The class recorded on Govardhan puja and reading is from Krishna book chapter 24

Govardhan Puja Mahotsav Ki Jay

Gaura Prema anande haribol

HareKrishna

Devotee speaking: I would like to welcome everyone tonight for Sunday feast program, so tonight we are celebrating this is called Govardhan Puja or Annakutta and by Krishna's transcendental arrangement we have tonight with His Divine Grace Srila Jayapataka Swami Acaryapad to enlightens us about the glories of Lord Sri Krishna, Sri Acaryapad is just coming from travelling in South America where He raised many temples, He is doing so much preaching and very soon He is going back to India, so we are thankful to have his association tonight.

We thank all of you for coming to help in this celebration of Govardhan Puja, Haribol

[Guru Maharaj speaking: ]

oḿ ajñāna-timirāndhasya jñānāñjana-śalākayā

cakṣur unmīlitaḿ yena tasmai śrī-gurave namaḥ

nama oḿ viṣṇu-pādāya kṛṣṇa-preṣṭhāya bhū-tale

śrīmate bhaktivedānta-svāmin iti nāmine

namas te sārasvate deve gaura-vāṇī-pracāriṇe

nirviśeṣa-śūnyavādi-pāścātya-deśa-tāriṇe

(jaya) śrī-kṛṣṇa-caitanya prabhu nityānanda

śrī-advaita gadādhara śrīvāsādi-gaura-bhakta-vṛnda

Hare Kṛṣṇa Hare Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Hare Hare

Hare Rāma Hare Rāma Rāma Rāma Hare Hare

mukam karoti vachalam

pangum langhayate girim

yat-kripa tam aham vande

shri-gurum dina-taranam

paramananda madhavam

So yesterday we had Rath Yatra and Diwali, today we also have offering of lights at the end, we will have more Diwali today. But today is another special festival as well, which is known asGovardhan puja. In Vrindavan in India, the place of Krishna’s pastimes, His birth Mathura district, in Vrindavan there is a sacred hill known as Govardhan and on this day hundreds of thousands of people walk around the Govardhan Hill chanting
"Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare
Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare", Radha Govinda and other mantras.

So today we are also going to have Govardhan puja, after this lecture there will be a drama and aGovardhan puja. Govardhan hill would be made out of the sacred prasadam food stuffs, so after we worship Govardhan that we are going to eat it also [laughter]

So this very interesting pastime and there is many lessons to be learned from it. When Krishna, the Supreme Personality of Godhead descended in this earth over 5000s years ago. He was, soon after his birth is the day of His birth, He was shifted to a little village and He was brought up by cowherd boys, cowherd men in the village of Vrindavan or Nandhagram and Krishna was doing always various types of miracles, but somehow due to Krishna's mystic opulence, no one was considering Krishna to be, they just were loving Krishna as He was. They weren’t considering his unlimited power, but something happened in this pastime which was exceptional.

The Krishna is actually being the Supreme person, The Supreme Lord so He is in charge of all the universes. In every universe, there is a head of the administration in the higher planets, his name is Indra and in this universe when Krishna was present, Indra has become a little bit proud soKrishna wanted to cut him down to size a little bit. But the way He did that is that there was an annual function that the cowherd men would worship this demigod Indra in order to get rain, because Indra was also responsible as the controller of the rain, so out of gratitude for the rain they would worship Lord Indra. So this was the annual function of worshipping Indradev.

So, in fact Krishna was asking why you are doing this. What puja are you doing? What is the actual purpose of it? He is only a 6 year old boy at that time 6, 7 years old, so Maharaj Nanda replied, this is from the Krishna book by Srila Prabhupad “My dear boy this ceremonial performance is more or less traditional, because rainfall is due to the mercy of king Indra and the clouds are his representatives and because water is so important for a living, we must show some gratitude to the controller of this rainfall, Maharaj Indra. We are arranging therefore to pacify King Indra because He has very kindly sent us clouds to pour down sufficient quantity of rain for successful agriculture activity, water is very important without rainfall we cannot farm or produce grains. We cannot live if there is no rainfall it is necessary for successful religious ceremonies, economic development, and ultimately liberation”. Therefore we should not give up the traditional ceremonial function if ones gives it up by being influenced by lust, or greed or fear then it does not look very good for him. So Krishna heard this, He spoke in such a way to make Lord Indra angry, He understood that what is the actual purpose? But He presented the matter in such a way that they would become, that Indra would become angry, just to show him a lesson so He suggested to the cowherd men to forgo the sacrifice

