Krishna and the Mountain...Govardhan Puja and Karma Yoga!

Meady's Musings Production does not own this picture or its rights and a re-print of it can be bought on this site.

It's the funniest thing...discussing the festival of Diwali and how it's celebrated world over with a friend...I came to thinking...well in many parts of the world Diwali is celebrated as a many days festival and as such on one of the days depending on the part of India you are in or from where in India your ancestors came Govardhan Puja is performed.

Now our point of raising this here on the prayers is to do with some of the series we have had on here before...in particular the God series where we explored God as water but we didn't explore however God as rain did we?...but it is interesting and it is why we are bringing this up on the prayers now...God as rain or rainfall in Hinduism is personified as the God Indra...he is also God of Gods or Deva hi Dev or God of the God Kingdom or God of Heaven or King of Heaven i.e. svargaloka.

Now we can see how rain or rainfall can be personified as a deity on its own i.e. deified especially by peoples of the past and rural peoples of today as in an agrarian society one needs rainfall to get those crops growing and flourishing...and it's how our stories here on the prayers begin and tie in....

Govardhan puja is done to celebrate the great mountain and the act of Krishna while incarnate on earth lifting it to shelter a village form the wrath of Indra...as he was pouring down his rain...because you see he had made it that the farmers at the time had to pray to him to get rainfall for their crops but the thing is when the farmers had to spend this whole chunk of time preparing and praying to him...well they couldn't tend their crops. And so Krishna said to them:

"Why do this? You people are farmers and should be spending your time tending to your crops not praying for rain! LOL! Are you people crazy! LOL!"

But the people said:

"Oh Krishna but we must as if we don't Indra will get mad! Really mad and we will either not have enough rain to nourish our crops or either he will rain down his wrath on us and flood out all our crops."

"So Krishna went on and on expounding his view of Karma yoga...recall this post here...and he told the people he would deal with Indra and they should tend their crops."

Now Indra got mad...he did get really mad! And he rained and rained his wrath down...but Krishna the supreme being that he is...lifted up Goverdhan hill with his finger and shelthered the entire village...crops, villagers, cows and all! So hence Krishna is seen to have defeated or humbled Indra...who came and asked for forgiveness...so the lessons learnt are that although the elements and nature can be worshipped they are just part of the whole. And the Universal or Supreme One himself, her or itself in this case personified by Krishna in the end is incharge. And such a being does not act on pride nor requires grand prayers and offerings onto to him,her or it to perform their roles. It's what they must do...in the same way so too we have roles that we should perform well...i.e. perform karma yoga...right action...that is each of us have our roles to act out...and we should act them out as well as we can! Indra, you, Krishna and me and all of us here on the prayers! :)Because even the Supreme One personified here as Krishna never asked to be glorified for what he did...he was just doing his karma to preach to the villagers and then to lift the mountain to protect them from the wrong actions of Indra as he Krishna is the Supreme One and as such his role is to do these things! LOL!

So Karma Yoga it is! :)

But we all in the end like to give praise even though it's not needed so when the farmers had done tending their crops and like us...when we are done with our daily chores...they did join in UCP:Universal Collective Prayers and although Krishna and the hill were just doing their jobs...the villagers honoured the great mountain for sheltering them and Krishna for lifting it and there you have it they performed Govardhan puja! :) Prayers from the heart...not extortion (you see because Indra was saying if you didn't pray to him he'd not do his role and that was just wrong man!)...and prayers not instead of your other work but after all your work is done!

Don't mind the accents of the Hare Krishnas from ISKCON here in the Youtube vid below showing the Govardhan puja as even if their mouths form the Sanskrit and Hindi words kinda badly their hearts are in the right place...and they're Bhaktivedantas after all so that's all good! And the beautiful picture at the top of the blog is also an original ISKCON print if I'm not mistaken!