmatic. We will always remain very broad-minded. And in this way, we will really be able to expand this movement. means of rajo-guṇa or the force power of rajo-guṇa and tamo-guṇa.
Broad-mindedness, humility, and one-pointed devotion
But also very important thing which is implied here is that you know if we ultimately what Krishna wants to say to us. Ultimately, what Krishna wants to tell us, you know, you should become one-pointed.
His displeasure, uh seeming apparent displeasure with Nanda Mahārāja was that uh again seemingly apparently they kind of betrayed divine potents. Yoga is explaining that we should become one-pointed. One-pointed.
Vyavasāyātmikā buddhir ekeha kuru-nandana. And uh but one the real one-pointedness comes from broad-mindedness. They are not mostly contradictory. Sometimes people think if you are broad-minded, you're not one-pointed. No.
In reality, the real broad-mindedness culminate in one-pointedness. Yes, there is only one worship. There is only one object of worship. This is Krishna. But Krishna includes everything within himself.
And if we properly understand Krishna, we will also worship everyone else. We will become humble, we will worship the cows.
Krishna not without a reason say while explaining this paddhati or the procedure of worship Govardhana, he says you just uh you know offer a lot of food to Govardhana, but then feed everyone. Don't forget the dogs. Don't forget the dog eaters. Everyone should become happy.
Śrīla Prabhupāda also explains: if you really worship the root, cause of all existence, then everyone is nourished, everyone is happy.
So the true worship is such worship, one-pointed worship, worship of one entity who is Krishna, but it's such a worship which makes us broad-minded and which makes everyone happy.
And vice versa, contrary to this, if we worship in an improper way, in a fanatical way, in a dogmatic way, we displease everyone in the name of worshiping Krishna.
The true worship of Krishna means to become truly humble because one point-to-pointness is only possible if you are humble.
If you are not humble, why people do want to you know worship this and that and to look in this direction and that direction because they're not humble because they think they themselves can choose the object of their worship.
It's wrong. We cannot choose the worship of the object of our worship. If we are true to ourselves, then we only understand the object of our worship.
Krishna himself says to Nanda Mahārāja, and actually he kind of reveals his displeasure with their attempt to worship Indra, he says that those who worship something upon which their life is not truly dependent. They are like unchaste women who worship Paramore instead of worshiping the husband.
So it's a very interesting idea again. What is true worship? True worship means one-pointedness, one-pointedness implies total humility, and humility also implies and one-pointedness implies chastity.
I have only one object of worship. I don't want to choose the object of worship myself. The true husband is given to you. The true husband is not somebody whom you choose.
You know, in a traditional cultural way, uh the husband is given to you.
You know, and then modern, of course, modern progressive way of looking at it, yeah, I I I myself choose my husband and then if I don't like this husband uh there's plenty uh husband walking around and I can choose the object of my worship.
If I don't like to worship this guy, I can worship so many other guys, no problem. I'll get benefit from this and from that. You know what's wrong with it?
You know, if I worship one guy, I get little benefit, if I if I worship too many, you know, so many, I I worship a lot of benefit. I I get a lot of benefit from this and from that. I connect collect a lot of benefit.
Now this is the mentality behind this uh uh you know demigod worship or whatever. Yes, uh everyone is worshipable, but he becomes truly worshipable only if we have the true object of worship within our life.
Even only if uh this object of worship is truly established within our heart.
Overcoming pride through humble spiritual practice
If this is established within our heart, then we will become chaste and then we will become humble. You know why in this particular pastime Indra manifests so manifest so much anger, or actually he embodies the ignorance.
Because in this pastime, Krishna sorry, Indra manifests pride. So, what is the main enemy of the knowledge?
As I said, Krishna is indicating here by worshiping, by directing us to worship Govardhana, by directing us to worship the cows, and to worship the brāhmaṇas, and to worship the the black substance within our brain which helps us to obtain knowledge. Krishna is indicating knowledge.
Who is the greatest? What is the greatest enemy of the knowledge? Pride. Pride is the greatest enemy of the knowledge. Pride destroys the knowledge. Pride deprives us of all the knowledge. Pride makes us ignorant.