He gave two reasons one is that there is no need to worship demigods for any material advancement, because whatever demigods provide are simply temporary, is also explained in theKrishna book is the synopsis of the srimad bhagavatham 10th canto, In the Bhagavatham Krishnasays

SB 10.24.13

sri-bhagavan uvaca

karmana jayate jantuh

 karmanaiva praliyate

sukham duhkham bhayam ksemam

 karmanaivabhipadyate

Lord Krishna says, “it is by the force of karma that a living entity takes birth and it is by karma alone that He meets his destruction, his happiness, distress, fear and sense of security all arise as the effects of karma, even if there is Supreme controller who awards all others the results of their activities He must also depend upon the performers engaging in activity after all there is no question of being the bestower of the fruitive results unless fruitive activities have actually been performed.”

In this way, He is presenting the whole philosophy which is actually a little bit distorted, is presented in this way in order to get Indra angry, Krishna went on to say “living beings in this world are forced to experience the consequences of their own particular previous work. Since Lord Indra cannot in anyway change the destiny of human beings which is born of their own nature why should people worship him?, every individual is under the control of his own conditioned nature and thus He must follow that nature. This entire universe with all his demigods, demons, and human beings is based on the conditional nature of all living entities.”

In other words, He is presenting that karma mimamsa theory that simply by hard work we can get whatever we want, actually it was almost, that is basically a kind of atheistic philosophy because it is explained by Srila Prabhupad, Krishna began to talk as if He were an atheists supporting the philosophy of karma mimamsa. Advocates of this type of philosophy do not accept the Supreme authority of the Personality of Godhead. They put forward the argument that if anyone who works nicely, the result is sure to come. Their opinion is that even if there is a God who gives man the result of his fruitive activities, there is no need to worship him because unless man works He cannot bestow any good result, they say that instead of worshipping a demigod or God, people should give attention to their own duties and thus good result will surely come.

so Lord Krishna began to speak to his father according to the principles of karma mimamsa philosophy, So actually everyone is supposed to serve the Supreme personality of Godhead, this is the ultimate principle. That is our eternal duty is to serve the Lord and this karma mimamsa philosophy completely negates that idea. It says well, even if there is a God He is dependent upon our karma whatever we do our activities, so therefore we don’t have to do any worship because He is going to give us whatever we deserve anyway

So the elderly man, they didn’t accept this, they start to argue. They say that well, sometimes this first class medical help, and first class physician are present still a diseased man dies, so therefore just having a good material arrangement is not enough there must be some other higher powers which is whose blessing is needed, even a father and mother try to take care of a child doesn’t mean the child will be comfortable. Sometimes the children go bad or even they used to come to death in-spite of having all kind of good care.

Therefore Nanda Maharaj said, therefore to get good result we should satisfy Indra the superintendent deity of the rain. This was their response. Little Krishna only 7 years old, He said He can nullify these arguments saying, “The demigods only give the results to those who have executed prescribed duties therefore demigods dependent upon the execution of duties and not absolute in rewarding good results to anyone”. He said “My dear father there is no need to worship the demigod Indra, everyone has to achieve the result of his own work”. So in this way Krishnasomehow, He convinced him not to worship Indra, actually the philosophy was presenting,normally Krishna only presents absolute truth. But He was presenting this particular philosophy very vocally, knowing that Indra will get very angry. Oho, so you are going to stop my worship but I am going to show you a lesson and He is going to do something. But actually Indra was being disrespectful to Krishna, Krishna wanted to show that Indra had become a little bit proud so thenIndra asked what is that you want? What kind of puja do you want us to do?,

And then Krishna told them “prepare very nice foodstuffs of all descriptions from the grains and ghee collected for the yajnas prepare rice, dhal, and halva, pakora, puri and all kinds of milk preparations like sweet rice, sweet balls, Sandesh, rasgulla and ladoo [laughter] and invite the learned Brahmana’s who chant the Vedic hymns and offer ablations to the fire, the Brahmana’s should be given all kinds of grains in charity, then decorate all the cows and feed them well. After performing this give money and charity to the Brahmana’s, As far the lower animals are concerned such as dog, and lower grades of people such as chandalas, they may also be given sumptuous prasadam. After giving nice grasses to the cows, the sacrifice known as Govardhan puja may immediately begin. This sacrifice will very much satisfying me”.

So actually this, Prabhupad explained that this describes the whole economy of the Vaishya community that Vaishya’s are considered the stomach of the human society. They provide the basis for the whole society. So Prabhupad explains that Vaishya community is specifically responsible for economic improvement of society by producing grains, by giving protection to the cows, by transporting food when needed, and by banking and finance

No doubt, even the cows and dogs not to be neglected, everything has its importance in the human society. So when Krishna consciousness is there, then everyone’s total benefit is taken care off. So Prabhupad He also mentions that sacrifice known as Govardhana puja is observed in the Krishna conscious movement.

