20151112 A Talk at Naimiṣāraṇya During Kārtika.

Gurumahārāja: 

mūkaṁ karoti vācālaṁ

paṅguṁ laṅghayate girim

yat-kṛpā tam ahaṁ vande

paramānanda-mādhavam

Śrī Caitanya Iswaram 

Hari Oṁ Tat Sat.

So, today is the auspicious anniversary of the appearance of Giriraj, of Govardhana, in the sense that today was the day when Krishna offered worship to the Giriraj. His father and the cowherd men were preparing to do the Indra Pūjā. So, he wanted to teach Indra. Indra was forgetful of the position of Viṣṇu. So, Kṛṣṇa asked His father what he was doing, if he could tell him. He said, “A liberal person, he doesn’t keep any secrets, and he tells everyone, but even if a person is less liberal, atleast he will tell his family members and relatives.” So, like this Krishna was laying the basis for Nanda Mahārāja explaining to him. Nanda Mahārāja was thinking that, this whole issue would be too complex for my child to understand, but Lord Kṛṣṇa continued to enquire, “Is this given in the Vedas or is it just some tradition that you do? 

So, then Nanda Mahārāja in simple words, he said that we are very much dependent on having good rains. Because as Vaiśyās they were engaged in the production of grains and cow protection. So, he said that, “We are very grateful to Indra for sending us this rains”, but then Lord Kṛṣṇa, he wanted to make Indra angry. So, he started to speak the Karma Mīmāṁsā philosophy, and he was saying that, “The Devās, they give blessings because you did good work. So, what is really important is that you do your work according to Varnasrama, and the Devās, they have to give. It’s not that they have some independent authority.” So, this angered Indrā a lot, but Kṛṣṇa was so convincing that he presented that, “We should worship all these grains, ghee, worship the Govardhana, by cooking preparations and offering to the Girirāja.” So, they took all these grains, ghee and they cooked halwā, sabzi, rice and made a big feast for Lord Govardhana. 

So, Kṛṣṇa said that Govardhana is non-different from him, and he took a large form while he kept his childhood form. So, he said, “See Girirāja has taken this form to accept you offerings.” So, different devotees were offering him prasād, and literally he was eating. In fact in Govardhana they have a village called Aniyor. It means “bring more, bring more.” Then Govardhana, He would begin to eat more and then he would say bring more, bring more. So, like this they were offering a mountain of rice with ḍāls, halwā, chappatis, pakodās, and also milk sweets, sweet rice, sandesh and many other preparations. 

So, on this day they have extreme pūjā to Govardhana. Now, the men and ladies and bullock carts, they would circumambulate Govardhana hill; the ladies were riding on the bullock carts, and the men were walking, and the brāhmanas were chanting mantra’s. So, that was the pūjā done five thousand years ago. 

In the harmonist, it tells how Śrīla Bhaktisiddhāntha Saraswati Thākura, he did Annakut, in the New temple in Bagbazar, Calcutta; a new temple at that time, 1921 or something, and then it’s said that people would come rich and poor, aristocratic and beggars, high class Indian ladies, also Mohammedān, Christians, Buddhists, Jains, which shows that it was very cosmopolitan, and so it is said by the most humble estimate, one hundred thousand people came to take the Annakūṭa Prasādam. There were sixty mounds of rice; mound is forty kilo. 

I heard a story from one of the Gaudia Math Sanyāsi how a dog had come up and eaten from the Annakūṭa, how everybody stood back... “Oh! Cantaminated”... and they told this to Bhaktisiddhantha Saraswati Ṭhākura, that a dog has eaten the mound of rice.

“Really!” 

“Yes”

Then he said, “Show me where?”

They showed him, “That place.”

“You are sure this is the place?”

“Yes.”

“This place, where there is a small indentation?”

“That’s the place.”

The he took and ate it. (applause)

Then they started to distribute the Annakūṭa rice. 

