Krishna and the Miracle at Mount Govardhan

Sadhguru looks at the circumstances behind the events leading to rising of Mount Govardhan, and how it was a pivotal point in Krishna’s life.

Sadhguru: Even when Krishna was told about the truth of his birth, and the mission of his life, because of his love for Gokula and the gopis and gopas, somewhere, his mind was still struggling. “Should I really forsake what I know and love right now for some faraway mission,” was his dilemma. Within himself he was still looking for a sign of confirmation to indicate to him that what he had realized and been reminded of, is worth forsaking all that he loves.

This was when a furious storm struck Gokula. It happened a little while after Krishna’s revolutionary act of dropping Indrotsav and starting the Gopotsav. The storm picked up great violence and torrents of rain fell. The Yamuna overflowed and Gokula was flooded. These simple people believed that because they had not celebrated Indrotsav, Indra the god of rain was angry with them and would drown them with his torrents. The rising waters of the Yamuna were creating a very dangerous situation for everyone.

Krishna, Balarama and a few friends of his started looking for some place where they could take all the people and protect them. Krishna, during his jaunts in Govardhan, came to the know the terrain well and he had noticed some openings in the mountain. So, he took the youth of Gokula there and they started moving some boulders to make more space, and they discovered that there was a huge cavern inside.

With great difficulty, and especially using the might of Balarama, they started moving the boulders one by one and opened up the cavern. When the people of Gokula saw so much brisk activity, they all came to see what was happening and they saw the cavern. It was like a miraculous escape for them, and everyone including the animals went in. But the cavern wasn’t large enough to accommodate them all.

At that moment, the whole mountain rose about six feet off the ground. Krishna himself says that he could not initially grasp the immensity of what was happening. The cavern became big enough for the whole population, including the animals. They stayed there for a few days comfortably, till the floods went down.

For the people of Gokula, this event was a 100% confirmation that Krishna was God himself. For Krishna also, there was no looking back after this event. He was crystal clear about what he needed to do with his life. That is what gave him such strength that though he immensely loved the people and especially Radhe, with whom he was involved to a point where he wanted to marry her, he decided to walk away and carry on the purpose of his life.

Once he had decided to leave, Krishna organized one last unscheduled Rasa. It was not a full moon but he wanted to just dance and sing with his people one last time. Radhe just worked herself into such a frenzy of ecstasy and bliss within herself. She transcended the normal limitations of emotion and became so ecstatic and wild-eyed that nothing mattered to her. Krishna went to her, pulled out his flute from his waistband and gave it to her. “This flute is only for you. No more flute for me.” Krishna was very proud of his flute and his flute was absolutely mesmerizing. If he played, people, cows and animals just gathered. When he was a little boy he proudly says, “I am the best flute player in the village.” He could melt and mesmerize any kind of person, even animals responded to his flute. But he gave away his flute to Radhe and from that day on, Radhe started playing the flute like Krishna. Krishna never again played the flute.

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