Lord Chaitanya has recommended “Since Krishna is so worshipable, so His land Vrindavan andGovardhan Hill are also worship able”. To confirm this statement Lord Krishna said “thatGovardhan puja is as good as worship of him”. From that day Govardhan puja is still going on and is known as Annakutta, in all the temples of Vrindavan or outside Vrindavan, huge quantities of food are prepared in this ceremony and very sumptuously distributed to the general population.

Sometimes the food is thrown to cows and they enjoy collecting it off the ground, from these instances we can understand that prasadam offered to Krishna never becomes polluted or contaminated even if it is thrown on the ground. People therefore collect it and eat with great satisfaction. So this in Mayapur, we have this Govardhan puja and there we make an Annakutta or hill of mountain of rice, that goes about 6 feet high, several tons of rice and up to 25000 people come to take Prasad. They eat rice, on the rice, we decorate with various variety, and we put all kinds of sweets on it, pakoras, puris, little cows and Krishna on the top [laughter]. Then we go around with the cow, like that. So, here they are going to have some puja like that, but we don’t know what the hill will be made of here. That we have to see [laughter]

They kept it secret, top secret here [laughter]. So then Krishna told all the cowherd men “Stop Indra puja no more Indra yajna, begin Govardhan puja” in order to chastise Indra because Indra had become very puffed up being the Supreme controller of the upper planetary systems. According to Veda’s, describes that there is life on every planet, that there is life in every part of the universe. But life, Indra lives basically in another dimension, these big controllers are on other planets, they have a different type of body than we have, their metabolism is far different and it’s on a much higher level, we can say almost like a different dimension. But even on every planet there is some form of life but normally a modern scientist they are just looking in a very kind of tunnel vision way to see if there is a similar symptoms of life system that we know here on this planet.

But just to prove how their idea, that you need oxygen, and carbon dioxide and so on to support life is wrong, recently within the past couple, with anywhere within past 12 months or couple of years. I think, very recently actually they just discovered that in one part of the world in the depths of the ocean, there is some volcanic eruptions going on and regularly some form of ammonia gas or some type of volcanic gas which has not _____ (19.26) oxygen or anything it. Its highly poisonous if any normal aquatic or land animal were to come in contact with that gas, they would be immediately killed. It’s highly poisonous.

But they found that, surrounding the aperture where that gas is coming there is a whole variety of fauna and flora, different types of animals and plants which have grown up. These animals and plants grow by breathing in this poisonous gas, if you put them in oxygen they die or in the water. They have to have that, they are simply growing and living from that gas and their whole metabolism is based totally different than any other creature on this planet. It’s simply based on breathing in this type of gas. Just as we breathe in oxygen breath out carbon di oxide, they are breathing in this poisonous gas and breathing out something else. And of course, as usual they are totally bewildered and don’t know what to think of it. But, this is the point that we may not find any oxygen in Venus, that doesn’t mean that there is no life on Venus, they can breathe anythingthere. If there is an atmosphere they can breathe it, if there is no atmosphere they can be on another higher dimension that doesn’t require atmosphere to live all even.

There is atmosphere in the way that we know, it’s totally beyond the limitations that we normally try to fit in life. So the descriptions are that in every planet, every object you look in the sky that there is some form of life or other. But some may be intelligent, some may be undeveloped, some various types of life form are there. 8,400,000 species of life that can be found in the universe. Indra is one of those species, He is the top of the demigods. He is very powerful, He doesn’t have to even be visible if He doesn’t want to, to the human beings.

So they stopped this Indra puja and instead they began Govardhan puja and circumambulated, went around the Govardhan Hill. “According to Krishna’s instruction they started to worship theGovardhan hill by calling the Brahmana’s, and chanting Vedic hymns offering prasadam. They decorate their cows and gave them grass, keeping the cows in the front, they went again to circumambulate the Govardhan hill. All the gopis, cowherd girls dressed very beautifully at that time the Brahmana’s were giving their blessings to their cowherd men and their wife’s”