After the Bagh Bazar success, all the Gaudia Maṭh were doing Annakūṭa, and then Oṁ Viṣṇupāda Śrīla Bhaktisiddhantha Saraswati Ṭhākura was in  Jagannātha Purī, and he suddenly said that he wanted the Annakūṭa observed in a particular way. He said that we should have different styles of cooking and decorating the Govardhan hill. Bengali style: preparations that Lord Caitanyā liked, North Indian style: preparations that Kṛṣṇa liked, South India style. So, like this he said... but this should not be a culinary festival. It should primarily be preaching, and different sanyāsis and senior devotees, they are giving classes throughout the Gaudia Math all day long, and if not giving a formal class, they would meet people and tell them some Kṛṣṇa Kathā. 

I was thinking that if we had known this, we could observe the Govardhana Pūjā, not only East India, North India, South India, but also Italian and various, various cuisines from different parts of the world. 

So, it is interesting how he used Annakūṭa as a forum for spreading Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Śrīla Prabhupāda, he introduced this Annakūṭa in ISKCON, and in Māyāpur we had tons of rice and other festival items, and afterwards, after... we brought a cow up to circumambulate, but then the cow would slip on the marble sometimes. So, it wasn’t so good. 

Today I see mounds of rice before Rādhā-Mādhava, and some pots, but Śrīla Bhaktisiddhāntha Saraswati Ṭhākura, not only would he have different kinds of cuisine, each type you had to prepare five hundred varieties; five hundred Bengali, five hundred North Indian, five hundred South Indian, and in Māyāpur we have now Chinese, Russian, Italian, who else? 

Do they have in Spanish five hundred varieties? 

But specially I wanted to... this is day after Annakūṭa that Prabhupāda from his room, he was hearing dogs bark and walked over and looked down from the lotus building, and he saw some village children with a stick in one hand beating back the dogs. With the other hand eating the remnants that people left on their plates; and Prabhupāda was literally crying. He said, “How hungry they must be. They are fighting dogs to get the ucchistha, to get the remnants. This is the house of Kṛṣṇa, He is the supreme father. We should see that within ten miles of radius no one goes hungry. That was the beginning of our ISKCON food relief on a very massive scale. 

So, that’s part of our unique culture here in Māyāpur that we want to feed the people. I saw that it is quite well organized, the prasādam feeding today that they had it here in Prabhupāda park here; anyway that’s a very important part of our culture that we want to feed hungry people. Hunger is not only poverty, but people may have a spiritual hunger also.

I remember a quite wealthy lady. She said that, I could cook khicadi. I can put very expensive ingredients: Spices, pistachios; opulent khichadi, but it won’t taste like yours. Somehow your khichadi is out of the world. We said, “Yes, it is tasted by Kṛṣṇa. It has touched Kṛṣṇa’s lotus mouth. Therefore it is spiritually opulent.”

I was reminded by one story that happened to me regarding Girirāja; Jaganatha, Baldeva and Subhadrā Deities in Rajapur. They come to the pūjārī in his dream; “Ever since you put a Govardhana Shila on the altar... he is mountain, he eats everything. He doesn’t wait, he just dives and zoom takes off everything. We are not getting any bhoga. So, you have to do something.”

So, they came to me; pūjārī, and they said this problem is there, this is a part of our management in Māyāpur. It is not there in any of the training books. (laughter) How to settle disagreement between the Deities? (laughter) So, I was thinking what to do. This was a very unusual case. So, after some investigation, I found that one Mahārāja had left his Govardhan Shila there on the altar, but there is nothing we could do about that. They were offering one plate to all the Deities. So, Govardhan being a mountain, He could eat so much. Then I suggested that they offer Govardhan a special plate, and offer the other Deities different plates, and see if that stops the complaints. So, after that no complaints came. 

In the Kṛṣṇa book purport, Prabhupāda says how devotees get... since Kṛṣṇa declares that Govardhan is not different from Him, the devotees get small stones and offer pūjā. Prabhupāda was saying that this pūjā is more spontaneous, and there are a number of devotees who have Shaligram shila, and some have the Govardhan Shila, some have both. So, that’s some discussion about Govardhan. 

