Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare / Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare

Wednesday, November 14, 2012

Giri Govardhan Maharaj ki jay!

Today is the most auspicious day where Krishna lifts Giri Govardhan to protect His devotees from Lord Indra's wrath. The story goes something like this.

Lord Krishna is the Supreme Personality of Godhead who controls and maintains this universe. Lord Indra is the secondary ruler subservient to Krishna. However, Lord Indra became proud of his powers and Krishna to teach Him a good lesson dissuaded the residents of Vrindavan from paying their dues to Indra. Instead Krishna ordered the residents to pay their respects to the Hill Govardhan for Govardhan provided all fruits, herbs, and vegetables for the cows and people. So saying this, Krishna with all the residents prepared enormous amounts of food to offer to Govardhan. It is said that Krishna is non-different from Govardhan Hill. So all the offering that were made was partaken by Krishna in the form of the Hill. This is one of His mystical pastimes. The residents all were satisfied seeing Krishna happy and went back to their respective homes.

Because Krishna denied Indra his respect, intoxicated with power and forgetting Krishna's Supremacy, decided to kill the residents of Vrindavan by sending torrents of rain. Krishna, in order to protect the residents, decided to lift the Hill as an umbrella with His left pinky finger so all of the residents could come and stand beneath for protection. It was during this time that Srimati Radharani and Krishna exchanged loving glances for seven consecutive days - the duration Krishna lifted the Hill.

Finally Indra comes to his senses and seeks forgiveness from Krishna. To commemorate this wonderful pastime and to remember Krishna's love for His devotees, devotees of Krishna across the world offer numerous food items for Krishna in the form of Govardhan.

For my part I decided to do the same.



Initially I wanted to cook on saturday but then I got inspired to cook today as it is this day Krishna displayed His super human act of lifting the Hill. So I decided to cook today. Below are the pictures my wife took of the items I offered. 

A total of five offerings plus water. I offered sooji halava, blackforest cake, kichdi, samosa and cucumber raita

 I made halava the Hill with Radha and Krishna on top.

I offered mixed vegetable kichdi.

A black & white photo rendering by my wife of the kichdi, blackforest cake with Tulsi Maharani in the background.

Just the black forest cake with Tulsi Maharani in the background.

A slice of the cake.

Samosa

Hare Krishna

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