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SRI GOVERDHAN MAHARAJ

There are no apprpriate words to describe the beauty of Sri Giri rajji maharaj whois Krishna himself. The brijvassi’s use to take their cows for grazing on this lovely hill which is situated on the northern part of brij 84 kos bhumi. The brijvassi’s used to worship Inder te rain god so that there is sufficient rainfall which the brijvassi’s wanted for their land so that their domestic animals could be fed as well as for agriculture. Krishna had realised that Inder was becoming too arrogant and proud and wanted to teach him a lesson so he intsigated his father who was one the chief of the brij mandal and convinced the brij vassi’s that intead of appeasing Inder , they should do pooja of Giriraj where who was giving green grass and other vegetation to the brijvassi’s for sustaining their cattel as ell as their livlihood.The briavassi’s agreed to Krishna since they had seen his power of killing so many demons who came to kill him.
When Inder came to now that the brijvassi’s have changed their loyalty towards goverdhanji he became very furious and ordered his clouds to cause so much rain that the whole place should become flooded. Now all the brivassi’s came to Krishna for help as teir homes were filled with water. He lifted the govrdhan hill on his little finger and gave shelter to all the brijvassi’s for 7 days. When Inder saw this he was ashamed of his deed and appologised to Krishna, because he recognised who Krishna was. Then all the items were first offered to Giriji and hen distributed to all the brijwasi’s. That was one day after deepawali. Till today this practise continues and giriraj ji is worshipped. The 7 kos equal to 21 kilo meter circumfrance is done as parikarma of goverdhan by devotees starting from ekadash to full moon day that is pooran mashi.

There are many temples, kunds and villages in goverdhan , but only a few important ones will be discussed. They are as follows.

RADHA KUND----- There is a village known as Aarit gaon A rich merchant had a dream in which Krishna instructed him to to go to this village and make a kund and name it Radha kund.The merchant felt blessed and immediately took action. There were five trees in hat area which had to be cut down. Yudhishter theeldest Pandav brother came in the dream of Sri Raghu das ji and reqested him to save these five trees as they were the five pandavas who wanted brij vaas and were doing tapas.Hence these trees were not cut off. Radha kund is a very vibrating place where one can really feel the prsence of Radhe Shyam.

SRI KRISHNA KUND------Just next to Radha kund is Krishna kund.It is believed that Radhaji takes bath in this kund every day.

KUSUM SAROVAR-------This is another enchanting place where Krishna’s great grand son Brijnabh had arranged for a bhagwat katha. This lake used to have lots of flowers which the sakhi’s used to pluck for making vaini for Sri Radhaji.


NARAD KUND------ Just opposite to Kusum sarovar is narad kund.Narad muni had done very tough tapas here.He was not allowed to enter the raas mandal because no male can enter there. He was very sad and was desperate to see the raas leela of Krishna ith his gopi’s. He requested Vanadevi whotold him to bathe in kusum sarovar to become a gopi.Narad ji gladly did that and became a male and was allowed to enter the raas leela.

SRI GOPAL KUND------While herding his cows with the gwaal sakha’s Krishna used to play pranks lke odinary boys of his age. There used to be teasing, taunting, snatching and also fighting among the gwaalas including Krishna. Once Madhumangal, one of the intimate friends of Kanaha were joking with each other. Suddenly Balram ji saw a pack of clothes in a bundle in Madhu mangle’s arms. He asked him where he ot it from. When he told him he got it from surya kund , Balramji snatched it from him and said why don’t you share I with others. This place remnds us of many such childish pranks played by Kanha with his loving friends in brij.

MANSI GANGA------When Krishna killed Vatsasur demon who came in the guise of a calf, his friends refused to play with him and accused him of killing a cows son. They told him to bathe in the ganga to free himself from this grave sin commited by him. Kanha with is mana made mansi ganga appear befoe him and got fred from that sin.

BRAHAM KUND-----At this place Brahma ji with other demi gods performed abhishekam of Krishna.Even if a person thinks he would like to donate any thing here it is considered as real daan withou actually giving anything

SRI CHAKARESHWAR MAHADEV-----This is a Shiva temple.It was earlier known as chara tirath.It was this place where the lord had instructed his sudarshan chara to stop the seepage of the rain water any where near the goverdhan hill. For seven continious days it was pouring heavily when lord Inder was pouring rain all over brij, and causing floods every where.In ancient times here was a shiva temple here that is why this place was named as chaleshwar mahadev . It was this place where giri raj maharaj gave darshan to sri paad Sanatandas goswami when he was too old to do parikarma of the goverdhan hill. Goverdahan maharaj came in the form of a small brijwasi boy an gave him a shilla on which were the marks of krishn’a right foot, flute, stick and the marks of the hoove of a calf. He told santan goswami if any one does four parikarm’a of this shilla he will get the same benefit as I he has done the 21 km parikarma of the goverdhan hill.This sill can be seen in the Radha damodar mandir in Vrindavan The most imporant festival time in this temple is during srishiva chaturdashi.ie shivraatri.


DAAN GHATI------At this place Kanaha used to ask for daan of curd from the gopi’s.
The gopi’s used to have fun with Kanha and used to refuse givin him any daan of their curd or butter. Once a gopi was passing bt at this place all alone and krishna asked her to donate her curd that she was carrying.When she refused he forcfully took some but whenthe other sakhi,s joined her,they all jointly made he gwalla’s run away. Ther is a famous rasia ie a brij song on this , ekli gheri shayam tene keisi tanni re, shyam mohe vrindavan jano, loat kar Barsaane jaano, agar hoi gai aber, lade gi nand gettani re…………This is a vey good way to be totally engrosed in krishna bhakti by remembering his pastimes or leela’s.


POOCHHARI VILLAGE------The ariel view of the goverdhan hill is like the shape of a cow. Radha kund and shyam kund are projected as the two eyes of the cow, this village known as poochhari gaon is in the southern part of the hill and projects the tail of the cow. There is temple of Poochhari ka lottha.There is a story associated with this temple.Sri Lottha was a friend of Krishna whom Krishna offered to go with to Dwarka but sri lottha refused saying that e has no desire to leave Brij and he will continue staying on he goverdhan hil til krishna comes back and till then he will not eat or drink any thing
Since that day till today, he is believed to be waiting or krishna to come backto Brij and is doing constant jappa. Therefor his temple is known as Poochhari ka Lottha.

POPULR KUNDAS ON GOVERDHAN HILL----- Surbhi kund, Eraavat kund, Maand und Villchhu kund, govind kund, neep kund, sankarshan kund gauri kund gandharva kund are some of the important kunds in and around govrdhan hill.

GREAT SAINTS OF GOVARDHAN HILL-This place was the mediatation place
and a bhajan sthali of many great vairaagi saints who renounced the pleasues of the mundane world and spent their whole life in mediation of the almighty. Some of them need aspecial mention are sri man mahaprabhu Vallabhacharya ji, Sri Sanatan Goswamiji, Sidh Sri Krishna das baba,Sri Shattakopmuni maharaj of Ramanuj sampradya, Sri Pandit Gaya Prasadji, Sri Surdasji, Goswami Vittalnat ji of pushti marg, Sri Nand das ji, Sri Chaturbhuj das ji, Sri Govind swami ji etc………………..

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