When everything was complete, then Krishna assumed the “great transcendental form and declared that He Himself was Govardhan hill, in order to convince the devotees that Krishna andGovardhan hill are identical then Krishna began to eat the food that was offered there”. Aaha, the form of Krishna who began to eat the offerings was separately constituted from the little boyKrishna. So Krishna expanded himself, made a huge form and then through that form of Krishnastarted to eat the offering. Little baby Krishna, then He said “just see how Govardhan hill has assumed this huge form and is favoring us by accepting all the offerings. One who neglects the worship of Govardhan puja as I am personally conducting it, will not be happy. There are many snakes on Govardhan hill and persons neglecting the prescribed duties of Govardhan puja will be bitten by these snakes. So in order to assure the good fortune of the cows and themselves, all the people of Vrindavan near Govardhan must worship the Govardhan as prescribed by me”

So after performing Govardhan puja everyone went home, so Indra understood that the sacrifice of himself was stopped by Krishna, he became angry and so He decided to cause great suffering to the people of Vrindavan. So then He called a special cloud which is known as “Samvartaka” and it could give immense rain inundating the entire area. So He ordered that cloud, he has got a whole army of clouds. Some of these clouds have got actually a personality behind him, so heordered them to go and inundate the whole area with extensive flood. He said just see the impudent of the inhabitants of Vrindavan, they are simply inhabitants of forest being infatuated with their friend Krishna was nothing but an ordinary human being. They are dare to defy the demigods, so then He sent rain clouds to go so when the huge rain was coming everyone came toKrishna and said, “Dear Krishna you are all powerful, you are very affectionate to your devotees. Please protect us who have been much harassed by angry Indra”, so then Krishna understanding that, Indra was angry because He wasn’t getting his sacrificial honor, so He was pouring down. So then Krishna concluded this demigod thinks himself as Supreme has shown his great power. But I shall answer him according to my position and I shall teach him that He is not autonomous in managing universal affairs. I am the Supreme Lord over all, and I shall thus take away his false prestige which has arisen from his power

The demigods are my devotees and therefore it is not possible for them to forget my supremacy but somehow or other He has become puffed up with material power and thus He is now maddened. I shall act in such a way to relieve him of his false prestige I shall give protection to my pure devotees in Vrindavana who are present completely at my mercy and whom I have taken completely under my protection I shall save them by my mystic power.

So then Krishna thinking in this way, “He immediately picked up the Govardhan hill with one hand, just as the child picks up a mushroom from the ground”, Govardhan hill is about 21 kilometers long by 6 kilometers wide, it’s quite big [laughter]. It’s not just a little, it is pretty big though, so thenKrishna said to his devotees “My dear brothers, My dear fathers, My dear inhabitants of Vrindavan you can now safely enter under the umbrella of Govardhan hill which I have just lifted. Do not be afraid of the hill thinking it will fall from my hand you have been too much afflicted from the heavy rain and strong wind, therefore I have lifted this hill which will protect you exactly like a huge umbrella. I think this is a proper arrangement to relieve you from your immediate distress. Be happy along with your animals underneath this great umbrella”. So being reassured by Krishna, all of the animals, people of Vrindavan, they all went under the hill. So they remained there for one week, but not anyone felt any hunger, nor do they feel any kind of discomfort. They are simply astonished to see that how little Krishna 7 years old is holding up the entire mountain on the little finger of his left hand, in fact even Indra the king of heaven was thunder stuck and baffled to see the mystic power of Krishna, after seeing that He is holding it up for one week, just with one little finger. He called for all the clouds and He asked them to stop. There is a picture of Krishna holding up the Govardhan hill, [haribol].

So after the rain stopped, then all the men loaded their valuables and carts, and slowly left with their cows and other paraphernalia. After they had cleared out everything Krishna very slowly replaced Govardhan hill exactly in same position as it had been before. When everything was done all the inhabitants of Vrindavan approached Krishna and embraced Him with great ecstasy, There was beating up drums, so after this happened the cowherd men they all approached Nanda Maharaj and said listen you keep telling us, your boy is just an ordinary boy but after this we have few doubts [laughter].

I mean alright, when He was a little baby witch Putana came, He sucked her breast and took her life out, she assumed a huge form.

When He was just a little small boy, He was tied up by the rope and then He lifted this huge stone mortar was dragging along, pull two trees down and two demigods came out the son of Kuvera. Alright we could understand these might have been by accident [laughter]. But this one, we were 7 days, watching that holding up the entire hill. Now do you want to tell us that, your boy is simply an ordinary boy. We think that there is something special about this Krishna. Now, Could you kindly please explain to us, who your son is? [Laughter]

So then at that time, hearing the praises of the cowherd men in Vrindavan, King Nanda said my dear friends in reply to you. I can simply present the statement of Gargamuni so that your doubts may be cleared. When He came to perform the name giving ceremony that’s at a time about 9 days after birth. He said that this boy descends in different yuga’ s or periods of time in different colors and that this time He has appeared in Vrindavan in a dark color and is known as Krishna

Previously He was white color, then red color, then yellow color, He also said that this boy was once the son of Vasudeva and everyone who knows of his previous birth calls him Vaasudeva. Actually, He said that my son has many varieties of names according to his different qualities and activities. Garga muni assured me that this boy will be all auspicious for my family and He will be able to give transcendental blissful pleasure to all the cowherd men and cows in Vrindavan.

