Kartika Journal – Govardhana Puja and Japa Thoughts
Dhanurdhara Swami November 2nd, 2005
November 1, 2005
Sri Govardhana Puja
Govardhana
Gopiparanadhana Prabhu offered a point in his morning lecture that I’d never heard before: “It is said in Govardhana that if you see a herd of white cows on Govardhan Hill, but there is no gwala (cowherd), they are Krishna and Balarama’s cows and They are also there, although we may not see them.”
Gauranga Prabhu from Chowpatty called me this morning to see if I could accompany him and five hundred devotees from Bombay/Pune on parikram. I welcomed the opportunity. Unfortunately, I could only come for a short time due to previous commitments here, at the ISKCON Bhaktivedanta ashrama.
We choose a suitable place in the forest twenty minutes down the road from the ashram for my talk. I sit on a small raised dirt mound about twenty yards from Govardhan Hill. It’s a perfect sitting place. As I speak the devotees can simultaneously face me and be in direct view of Govardhan. All of a sudden, half way through my talk, the devotees light up. They are looking behind me. I turn around. A large herd of more than fifty healthy white cows peacefully pass by happily grazing by the side of Giriraja. I look around, but there is absolutely not a single gwala (cowherd) in sight.
“It’s Krishna Balarama’s cows!” I excitedly tell the devotees and relate what I had just heard an hour before from Gopi. The sight and the thought create a wonderful mood. The devotees are joyous to have glimpsed the eternal dhama and on such an auspicious day!
November 2, 2005
Govardhana
Japa Thought X:
Many things are just beyond my control, including the perfection of my spiritual life. I am powerless in so many ways, but I am never hopeless. I take shelter of the holy name with full confidence that all problems are solved by this simple vibration. Whatever my situation, I am certain that the holy name will do what’s best. That gives me comfort. I pray, however, for love (bhakti). That is the real need of the heart. All other wants are just misplaced yearnings for that.
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