Govardhan Puja & Diwali Celebrations

Every year the cowherd families of Vrindavan prepared a great sacrifice to Indra, the king of heaven, to ask for rain. Young Krishna asked them to worship Govardhan Hill instead — the hill that gives their cows grass and their village water — and to offer it a feast. Indra, insulted, sent a furious storm. Krishna lifted the whole of Govardhan with the little finger of His left hand and held it up like an umbrella for seven days, until every resident and every cow of Vraja was safe and Indra gave up his pride.

Annakuta means “a mountain of food.” Devotees cook rice, dal, savouries and milk sweets, arrange them as a hill before Krishna as Giridhari, and then share the offering with everyone as prasadam.

Gau Puja honors the cows that Krishna, Gopala, protects. They are bathed, garlanded, fed with love and worshipped on this day.

Diwali, the festival of lights, recalls the night Lord Rama came home to Ayodhya with Sita and Lakshmana after fourteen years of exile, and the city welcomed Him with rows of lamps. It is also remembered as the day mother Yashoda bound little Krishna with her ropes of love in His Damodara pastime. A lamp offered to the Lord is a prayer that the light of knowledge will drive the darkness out of our hearts.