He also said that, any fortunate man who becomes attached to this boy Krishna is never vanquished or defeated by his enemy. On the whole He is exactly like Lord Vishnu who always take to the side of demigods and who are consequently never defeated by the demons.

Garga acarya, the astrologer concluded that my child will grow to be exactly like Vishnu in transcendental beauty, qualification, activities, influence and opulence.

According to the version of Garga acarya, I consider that He must be Narayana himself or maybe a plenary portion of Narayana. When all the cowherd men very attentively heard the statements of Garga acarya through Nanda Maharaj. “They better appreciate the wonderful activities of Krishnaand became very jubilant and satisfied, they began to praise Nanda Maharaj because by consulting him the doubts about Krishna were cleared. They said that Krishna was so kind, beautiful and merciful protect us. So they are very happy that when Indra had sent this rain, thenKrishna just lifted it up, just like a little mushroom and protected all the residents of Vrindavan. Actually Krishna is the Supreme person, normally the Supreme person is worshiped as Narayana which is the form of majestic form”

Prabhupad explained, “it is something like worshipping the form of Krishna is the very informal form and the form of Narayan is the formal form of God. He explained just like justice in the high court or Supreme Court. When you go in that court everyone stands up you say My Lord, your honor, they speak with great formality. But the same judge when He is in his house then his family members treat him just like a loved one, very intimately”.

So when Krishna is in his formal pose He is called Narayana, when He is informally playing with his devotees then He is known as Krishna. So Krishna is the original form, Narayana is the formal form. but normally everyone just like you say chief justice. Chief justice is not his original form, original form is a human being, he is a person, he has wife, kid. But everyone knows him, He is a chief justice, so they always relate like that

But actually if you meet him in his house is different, you meet the real person. So everyone knows Krishna is Narayana they say Krishna is an expansion of Vishnu or Narayana. But actually Narayana Vishnu is the formal and Krishna is the actual person behind the official position. He is the original Svayam Bhagavan. “Krishnastu bhagavan Svayam”, that is very esoteric. Only, Not everyone can understand this aspect, they say if you try to tell people about the personal life of great people they just like to say oh He is a big person that’s why I want to know. So this is a personal life of Krishna, so later Indra came and actually Indra went to Lord Brahma and find out what should I do? Why? What happened? Well, cowherd men in Vrindavan they stopped worshipping me and so I just had a little rain over there [laughter]. But then you know Krishna was there “He lifted up the whole hill and actually I think Krishna is angry at me [laughter]. What should I do?” Brahma said “you fool, why did u do that? Immediately go to Krishna and you beg for forgiveness. Immediately you go there, and you beg for forgiveness. And He told him to take with him surabi cow that happened to be visiting.”

So then Indra went to see Krishna and when no one was around, He fell down at the lotus feet ofKrishna and although He knew that Krishna was His Lord, but He just couldn’t believe it, Krishna is coming down just living with ordinary human being, but He appeared to him as ordinary human being as a cowherd boy. It is that original Krishna, the same Narayana, and the same Supreme Lord that certainly He has come down on this planet and He is just playing with the human beings like one of them. It didn’t register with Indra. He couldn’t believe it, but then after He saw whatKrishna was doing and after Brahma told him, “Yes that’s Krishna”. He came down to the earth and He is there, the Supreme Lord, Supreme, yes from the Spiritual world, He is down there on earth playing in Vrindavan and you just flooded His whole Vrindavan [laughter]. That Krishna, yes. So then Indra, he came down and he said “My dear Lord, being puffed up by my false prestige I thought that you had offended me by not allowing the cowherd men to perform the Indra yajnas and I thought that you wanted to enjoy the offerings I have arranged for the sacrifice. I thought that in the name of a Govardhan sacrifice you are taking my share of profit and therefore I mistook your position. Now by Your Grace, I can understand that you are the Supreme Lord, The Personality of Godhead and you are transcendental to all material qualities. Your transcendental position is the Sudha sadhvam, which is above the platform of the material mode of goodness and your transcendental abode is beyond the disturbance of the material qualities, your name, fame, form, quality and pastimes are all beyond this material nature and they are never disturbed by the three material modes. Your abode is accessible only for one who undergoes a severe penances and austerities and who is completely free from the very existence of this earth.