There is some time left. 

If any of you have any questions tell me. 

Question: Prabhupāda says in the Kṛṣṇa book that one can bring shila of Govardhan and worship. Is it necessary that one should take the permission of a vrajavasi before bringing them?

Gurumahārāja: I notice that also, and suspected that someone may ask. 

I don’t know exactly where it started. I think that Prabhupāda asked whether the devotee got that from a Vrajavāsī or not? Seems to be the etiquette that a Vrajavāsī should give you a Govardhan Shila, but I haven’t researched it more than that, but this seems to be the etiquette. And usual, devotees who want to worship Govardhan Shila can find a Vrajavāsī to give them one. 

Question: What is the best thing we can do the last part of tonight? What can we do to get the most from Māyāpur, when we leave with the group of Orphans from Orphanage tomorrow?

Gurumahārāja: You are asking me the question at nine O’ clock in the night. 

What time do you take rest. 

Mātājī: As soon as we finish the class. If there is something, we can do it and take rest. 

Gurumahārāja: There are two things. One is we are going to give out some prasādam. The kids can come out first for the prasādam, and second thing is that before they go to sleep, they can bow down and pay their obeisance’s to the nine islands and to the different Deities and to Govardhāna, and the presiding Deities here and Chant Panchatattva and Hare Kṛṣṇa. 

Mātājī: Thank you Gurumahārāja.

Gurumahārāja: You are welcome.

Question: It is said sometimes that we should prepare only those food’s that Kṛṣṇa likes. So, Gurumahārāja mentioned about Italian cuisine, Chinese cuisine. Are these only for Govardhana Pūjā?

Gurumahārāja: Śrīla Bhaktisiddhāntha Saraswāti Ṭhākura had prescribed five hundred preparations of each style, and during our Prabhupāda Vyāsa Pūjā we offered two thousand sixteen preparations, and those are of various kinds. So, for these very important days you can make a vast quantity of preparations. For ordinary days you may just have seven or ten preparations, and there is no such a hard and fast rule that you can only cook things which Krishna likes. We don’t know that He doesn’t like Russian preparations. 

From Malaysia, one devotee asked me, “Does Kṛṣṇa know Tamil?” I said, “Yes, He knows all languages. Even the languages of the birds and the beasts and the trees. He knows Tamil.” That lady was so happy, “Kṛṣṇa knows Tamil.” That means Kṛṣṇa also knows Russian and Chinese and Telugu. On special days Prabhupāda liked kachodis. On special days we make that preparations which they like, but we can make many preparations also. 

So, Prabhupāda liked kachodi’s. So, you can also make Him a variety of other preparations. There is not restriction. We should take advantage to glorify, to glorify Kṛṣṇa.

Question: Mahārāja spoke very nicely on the Annakūṭa from the harmonist. So, I would like to know if Mahārāja would encourage us to read some section of the harmonist like the Janmasthami or something like that? 

Gurumahārāja: Those devotees who are in charge of festival organization, may be useful to study what our previous Acharyās did on those occasions. Just like in the Hari Bhakti Vilāsa, Sanātana Goswāmi, he also tells what to do in different occasions, and so things are in the advanced levels of Deity worship. It may not be for everybody, but those who are organizing the festivals they can research what was done by the previous Acharyās. We follow sādhu, śāstra and Guru. 

So, if they are previous Acharyās, they are gurus, and if they are other sādhus, other Vaiṣṇavas, it’s sādhu. 

If Prabhupāda says particularly we should do this or that; that takes precedence for us. If he just says that have a big festival, then what is the harm in researching what our previous Acharyās did. Prabhupāda said that he would construct the structure of ISCKON. That we had to fill in the walls and windows.

So, thank you all very much. 

This side men, this side ladies, but kids first.