14 The whole cattle station was delighted, the community rejoiced, and the sounds of shouting, and musical instruments playing, and bulls bellowing, 15 and calves lowing made the cowherds even more excited.
With lakes of yoghurt and whirlpools of ghee, flooded by streams of milk, 16 enriched with heaps of seasoned meats and piles of gleaming rice, the ritual for the mountain was arranged. There were crowds of cows and crowds of happy cowherds, and the cowherd women looked beautiful. 17 Then, at an auspicious point in the lunar cycle, after everything had been cooked and the ritual preparations were complete, the cowherds and the brahmins performed the sacrifice for the mountain.
18 At the end of the ceremony, Krishna, making use of his surpassing power, became the mountain and ate the rice, the milk, the splendid yoghurt, and the meat.
19 The eminent brahmins ate their fill. Sated and satisfied, they were easily prevailed upon to dispense their blessings, and they stood up with joy in their hearts. 20 And during the final purification rite, after he’d eaten as much and drunk as much milk as he wanted, Krishna in his marvellous form declared himself sated, and burst out laughing.
21 When the cowherds saw Krishna in the form of the mountain—Krishna standing on the mountain-top with his celestial garlands and unguents—they went up to him, beginning with the most important of them. 22 The holy lord himself, still concealed in the form of a cowherd, bowed along with the cowherds and paid homage to himself. 23 The amazed cowherds said to the god standing on the prize mountain: Your holiness, we, your obedient servants, are at your command. What can we do for you?
24 The mountain replied to the cowherds in a sonorous voice:
From this day forwards, if you care about your cows, you must make offerings to me. 25 I’m your foremost god, I’m the gracious one who’ll grant all that you desire, and because of my power you’ll possess tens of thousands of cows. 26 If you honour me in forest after forest, I’ll do you favours, and I’ll enjoy myself as much in your company as I would in heaven. 27 When I’m pleased with these well-known cowherds standing here—cowherd Nanda and the others—I’ll bestow great wealth upon the cowherds. 28 The cows and their calves must now process around me. That would make me very pleased indeed, no doubt about it.
29 Then, for the lustration, the herds of cattle, including the bulls, processed around the prize mountain in their thousands, herd by herd. 30 There were milking cows and their calves by the hundreds and thousands, wearing crowns, and decorative bunches of flowers, and garlands crowning the tips of their horns.
31 The cowherds followed, driving their wealth of cattle before them. Their bodies were painted with devotional insignia, and they were dressed in red, yellow, and black. 32 They carried sticks and had colourful armbands made from peacock feathers on their arms, and they wore nicely arranged hairbands made of peacock feathers and flower-stems. The cowherds in that extraordinary assembly looked fantastic. 33 Some of the cowherds rode bulls, some danced for joy, and some sprinted forward and grabbed the cows.
34 After the cows’ lustration parade had completed its circuit, the mountain’s bodily form immediately disappeared, 35 and that same Krishna returned to the herding station with the cowherds, amazed by the marvel that had taken place during the mountain festival.
61. The Lifting of Mount Govardhana
1 Vaishampāyana said:
When his festival was cancelled, Shakra the master of the thirty gods was furious, and he addressed himself to the group of rainclouds that’s famous for destroying the world. He said:
2 Here, elephant clouds! You surely prioritise loyalty to your king and must do my pleasure, so listen to what I say. 3 Cowherd Nanda and the other cowherds came to Vrindāvana, but they’re devoted to Dāmodara and they’ve turned against my festival. 4 Cows are their main means of subsistence—that’s why they’re known as cowherds—so you must harass those cows with rainstorms and gales for seven days and nights. 5 As for myself, I shall mount my elephant Airāvata and send a violent storm, with rain and a wind as strong as my thunderbolt. 6 And after you’ve battered those cows with vicious rain and rushing wind, they and their herding troupe will give up their earthly lives.
7 That was how the mighty Punisher of Pāka commanded all the rainclouds after Krishna had countermanded his edict. 8 Terrifying mountainous dark rainclouds then spread across the sky all around, making horrible noises. 9 The clouds emitted flashes of lightning and were decorated with rainbows, and they covered the sky with darkness. 10 As those bull clouds moved into the sky some of them looked like sea-monsters, others were joined together like elephants, and others were like snakes. 11 They linked up with each other’s bodies like ten thousand herds of elephants, and they made a thick dark layer, obscuring the sky.
12 The clouds rained everywhere, with raindrops that looked like human hands, or elephants’ trunks, or bamboo canes. 13 Although those watching with human eyes thought that the ocean had been lifted into the sky, the great rainstorm had no shores or shallows, and it was dangerous to bathe in. 14 While the mountainous clouds thundered all over the sky, the birds stopped flying and all the deer fled. 15 And while the cruel clouds made the sky look as if the sun and moon were both asleep, the excessive rain made the world look unnatural.
