Govardhana Dhāraṇa in the Brahma Vaivarta Purāṇa

The Govardhana Dhāraṇa is the account in the Brahma Vaivarta Purāṇa of how Śrī Kṛshṇa lifted the sacred hill Govardhana. It is told in chapter 21 of the Śrī Kṛshṇa Janana Khaṇḍa.

Nanda Mahārāja and the gopas of Vṛndāvana prepared the yearly Indra-yāga. Kṛshṇa turned their worship to Govardhana and to the brāhmaṇas. Indra was angry and sent a great storm against Vṛndāvana. Kṛshṇa held up Govardhana with his left hand for seven days to shelter the whole community. Indra’s strength gave out, and he gave a stotra (hymn of praise) to Kṛshṇa. The chapter ends with a teaching on the greatness of bhaktas (devotees) and brāhmaṇas.

Nanda’s preparations for the Indra-yāga

Each year, by the custom of their forefathers, the cowherd community of Vṛndāvana held a great Indra-yāga, a rite of worship and offering to Indra. Indra is the deva of rain and the king of the devas. His yearly monsoon rain feeds the pastures on which the cattle graze.

In the year after the community came to the new divine city, Nanda Mahārāja began preparations on a scale that matched their new wealth. The preparations were huge. Crores of pālas of ghee were gathered, with great amounts of honey, flowers of every kind, food of every kind, and animals for the feast. Famous ṛshis came to help with the Vedic rites: Garga, Gālava, Śākalya, Gautama and others, whose presence made the gathering holy. (Śrī Kṛshṇa Janana Khaṇḍa, chapter 21)

Kṛshṇa came to the gathering and was given a throne of gems from which to watch the preparations. He watched everything: the materials, the ṛshis, and the eagerness of the gopas. Then he spoke.

Kṛshṇa’s argument for Govardhana

Kṛshṇa questioned Nanda gently but without pause. He asked: “What is the ground for this worship of Indra? Has anyone in this gathering truly seen Indra take the offerings? Has anyone seen him answer these prayers? What proof is there that these rains come from Indra at all?”

He then set out his argument step by step. The sun draws moisture from the earth and the sea. Clouds form and the winds carry them. Rain falls by the natural working that Bhagavān Kṛshṇa set in place when creation began. Indra does not make the rain. He presides over a realm whose workings were set going by the basic order of the cosmos, and not by the particular prayers of the cowherds of Vṛndāvana. (Śrī Kṛshṇa Janana Khaṇḍa, chapter 21)

The greatness of brāhmaṇas

Kṛshṇa then turned to what he held worthy of worship. The first and highest, he said, are the brāhmaṇas. He gave a long teaching on brāhmaṇa-mahimā, the greatness of brāhmaṇas. They are not only a social class or a title of birth. They are the living form of Vishṇu on earth.

To touch the feet of a brāhmaṇa is to touch the feet of Vishṇu.
To see a brāhmaṇa is to have darśana of Vishṇu himself.
To eat the prasāda (food left by a brāhmaṇa) is to receive the blessing of Vishṇu.
The water that has washed a brāhmaṇa’s feet cleanses the pāpa gathered over many births.
The footprints of a walking brāhmaṇa are tīrthas (holy crossing places), like the holiest river fords.
To insult a brāhmaṇa is to insult the Supreme. To honour a brāhmaṇa is to honour the Supreme.

(Śrī Kṛshṇa Janana Khaṇḍa, chapter 21)

The greatness of Govardhana

The second object worthy of worship, Kṛshṇa said, is the hill Govardhana, and not Indra. Govardhana grows the grass on which the cows graze. Govardhana shelters the animals in a storm. Govardhana purifies the land around it by its holy nature. The cows and their milk, which feed this community, owe their wealth to Govardhana.

So he proposed that the things gathered for the Indra-yāga be turned to a new use. Let the gopas worship the hill Govardhana and feed the brāhmaṇas. Let them honour what is truly present and of use, and not pour offerings to a deva in a far-off svarga. (Śrī Kṛshṇa Janana Khaṇḍa, chapter 21)

Nanda was fully won over, for the reasoning could not be answered. The gopas agreed. The materials of the Indra-yāga were turned into a Govardhana-pūjā and a brāhmaṇa-bhojana (feast for brāhmaṇas). The whole community took part with joy.

Kṛshṇa as Govardhana

At the height of the pūjā, something wonderful happened. By his yogamāyā, Kṛshṇa stayed himself among the gopas and at the same time took a vast form as the hill Govardhana. From within the hill, from its stone and earth and grass, a voice spoke: “I am Govardhana. I am pleased with your worship. Bring me the offerings.”

The gopas were amazed and brought the food. Govardhana “ate” it through the power of Kṛshṇa. Nanda Mahārāja was deeply moved. He spoke to the hill and asked for a vara (boon): Śrīhari-dāsya, the state of being a servant of Vishṇu, for himself and his family in all their births. Even while he worshipped Govardhana, Nanda’s heart knew that Kṛshṇa and Vishṇu are one. (Śrī Kṛshṇa Janana Khaṇḍa, chapter 21)

Indra’s anger and the Sāṃvartaka clouds

In his svarga, Indra had been watching. The stopping of his yāga was felt by him as a personal insult from a community of cowherds, stirred up by a child. His pride swelled into anger.

