A huge 8’ by 4’ egg-less cake, deepams set in an eye-catching pattern, a colourful procession with ‘Utsavamurthies’ of the Lord from the Hare Krishna Movement premises on the MVP Double Road to the TTD Kalyana Mandapam marked the Govardhan Puja celebrations here on Monday evening.
A replica of the Govardhan Hill with 100 kg of cake was prepared for the Govardhan Puja. The pujas were conducted under the aegis of Niskinchana Bhakta Dasa, president of the Hare Krishna Movement, Visakhapatnam.
Devotees sang bhajans at the Hare Krishna temple on MVP Double Road. Later, two decorated cows and the ‘Utsavamurthies’ were taken out in a procession with a large number of women, men and children chanting ‘Hare Krishna’, ‘Hare Krishna’ as they followed the idols to the TTD Kalyana Mandapam.
Special pujas
The priests performed special pujas to the holy ‘Gomatas’ (cows) and later the ‘Utsavmurthies’ were brought into the hall placed on the specially decorated pedestal for worship by the devotees. The replica of ‘Govardhan’ was placed in the centre of the hall. “Devotees who perform ‘parikrama’ around the replica would get the same benefit (blessings of the Lord) that they receive when they go round the Govardhan Hill. The prasadam (cake) will be distributed among the devotees,” said a representative of the Hare Krishna Movement.
Govardhan puja is celebrated with great zeal and enthusiasm in North India, particularly in Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Bihar.
Govardhan is a hillock in Braj near Mathura. According to Srimad Bhagavatam and Vishnu Puranam, this mountain was lifted by Lord Krishna with his little finger to protect the denizens of Gokul and Vrindavan from the rains caused by Indra’s anger.
All the cowherds and cattle gathered under the hill and were saved from the fury of Indra. Krishna lifted the hill for seven days and seven nights continuously and thereby earned the name ‘Govardhanadharai’ or ‘Giridhar’.
Finally, Indra surrendered to Lord Krishna and said that Krishna was the Supreme and all the demigods were subordinate to Him. From that day Govardhan puja is performed to please the Lord.