Pride makes us actually completely miserable in this world. So Krishna is saying, worship Govardhana. I mean myself, but I'm very humble because I want to teach you the humility. Therefore, I don't say worship myself.
I say worship Govardhana, but you know, in the course of past time I will manifest my identity with Govardhana. But ultimately, why Govardhana? Because Govardhana represents this idea of knowledge.
And worshipping of why Krishna says, yes, you please feed all the dogs. Because dogs, especially in the holy Dhamma, very humble. And therefore Krishna says, feed them, but don't feed Indra. Feed, nourish your humility.
By going around Govardhana, by worshiping the local people, local Vrajavasis, by worshiping the dogs who are here, by worshiping cows, nourish your humility, which is the main point of knowledge.
Because knowledge is inseparably connected with humility. And but don't worship Indra. Why? Because Indra is pride. Don't nourish your pride. Give the food, a lot of food to the dogs and to the cows, but
don't give even one morsel to the Indra. So that's actually, the instruction for all of us: whom we should worship? What we should worship. We should worship Krishna.
How we can be one pointed in our relationship with Krishna,
in our worship of Krishna only if we worship everything which is connected to Krishna and which is visible to us, tangible, visible to us, and if we worship all these objects which are dear to Krishna.
You know, we should start with this. With the idea that I want to please Krishna. I want to please God. I want to be dear to him, to become dear to him. What is the way? There is only one way to become dear to Krishna.
There is only one way to please him is to please somebody who is dear to him. And at the same time, the most important concomitant process which should also follow this: don't nourish your pride.
Avoid your pride like anything. Don't give even one morsel of food to your pride. Nourish your humility. Nourish the true understanding, the true idea that true knowledge which is there.
And whatever it means to do it, do it. You know if it means to walk for six hours in the heat of the sun, do it. Do it.
Of course Krishna did or directed us to do Govardhana Puji in a very merciful time of the year when the sun becomes little not as fierce as it usually is here. So we can comfortably walk 22 kilometers around Govardhana.
By the way, at that time Govardhana was much bigger than now, so the Parikrama was also stronger, much longer. But you know, the main day of Govardhana Parikrama in Vraj is uh in the peak of the summer.
That's Guru Purnima Day. When thousands of people go around Govardhana.
And you know I remember very visibly when I was walking you know of course there is one you know trick behind this because when it's so hot you cannot really walk around Govardhana. You have to run around Govardhana. Because otherwise your feet will be burned. You really have to run from one shadow to another shadow to another shadow.
Serving Krishna through his dear devotees
But in any case, what Krishna says, yes, this is his command, this is his order to all of us. We should worship him and only him. How to worship him and only him?
With this idea, establishing this idea that there is only one object of worship, we should worship everyone who is dear to him. We should worship the spiritual master.
We should worship Śrīla Prabhupāda, who is definitely very dear to him. And that's why the last idea of Śrīla Prabhupāda in this world was uh let me perform this Govardhana Parikrama to emphasize the importance of it.
The whole idea, the whole mission of Śrīla Prabhupāda was to give spiritual knowledge to engrain, to really strongly emphasize the need of spiritual knowledge, because without spiritual knowledge we will remain a very destructive elements of this earth.
So we should worship him, we should worship our spiritual master, we should worship all the devotees,
we should worship the holy Dham, we should worship of course Govardhana who is very prominently present in this holy Dham. We should worship the dogs. We should worship little children which are running around.
We should worship everyone here. And in this way remain humble and in this way remain established in the true knowledge of the Vedas. So that's the lesson, that's the internal meaning which Krishna wants to emphasize.
And he says that if you do this, you can feel completely secure. You don't have to be fearful of anything.
You know, if the true knowledge is there and the true humility is there, if these two qualities are there which are also inseparably connected with each other.
If the humility and the knowledge is there, then as a result of it you feel the complete total security and protection. You don't have to fear anything else.