If someone thinks that when you come in, within this material world you accept the modes of material nature. He is mistaken, the waves of the material qualities are never able to touch you and certainly do not accept them when you are present with in this world. Your Lordship is never conditioned by the laws of material nature. My dear Lord, you are the original father of this cosmic manifestation, you are the Supreme Spiritual Master of this cosmic world and you are the original proprietor of everything, as eternal time you are competent to chastise offenders. You are so merciful that without punishing their offenses, you defise means so that their false prestige is subdued and they can know you and none else, that you and none else are the Supreme personality of Godhead. So in this way He went on offering many prayers, I committed great offense to your lotus feet, please excuse me because I am fool number 1 kindly give me your blessings that I may not act so foolishly again. He said even if you think that I committed too great offense and I can’t be forgiven then kindly I am your eternal servant, then kindly as your servant excuse me, and he goes on offers many many prayers to Krishna”. Then Krishna smilingly, beautifully said “My dear Indra, stopped your sacrifice just to show my causeless mercy and to revive your memory that I am your eternal master, I am not only your master, but I am the master of all other demigods as well

You should always remember that, all your material opulence’s are due to my mercy. Everyone should always remember that I am the Supreme Lord I can show anyone my favor and I can chastise anyone because no one is Superior to me

If I find someone over powered by false pride, in order to show him my causeless mercy I withdraw all his opulence’s. So although someone may work and have all type of good karma, but if Krishna wants to. He can withhold that person’s results and if Krishna wants to, He can give someone results even if they have no karma, if He wants to. Ultimately Krishna is known as“Svarat”- independent, so someone can get all kinds of benedictions from Krishna. But becauseKrishna has something far greater to give them material benedictions. Normally the great sages and devotees, they don’t go to Krishna just to ask for material things. Although if you want to ask to Krishna for material things, He can also give it

He is also can order the necessary demigod or anyone to just give it indirectly He can give, if He wants. Of course He is always independent. But Krishna can give something if even greater than liberation “Krishna is only one who can give pure devotion or Love of God”, that is His special benediction. Only Vishnu can give liberation, even Shiva cannot give liberation to the spiritual world. But Krishna in his form as Vishnu can give liberation, Krishna can give liberation. But onlyKrishna in his form of Krishna can give pure love to himself. This pure love of Krishna is something which is even better than liberation.

Because if you are pure lover of Krishna, automatically you will get liberation. Just like the difference between someone getting a visa to America, He may get a visa to come America just like getting liberation in a gross kind of example but that doesn’t mean that but if you are actually living in America and having association with the president of United States or having an intimate association with the controllers that be, with all the powers that be is difference, it is a difference there.

So in the spiritual world, just to be admitted in the spiritual world that is liberation. But to actually have association with Krishna or to have pure love of Krishna and to be accepted as one of his own eternal associates and devotees in completely loving way that is something which is even more special.

So that adoption by Krishna is only performed by Krishna, very crude examples. I am just giving some kind of. So since you are going to have dramas and pujas, I don’t want to delay that. These are all very interesting, of course sometimes people considers that well this is very nice mythology. And, in Krishna consciousness movement we take these histories of Krishna not to be mythology, but to be actual accounts of what happened? That Krishna is said to have lift up an entire mountain which is so large. We don’t find it et all wonderful because he is lifting up all the unlimited planets what’s the difficulty if He lifts up a mountain and if somebody finds it very wonderful how can God himself Supreme Lord comes down on this planet?, We don’t find that very wonderful also, being the Supreme Lord if He wants to come down, why can’t Him? Who is going to stop Him? and But rather it is wonderful how He comes down and He associates with His devotees in such an intimate way. He comes down and He brings with him many associates from the spiritual world and He picks up the devotees that were here in the material world, then they all come and take birth in the Vrindavan to join his pastimes.

When He leaves, He takes them all with Him. In this way, He also shows the people of this world that you want to know what God is like? He’s not some old man sitting in the chair on the top with big beard. He is eternally youthful and He is enjoying himself with His friends, having all kinds of loving pastimes. So why don’t you come and join Him and engage in loving devotion to Him?,Because that’s actually what we are all hankering for, is to have eternally a good time and there is no better time than that times which are spent with Krishna those are the best times. In this way, if someone actually gives an objective study of Krishna and His devotees and how lovingly they pass their time. We can find that the sweetest and most beautiful relationships were manifested or exhibited at that time.

