On the Purnima (full moon) day in the month of Kartik (November) all the Gopas (people of Vraj region) gathered near mount Govardhan. During the night all of them circumambulated the mountain. Lord invoked the Ganges by his wish and bathed Govardhan with her water.Then they put vermilion on it, offered basil-leaves, flowers etc and worshipped it. Brahmins recited hymns in its praise. To make the people believe in their rituals, Lord Krishna himself appeared on the mountain in huge form and exclaimed: “I am Giriraj (the king of the mountain) and began to eat the offerings. But he as a child was still among the villagers who faithfully bowed before the mountain. Among them, the child Krishna said: “look, what a surprise Giriraj has appeared himself and bestowed his grace on us. He has accepted our worship.” There after all the Gopas distributed Prasad among themselves and felt supremely satisfied.
LIFTING OF GOVARDHAN
Shukhdevji says: “O Parikshit one day, Balarama and Krishna saw that many delicious kind of sweetmeats were being cooked at home. With curiosity and politeness, they asked Nand and other elders: “Father, which festival are you preparing for? Which god will be worshipped? What purpose will such worship serve? Nand Baba explained: “Sons Devaraj Indra is the god of clouds. It is because of Indra’s grace we get rain. So these materials are being prepared to worship Indra.”
Krishna said: Father every creature in the world enjoys comforts or suffers as per his fate. None of the gods can change the results. Action is prime in the world. One gets the results as per his actions. Even Indra is God as a result of his action. Any one who performs one hundred Ashvamegh Yagyas, becomes Indra. But even after performing crores of Ashvmegh Yagyas one can not get a stay in Vraj. It is the duty of Indra to cause rain. So it will rain even if you don’t worship Indra. But to feed the poors and satisfy them with clothes and other gifts is real worship. By their blessing, we shall be more happier. I desire that with all these materials we should worship Giriraj Govardhan and distribute the prasad among the poors. With which their souls will be sated and will have the grace of God.
Thus Lord Krishna told his father that all the people should worship unitedly and unitedly they should receive prasad. If you are ready to do as per my desire, its all right, otherwise I will not worship your haughty god, nor receive his prasad.
Thus convinced by Kanhaiya’s wise reasoning, all the gopas agreed to him. Nand Baba said, “O Krishna, we are making all these preparation for you only and we will do as you say. We will worship Govardhan. For us Govardhan is also like a god. It gives us grass, water, and fuel etc., which are necessary for our lives. Thus with lords, consent, they dropped their plan to worship Indra and resolved to worship Govardhan faithfully.