And even if Indra, you know if Indra does something to you, and you know there are so many big and little Indras in this world who may not like us turning away from them and going in the direction of Govardhana into the direction of Krishna if we do this this is the most important what Krishna actually here says you can waste your life in whatever like you want.
In whatever way you like. You know, and usually that's what we do. He says, you know, if you like it, do it, if you don't like it, do something else. I don't mind.
So we can waste our life in so many different ways by worshiping this one and that one and getting little benefit from here and from there. But if we want the real benefit in our life.
And if we want to know who is the one who should be worshipped worshiped in our life, who should be the sole object of our worship? Then this is Krishna. And in this way we will not waste our life.
We will obtain the true knowledge and we will obtain the true qualities of real worshipper which is humility. And ultimately we will feel total complete security and protection in our life. So that's the essence.
Don't waste your time. Don't worship Indra. Don't worship Trump, don't worship I don't know who else you may easily add some names to the list. Don't worship all these vogus people. Worship everyone by worshiping Krishna.
Pour water at the root and become humble and in this way please everyone and be pleased yourself.
So as I said, when Krishna, when Nanda Mahārāja heard this speech of Krishna, and when Krishna said, I will be pleased if you do it, then he became completely convinced and they all started running
around busily worshiping Govardhana. So on this day it's a good day to make this resolve. I will worship only Krishna and those who are connected with Krishna or anyone if it pleases Krishna.
I will live in such a way that it will be pleasing to Krishna and uh in this way I will make my life complete success.
And why I'm talking about this because we are on the land of this Bhāgavata Mahā-vidyālaya and Mahā-vidyālaya means uh the place of great knowledge. Mahavidya.
So actually when Krishna says worship Brahmanas, worship cows, worship uh Govardhana hill, he also means worship the knowledge and whoever carries this knowledge, whoever manifests this knowledge in his life, and whoever is capable of giving you the true knowledge.
So in this way your life will become successful and and everything will have happy end as this Govardhana līlā no matter how much tribulation will be in between. So thank you very much, Hare Krishna.
I guess I finished on time Krishna
Questions on broad-mindedness and complete surrender
Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare Hare Rāma Hare Rāma Rāma Rāma Hare Hare Hare Krishna so the discussion is over. If anyone has any query or any clarification, any questions they can ask. Five minutes.
Maharaj gives wonderful answers to the questions. Yes. Thank you so much for this wonderful settlement of Mike on this special day. And uh you you were are saying that um both pointed this coming from the broad mindedness.
It's like one question is like is it my circle but both ways? So that uh one point is my mind is I just was thinking about two ways when you can find out.
The second the question is um is that that one point is coming from if I consciously choosing to feed humility when I admit that I feel my pride well so and this is how it counts to our lives it's what important is if I just consciously choose the humility if it's always more aspects of it.
So the question was how the monpoidness and broad-mindedness are interrelated with each other.
Yes, if this is the characteristics of sattva-guna. Sattva-guna is at the same time very broad and make you broad-minded and make you very generous. You know udara. Udara means you're broad-minded.
And also udarya, this is the quality of broad-mindedness. But it also's not chaotic, it's very structured.
Sattva-guna has these characteristics. It's broad-minded, but at the same time very harmonious and structured means one-pointed. So they are interrelated.
Unfortunately, in this world, oftentimes people confuse broad-mindedness with with how you say this uh śīlatā, I don't know the proper English word for this and people are indiscriminate.
Sometimes people confuse broad-mindedness with this indiscriminateness, is it the proper word? So when you don't discriminate.
But no, the proper broad-mindedness is the quality of uh you know implies one-pointedness, no doubt about it. It implies very clear idea of what is the real goal of life.
And uh uh what was the second one about nourishing nourishing this. Is it coming from a conscious choice to feed the humility? definitely.
You know if we consciously choose uh to be unchaste and uh and proud means unchaste. Proud means uh uh you know mm somebody who is not really one point of chase.
Yeah, if if we choose consciously choose to cultivate humility in our life, then one pointness will be a reward for this conscious choice.