The love that we are hankering we can actually find in relationship to Krishna, His purpose of coming to the world is to show the people how life is in the spiritual world where there is no competition, of course He is disturbed here in the material world. Anyone in the material world is always disturbed by different types of antagonistic elements. So then Krishna, He has to settle up these disturbances, just like there is now Indra is in Spiritual world to rain down and cause flooding and things.

But there is a Govardhan puja and so on without the disturbances, so Krishna enjoys coming down into the material world and reclaiming the fallen souls and showing His pastimes. For Him, it’s like going out for a picnic or something, come here lets go to the material world and have a pastime and takes with him some of His eternal associates and picks up the devotees who are waiting here in material world.

But those pastimes are going on in different ways and unlimited other past times which cannot be fit in a small book in the spiritual world. So the ultimate purpose of life is for us to develop our original relationship with the Supreme Lord and go back to the spiritual sky. This is actually the purpose, spiritual world is mentioned it is referred to. But like when the followers of Lord Jesus asked Him, Could you explain to us about the kingdom of our father in heaven?, He said I would like to tell you I could tell you so many things but you couldn’t be able to understand, you can’t even understand what I am telling you about this world, How are you going to understand about the world that lies beyond this world? So at different circumstance, sometimes the great preachers come down, but the people may not be so ready to understand about the spiritual world.

So Lord Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, He had taken these teachings of Krishna and He had said that these should be told to everyone. If they accept, that’s their good fortune then they can know this information about all the planets in the material world and the planets that lies beyond this whole material creation in the spiritual world. So it’s a great science of cosmology, it’s a science of self-realization, it’s a perfection of religion because it gives realization of God, realization of the self by perception, not simply by theory. So to achieve that of course, it begins very easily, we can become a devotee of Krishna, we can become advanced in this process of yoga very easily by chanting this mantra
“Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare
Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare”

By chanting the mantra we can feel the presence of Krishna, We can feel the transcendental energy coming from the Mantra. So we invite everyone to practice chanting. You can chant in your home, you can chant anywhere, you can come in together with us every Sunday or any day and chant with us in the temple.

We thank you for coming here and chanting with us tonight
“Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare
Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare”

Are there any questions?

Devotee: Question “inaudible”

That was taller than it is now, It sunk in the ground in Kali yuga it shrinks in and by the end of the kali yuga it is going to be completely covered up by the ground and you won’t see it any more,before the end of kali yuga. Now on the sides of Govardhan, its only about 40 feet high and then in center it’s a couple may be 200 to 300 feet high before it was much higher it was about 21 kilometers high 6 7 8 kilometers wide but height I don’t know the highest point maybe 300 to 400 feet in middle we never go on Govardhan middle we can only see that only one side is about 200 feet other side is 25 to 30 feet. But in middle its higher, but used to be much higher may be over 1000 feet or so high but sinking into the earth. It’s not different from Krishna so later when people become more irreligious, it will gradually sink in and cover.

So now you can still go and see Govardhan and we have Krishna’s land Vrindavan and Mayapur and we take the devotees to Govardhan, the place of Krishna’s pastimes and we have a temple in Vrindavan called Krishna Balarama temple and devotees are welcome to go and stay there.

In the month of March we have an annual pilgrimage to India and various devotees go there and at that time we visit especially these 2 holy places. And sometimes we also visit our temple in Delhi, Bombay, other Jagganath puri and other places depending upon the itinerary

But specially these 2 temples the holy land of Krishna in vrindavan and the Land of KrishnaChaitanya in Mayapur are _____(15.32) in this pilgrimage. Someone wants to join the pilgrimage, you are welcome you can discuss with Balabadra that is in month of March. We are going to have a 5 minute pre initiation ceremony for some of the members of our community live in their homes and chant HareKrishna. We like to request that while we are doing this little ceremony if the devotees who are in the front between that door and this frontier would kindly relocate themselves to this side over here, so that the dramatic players would be able to come out

[Devotee speaking:]

HareKrishna if anyone has to leave early, if you would like to take prasadam before you go, you can go down to the basement we are serving prasadam there for those who have to leave early,just to this door here the pink door. ____(51.30) Last night devotees are featured on 11 live news for Jagannath Rathyatra. [Haribol]

[Guru Maharaj Speaking:]

HareKrishna, the pre initiation giving at tonight is Krishna Sevak is, for those who are chanting more than 4 rounds some may be chanting 4 8 or 16 rounds, at least more than 4 whatever number rounds they are chanting, they shouldn’t decrease. Principle of chanting HareKrishna, we try to chant a number of times every day as a minimum, we chant more that’s all right, but not less.This helps to build up the spiritual force and this, those who are taking the pre initiation also vegetarians and they are going to be preparing to become to perform more of the devotional activities of bhakti Yoga, that’s correct

