Importance of Govardhan Pooja
Today is the festival of Govardhan Pooja. This festival is of great significance in devotion. Hence, we must understand why it is celebrated.
The Vedas, Puranas, and all scriptures instruct us that our mind's surrender and love should be only toward God and nowhere else. 'Nowhere else' means the realm of maya. There is no third realm where one can direct love - we can either love God or maya. We have loved the three modes (sattva, rajas, tamas) of maya countless times. The Vedas say that we desire divine bliss and relief from suffering forever. To attain such a state of bliss, we must love God. Yet, there is no living being who does not love God. For this, God says "tameva" - love only Me and no one else.
In the Bhagavad Gita, God declared, sarvadharmān parityajya - abandon all kinds of dharma - sattvic, rajasic, and tamasic - and māmekaṃ- take exclusive refuge in Me alone.
The Vedas and scriptures state that abandoning dharma leads to hell, but with this condition - if one abandons dharma without accepting God, they will attain hell. However, if one accepts God and relinquishes everything else, they will attain God. If you water the roots of a tree, you need not water each leaf separately. And if you only water the leaves, the tree will wither. Similarly, one who has pleased God has performed the worship of all sattvic, rajasic, and tamasic beings because God is the root of dharma (dharma mūlam hi bhagavān).
We have been eternally making the same mistake - we practice devotion to the mother, father, celestial beings, as well as God. We've kept them all in our heart. This disease afflicts us because we are atheists. We don't have faith in God. Anyāśrayāṇāṃ tyāgo'nanyatā - Narad Ji created this sutra to emphasize ananya bhakti (exclusive devotion). Give up dependence on anything other than God. One who completely trusts the Supreme Lord is a theist, a true believer in God. Rarely, through a Guru's grace, does a disciple make a firm resolve to surrender their mind to none but God. Such a disciple bears no ill feelings toward others and respects everyone, as God resides in all, but chooses to love only God and the saints. These two are pure; by loving them, the mind becomes pure. All others remain under the influence of Maya; they are impure, and if we attach our mind to them, it becomes even more impure.
In Dvapar yug, the residents of Vraj worshipped all deities, including the celestial beings. They worshipped Narayan as well as Indra. Shri Krishna said, "I have incarnated to teach about my bhakti, yet these people still worship Indra." So, He halted the worship of Indra throughout Vraj. When Narad Ji told Indra about this, he became enraged. Seeing that this little dark-complexioned boy dared to do this, Indra unleashed torrential rains continuously, and Vraj began to flood. To protect the residents of Vraj, God lifted Govardhan Hill with his little finger and challenged Indra to continue raining for seven years. Astonished to see a small boy lift such an enormous mountain, Indra intensified the rainfall. God held up the mountain for seven days and nights without food or water. Finally, Indra understood and sought forgiveness from God. Thereafter, only worship of God prevailed in Vraj. However, after God's departure at the end of Dvapar yug, when Kaliyug began, practices reverted to their previous state.
So if our mind gets attached anywhere in the material world except to God's names, forms, pastimes, qualities, abode, and saints, then God will leave us.
yadā hyevaitasminnudaramantaraṃ kurute। atha tasya bhayam bhavati। - God becomes disappointed with us if the mind goes elsewhere, even a little bit.
So today's festival is observed to strengthen our unflinching faith and exclusive devotion to God. Therefore, through repeated contemplation, we must firmly resolve never to let our mind become attached to anything except God and His devotees.