Maharaj you are mentioning worship means to give oneself completely, it's not something worship. But we see that we do many worship, like mother is worshipping the child, is giving horses completely.
Like that we do so many things we are doing for maybe for society, for for ourselves, friends, relatives. So this is also in one type of What is the difference?
I am worshipping in drama and worshiping some. There is no difference. Uh if you do worship somebody uh without connecting uh this object of worship uh to Krishna, then you are yeah, you are not doing the right thing.
So we may worship society, we may worship this and that. And this tendency to worship something which does not require the complete surrender is the fault of our understanding.
You know, Krishna requires complete surrender. Krishna says, surrender unto me fully. Sarvadharman parityajama kamsara nambraja.
So and therefore we says no no Krishna is too strict, let me worship a little bit here, little bit there. And then we cheat ourselves. No, the worship should be complete, uh the surrender should be complete.
But then when we surrender to Krishna, then we can in this connection with surrender to Krishna, we can also serve others by understanding the connection of this with others.
If we uh if we worship society independently, we become Desh Bhakta. Patriot. Or whatever kind of bhakta it is, this bhakta or that bhakta, you know, or pati bhakta or whatever.
If we don't understand that ultimately the worship is for Krishna and everyone else is should be worshiped as much as he or she is connected or it is connected with Krishna, then we are like this uh Indra worshipers and we're wasting our time and life.
You are also mentioned like woman is given the husband and now she is given the object of worship is given.
Now we see Vedic culture but the husband and not be a devotee and then they are sacrificing their life, they are going to Sati and all. So that is what is given in the scriptures.
So if we are worshipping Shastra, then that is what is their destination? Because they are worshipping Shastra, and Shastra is the command of God. And they're doing this because God wants them to do it.
And if they have this idea, I'm doing this because this is the higher law of this universe they're doing it properly and uh the result will be glorious even though the husband
may not be directly but because the motivation is that I'm doing this because shastra is saying this and shastra is the uh ordained by the Lord and that's why we are doing this. So ultimately we are pleasing the Lord.
By following the Shastra, you know, if again if this connection is not there between Shastra and the Lord, that Shastra is the word of the Lord, then our following of the Shastra again becomes not very perfect.
But if we understand vedaiś ca sarvair aham eva vedyo, and we are doing this because it ultimately comes from the Lord, then only we become successful.
And yes uh it's a very important idea that the object of worship is given to us, not chosen by us, not whimsically choosing. You know, it has to be humbly accepted by us with gratitude.
And ultimately, you know what Krishna is saying here, and that's also very a important manifestation of the humility: is that you know how Krishna
argues or proves that we should worship Govardhana? He says, because Govardhana gives us so much. Because our life depends on Govardhana. Let's be grateful.
So ultimately he wants to say everything is else is coming to us from God, let's be grateful. And grateful means to be humble, and humble means to become one-pointed.
And so he says, let's let's become grateful, let's not remain selfish in this life. You are mentioning that two qualities go is to move and knowledge.
Also you are mentioning in the lecture that because brāhmaṇas are power selfless, that's the reason we are to worship them. And uh to see the connection with all is called broad minded.
That is if you see the connection that is also broad. Yeah. Because only if you are satvik you will be able to have this broad vision and interconnectedness of everything.
So that's the that's the quality that's the glorious quality which sattva-guṇa gives. Sattva-guṇa gives you uh not just theoretical but real understanding of interconnectedness of everything all reality.
Reality is interconnected. Whereas rajo-guṇa uh will force you to divide everything. Divide and rule.
You know. You will make all these artificial divisions and you will do something here, something there, and you will not see the complete picture and ultimately you will be cheated. So that's very important. And yeah.
And I gave today this my interpretation of why Śrīla Prabhupāda calls our society as a movement because we are about the knowledge too. So sorry if it was not too much. You are mentioning Aryan means one who is progressing.
Yeah, yeah, who is moving. Yeah, all all this r is the root of knowledge or of movement, e is the root of in is the root of movement, ga, and so on so forth. So many roots are there. So anyway, thank you very much.
Thank you, Hare Kṛṣṇa.