What happened to the other Steve

Jai Sri Sri Radha Madhan Mohan Jai, Nitai Gaur jai, Jagganath Baladev Subhadra Jai

Please repeat

[Guru Maharaj Speaking: Devotees repeats]

Om : Om
Ajnana : Ajnana
Timirandasya : Timirandasya
Jnananjana: jnananjana
salakaya : salakaya
cakshur : cakshur
unmilitam : unmilitam
yena : yena
tasmai: tasmai
sri- : sri-
gurave : gurave
namah : namah

_____[53:29] not audible

What are they closing the curtains? They shouldn’t start changing the deities, After Govardhanpuja we are going to do offering of arati to the deities,

[Guru Maharaj Speaking : Devotees repeats]

om : om
apavitrah : apavitrah
pavitro vā : pavitro vā
sarvā : sarvā
vasthāṁ : vasthāṁ
gato : gato
api vā yah : api vā yah
smaret : smaret
puṇḍarik : puṇḍarik
ākṣaṁ : ākṣaṁ

Take water in your hand and say Sri Vishnu and drink it, take the water and just wash your hand

[Guru Maharaj Speaking : Devotees repeats]

nama : nama
om : om
vishnu : Vishnu
padaya : padaya
krishna : krishna
preshthaya : preshthaya
bhu-tale : bhu-tale
srimate : srimate
bhaktivedanta : bhaktivedanta
svamin : svamin
iti : iti
namine : namine

namaste : namaste
sarasvate : sarasvate
deve : deve
gaura : gaura
vani : vani
pracarine : pracarine
nirvisesha : nirvisesha
sunyavadi : sunyavadi
pascatya : pascatya
desa : desa
tarine : tarine

namo : namo
maha : maha
vadanyaya : vadanyaya
krishna : krishna
-prema : -prema
pradaya te : pradaya te
krishnaya : krishnaya
krishna : krishna
caitanya : caitanya
namne : namne
gaura : gaura
tvishe : tvishe
namah : namah

namo : namo
brahmaṇya : brahmaṇya
devāya : devāya
go : go
brāhmaṇa : brāhmaṇa
hitāyaca : hitāyaca
jagad-dhitāya : jagad-dhitāya
kṛṣṇāya : kṛṣṇāya
govindāya : govindāya
namo : namo
namaḥ : namaḥ

Sri krishna : sri Krishna
caithanaya : caithanaya
prabhu nityanandha : prabhu nityanandha
sri advaita : sri advaita
gadadhar : gadadhar
srivas : srivas
adi : adi
gaur : gaur
Bhakta : Bhakta
Vrinda : Vrinda

[Guru Maharaj Speaking: Devotees repeats]

Hare Krishna : Hare Krishna
Hare Krishna : Hare Krishna
Krishna Krishna : Krishna Krishna
Hare Hare : Hare Hare
Hare Rama : Hare Rama
Hare Rama : Hare Rama
Rama Rama : Rama Rama
Hare Hare : Hare Hare

so these four questions you accept, fold your hand HareKrishna

First that if you believe and accept that Lord Sri Krishna is the Supreme Personality of Godhead and that he has appeared in this age of kali as lord caithanaya mahaprabhu the most merciful avatar then, say HareKrishna. Devotees speaks HareKrishna

And then if u believe that pure devotional service to Lord Krishna is the perfection of human life and it is your desire to eventually achieve pure devotional service, then say HareKrishna HareKrishna. Devotees speaks HareKrishna

And if u want spiritual guidance in order to achieve this pure devotional service from me and accept me as your instructing spiritual master or siksha Guru, then say HareKrishna. Devotees speaks HareKrishna

And if you desire to gradually increase your devotional service, the standard of your devotional service and purity and eventually take full shelter of Krishna and to accept harinam initiation for this purpose, if you want me to give an ashirvad then say HareKrishna. . Devotees speaks HareKrishna

These are ashes from our fire sacrifice in Mayapur that fire that never goes out

Guru Maharaj speaks

Krishna sevak [Haribol]
Krishna sevak Alexandar [Haribol]
Krishna sevak Todd [Haribol]

Hare Krishna

[Guru Maharaj Speaking: Devotees repeats]

Hare Krishna : Hare Krishna
Hare Krishna : Hare Krishna
Krishna Krishna : Krishna Krishna
Hare Hare : Hare Hare
Hare Rama : Hare Rama
Hare Rama : Hare Rama
Rama Rama : Rama Rama
Hare Hare : Hare Hare

Om tat sat.