He called up the Sāṃvartaka clouds. These are the clouds of the end of an age, which at the close of a yuga flood and put out the world. He sent them against Vṛndāvana. He also called all the devas with their weapons and ordered an attack on the cowherd settlement as if in war. (Śrī Kṛshṇa Janana Khaṇḍa, chapter 21)

The storm that fell on Vṛndāvana was like nothing the world of mortals can make. The Sāṃvartaka clouds are not ordinary monsoon clouds. They are clouds of the end of the world. Their thunder shook the earth. Their lightning struck in unbroken blinding sheets. The rain did not fall in drops but poured in columns and curtains, as if the ocean itself were being emptied from the sky. Hailstones as big as stones fell with the force of missiles. The wind tore trees out of the ground. The community fell into panic. (Śrī Kṛshṇa Janana Khaṇḍa, chapter 21)

Nanda Mahārāja, in terror, fell flat before the storm and prayed to Indra with a stotra of forty-six names. He called on Indra’s many titles and powers, praised his strength, and begged for mercy. Kṛshṇa gently but firmly scolded his foster-father. He said: “Do not pray to Indra. He has come here as my enemy, not as your friend. There is no use in begging someone who has stopped doing the work you are calling on him for.” (Śrī Kṛshṇa Janana Khaṇḍa, chapter 21)

Kṛshṇa lifts Govardhana

Kṛshṇa’s orders were calm and clear. All the cowherd men, women and children, and all the cows and calves, were to take shelter in the caves of Govardhana. When the last person and the last calf had gone in, Kṛshṇa went to the foot of the hill. He put his left hand, only his left hand and not his right, under the base of the mountain. He lifted. (Śrī Kṛshṇa Janana Khaṇḍa, chapter 21)

Govardhana rose from the earth like an umbrella being opened. The whole hill rose with its forests, streams, boulders and caves, all whole and in perfect balance on the palm of a child’s hand. Kṛshṇa stood beneath it with his arm raised and held Govardhana over the community, as a large umbrella shelters travellers from rain. The rain of Sāṃvartaka crashed against the underside of the hill and ran off its edges. Inside, all was dry, calm and safe. (Śrī Kṛshṇa Janana Khaṇḍa, chapter 21)

For seven days Kṛshṇa held the hill. For seven days the fiercest storm battered the umbrella of Govardhana while the people of Vṛndāvana sheltered below. Kṛshṇa stood unchanged. He did not strain or shift his weight or lower his arm even a little. He held it as easily as a leaf.

Indra hurled every weapon he had. He sent the Sāṃvartaka winds. He threw his vajra (thunderbolt), which once split mountains, at Kṛshṇa. The vajra struck the body of Kṛshṇa and broke harmlessly. The hand of Indra that held the vajra froze and could not move. He had no more weapons to send. The storm wore itself out against the unmoving form of Kṛshṇa. (Śrī Kṛshṇa Janana Khaṇḍa, chapter 21)

Indra’s samādhi and stotra

Ashamed and without power, Indra did the one thing left to him. He entered samādhi (deep meditation). In that inner stillness he saw Kṛshṇa everywhere and in everything, as Brahmā had seen him. Indra’s vision was close and tender.

He saw Kṛshṇa with Rādhādevī in the private groves of Vṛndāvana. Kṛshṇa put flowers in her hair. He put lākshā (red lac) on her lotus feet. He fed her tāmbūla (betel) with his own hand. They sat together under a flowering tree, in the endless spring of Goloka that shows itself within Vṛndāvana.

He saw the bāla-līlās, the childhood plays of Kṛshṇa. Kṛshṇa gave the food of the brāhmaṇa wives to the hungry gopas. He ate tāla fruits with his friends in the palm forest. He took the gopīs’ clothes from the river bank and called them from the tree, which is the vastra-haraṇa. He called the cows home in the evening with a sweet shout. He danced on the hoods of Kāḷīya with small feet that shake the world. He played his flute, and all of Vṛndāvana, the animals, trees and stones, fell into a rapt stillness. (Śrī Kṛshṇa Janana Khaṇḍa, chapter 21)

Indra’s stotra comes from this vision. It is a full account of all he saw in samādhi, made into praise. He names Kṛshṇa as the ādi-tattva, the first principle, from which all the devas, Indra among them, draw their limited powers. He asks pardon for his pride in attacking Vṛndāvana. He weeps. (Śrī Kṛshṇa Janana Khaṇḍa, chapter 21)

Kṛshṇa was moved by the sincerity of Indra’s surrender and gave Indra a vara (boon). The text describes it as the return of Indra’s own duties and his continued rule over rain and the devas. Kṛshṇa did not take away his place. He gave it back to him, now knowing truly who the Supreme is.

Kṛshṇa then set Govardhana down on the earth, gently and perfectly. The rain stopped, and the sky cleared. (Śrī Kṛshṇa Janana Khaṇḍa, chapter 21)

Nanda’s stotra and the greatness of bhaktas

Afterwards Nanda Mahārāja gave a long stotra to Kṛshṇa. He praised Kṛshṇa as the full form of Vishṇu, using the thousand attributes of Vishṇu. He praised the people of Vṛndāvana as among the most fortunate in all creation, because they live every day close to Bhagavān Kṛshṇa. (Śrī Kṛshṇa Janana Khaṇḍa, chapter 21)

The chapter ends with a teaching on bhakta-mahimā, the greatness of the devotees of Bhagavān Kṛshṇa. Even half a moment in the company of a true bhakta is enough to carry an ātmā across the ocean of saṃsāra (the cycle of birth and death). The speech of a bhakta, even plain talk about the weather or the cows, is deep down the water that makes the young plant of bhakti grow. The speech of a bhakta is never apart from Kṛshṇa, because the mind of a bhakta is never apart from Kṛshṇa. To be near a bhakta is to be near Bhagavān Kṛshṇa. (Śrī Kṛshṇa Janana Khaṇḍa, chapter 21)

Sources

Brahma Vaivarta Purāṇa, Śrī Kṛshṇa Janana Khaṇḍa, chapter 21