{"id":171,"date":"2008-07-29T20:26:02","date_gmt":"2008-07-29T20:26:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/atourcity.com\/bkgoswami.com\/?p=171"},"modified":"2013-10-08T20:31:10","modified_gmt":"2013-10-08T20:31:10","slug":"govardhana-parikrama","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/atourcity.com\/bkgoswami.com\/govardhana-parikrama\/","title":{"rendered":"Govardhana Parikrama"},"content":{"rendered":"

Govardhan Parikrama-July 29, 2008<\/span><\/p>\n

While I was giving the courses at the summer camps in Europe I was thinking
\nof my upcoming retreat at Govardhan. Govardhan for me is my real home. I
\nhave never felt like this anywhere else. The most beautiful thing I have
\never seen is Govardhan.<\/span><\/p>\n

To deal with the separation while I am serving around the world, I take my
\nRadha Giridhari Govardhan Silas. I remember the pastime of Sri Caitanya
\nMahaprabhu giving a Govardhan sila to Raghunatha das Goswami along with
\ngunja berries (representing Srimati Radharani). This Sila was bathed
\nregularly by Lord Caitanya’s tears. In fact It was always moist from those
\ntears.<\/span><\/p>\n

While chanting the Lord would put the necklace of gunja berries around His
\nneck. He would put the Sila on the top of His head, and sometimes smell It.<\/span><\/p>\n

Lord Caitanya told Raghunatha to worship Govardhan in pure goodness with
\njust a jug of water and a few Tulasi flowers. On each side of the Sila there
\nshould be eight tulasi flowers with two leafs attached.<\/span><\/p>\n

It is said that when Raghunatha das worshipped the Silas the amount of bliss
\nthat he achieved by this simple process was overwhelming.<\/span><\/p>\n

Govardhan is directly the body of the Supreme Lord Sri Krishna.<\/span><\/p>\n

When I first got the Silas I thought that I would not have time for worship
\nas my schedule was very busy. In fact I planned to give them to some worthy
\nhouseholder. The Silas came by Their own sweet desire.<\/span><\/p>\n

I was riding on a motor cycle right next to Govardhan and noticed that
\nsomething was shinning and calling me to stop. I told the driver to stop and
\nthere was Govardhan and near him was Radharani. I knew They wanted to come,
\nbut I had plans to give Them away.<\/span><\/p>\n

One may question how I could take Govardhan. One should get the permission
\nof a resident of Govardhan or leave the weight in gold of the Sila. I
\nconsidered myself a resident since I now have a house at Govardhan (by the
\nmercy of my dear disciples here who actually own the house, but they got it
\nbecause of their Bhakti and desire to serve me).<\/span><\/p>\n

What happened is that I got so attached to Govardhan that I could not give
\nThem away when the time came. They became my constant companions.<\/span><\/p>\n

In most places I put Them on the altar of the local temple and have the
\nlocal devotees get Their mercy. But at the camps in Serbia and Croatia
\nGovardhan had another plan to draw out my devotion more.<\/span><\/p>\n

In Serbia I was staying at the house of some dear disciples some distance
\nfrom the camp. So I kept Them at the house and every day I would bring Them
\nto hear my seminar! They certainly had some good laughs at me. Of course I
\nalso performed the puja for Them where I was staying.<\/span><\/p>\n

In Croatia I tried to put Them on the altar as I was staying nearby. I
\nthought one of my disciples could care for Them. They made a trick. Somehow
\nor other They indicated to me that They would not be safe in the tent that
\nserved as a temple for all the devotees, so there I was with Them in my
\nlittle hotel room. They stayed on the table right next to my bed and daily I
\nserved Them with Tulasi leafs and bhoga. This was quite an intimate
\nexperience for me with Them.<\/span><\/p>\n

After I woke up and showered I would wake Them up before going to the temple
\nand change Their water. I would come back, bathe Them, paint Them, make
\nTheir offering and take Their remnants. The room was small so it was like
\ntaking prasadam with my true friends in the same room.<\/span><\/p>\n

My attachment grew to the point that whenever I took a walk to the camp (10
\nminute walk), I would grab whatever flowers I could find for Them. I was
\ntempted to enter people’s yards to get flowers but I never did this. So
\nevery morning I was decorating Them opulently with flowers and making a
\nflower crown for Radharani.<\/span><\/p>\n

Then at night, I would put Them to bed, say goodnight, and turn off the
\nlight and take rest myself remembering Radha and Krishna were sleeping right
\nby my head! Wow!<\/span><\/p>\n

Now I am at Govardhan Hill continuing to worship Them with Govardhan
\nflowers, fresh Tulasi (which grows all around the house where I am staying),
\nand fruits (including mangos which are in season right now).<\/span><\/p>\n

In my next blog I will describe what I am doing during my retreat.<\/span><\/p>\n

==========================================
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

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Govardhan Parikrama-July 29, 2008 While I was giving the courses at the summer camps in Europe I was thinking of my upcoming retreat at Govardhan. Govardhan for me is my real home. I have never felt like this anywhere else. The most beautiful thing I have ever seen is Govardhan. To deal with the separation read more>><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,3],"tags":[33,6,3082,13,36],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/atourcity.com\/bkgoswami.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/171"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/atourcity.com\/bkgoswami.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/atourcity.com\/bkgoswami.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atourcity.com\/bkgoswami.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atourcity.com\/bkgoswami.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=171"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/atourcity.com\/bkgoswami.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/171\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11944,"href":"https:\/\/atourcity.com\/bkgoswami.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/171\/revisions\/11944"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/atourcity.com\/bkgoswami.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=171"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atourcity.com\/bkgoswami.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=171"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atourcity.com\/bkgoswami.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=171"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}