16 With no visible stars or planets and no sunshine or moonbeams, the sky seemed to lose its light. The banks of cloud made it go quite dark. 17 And because of the rain that was constantly pouring from the clouds, everything there on earth looked as if it was made of water. 18 Peacock-cries rang out there, along with the fainter sound of crested cuckoos in the sky.* Rivers became swollen, frogs came in floods, 19 and the grasses and trees shook as if they were scared of the growling of the clouds and the clatter of the rain. 20 Groups of fear-stricken cowherds said that since the earth had become a single restless ocean, the end of the worlds had come.
21 Mooing pitifully, the cattle stood motionless, without twitching their ears or thighs or raising their muzzles or hooves. It was as if they were held down. They had sodden bodies, slicked hair, and thin bellies and udders. 22 Some cows died of exhaustion, some collapsed in pain. Some were afraid of the fog and lay down with their calves. 23 Some of the mothers nestled their calves to their udders and stood there, heads hanging, thighs shrunken, bellies thin for lack of food. 24 Cows fell down, pained and shivering, beaten by the rain. The young calves who stood facing Krishna Dāmodara raised their eyes, and it was as if their sad faces were asking him to rescue them from their affliction.
25 When Krishna realised that the cows were being destroyed, that the cowherds were dispirited, and that the disaster was due to the descent of bad weather, he became angry. 26 In his rage he reflected on the matter, and he devised a plan for the cows. His true self cheerfully said to himself:
27 Even if it’s hard to lift, I can pluck up the mountain right now, with its forests and groves, and make a place for the cows to shelter from the rain. 28 When I hold it up, this rocky mountain will be like a house of earth. It will do my bidding, and the cows and the community will be safe.
29 After Vishnu, whose power is his truth, had deliberated like this and decided to demonstrate the strength of his two arms, Krishna plucked up that nearby mountain with his two arms, as if he himself were another mountain. 30 And when he held up the mountain and its clouds with his left hand, it had the fine form of a house, and took on the character of a house.
31 As the rocky mountain was being lifted up from the earth, boulders loosened from its ridges rolled about and fell off, bringing trees with them. 32 The immovable mountain rose into the air with its crags held high and its peaks shaking and lurching all around. 33 As the mountain moved, its stacks of boulders collapsed, its slopes shifted and streamed, and the clouds massed above it combined together as one.
34 As the clouds poured, and the mountain rained rocks, and the wind howled, people couldn’t discern their features. 35 The mountain had turned into a hotchpotch. The clouds full of pouring water clung to its peaks, and it look
ed like a skittish peacock. 36 The serpents, sylphs, light-elves, and seers gave their verdict in melodious tones: This mountain is being drenched by its own wings!*
37 When it was uprooted from the face of the earth and balanced upon Krishna’s palm, the mountain revealed deposits of gold, silver, and antimony. 38 The mountain’s peaks entered the cloud, some of them half hidden and some of them half collapsed. 39 As it was being shaken around, the mountain scattered the various blossoms of the shaken trees all over the earth. 40 Snake kings with multiple heads and half-swastika patterns emerged in fury, and flew around all over the sky. 41 Flocks of birds suffered in terror because of the rain: they kept falling headlong from the sky every time they took off. 42 The lions were infuriated and looked like clouds full of water, and the lordly tigers growled like churns being churned.
43 The mountain looked rather magnificent with its body split open. Its steep bits were levelled out, and its level bits became perfectly inaccessible. 44 The mountain that the clouds rained on looked like the triple city in the sky looked after it had been brought to a standstill by Rudra.*45 The mountain in the shade of the mass of dark clouds looked like an enormous umbrella held up by the rod of Krishna’s arm. 46 It was as if the mountain, sent to sleep by the clouds, had closed the cave-mouths of its eyes and fallen asleep in the sky, using Krishna’s arm for a pillow. 47 With no birds singing in its trees and no peacocks singing in its forests, the crest-covered mountain seemed to be deserted. 48 And with its highlands being tossed, rolled, and shaken around, it was as if the mountain’s forests and peaks were in a fever. 49 The clouds borne on the wind were over its head, and urged on by great Indra, they unleashed endless rain. 50 Resting on the end of Krishna’s arm, the mountain and the clouds looked like a land trampled by kings and crawling with armies. 51 The mass of clouds stood surrounding the mountain just as a great thriving nation surrounds its capital.
52 The protector of cowherds rested the mountain on his hand and judged its weight with a smile. Then, standing there like a patriarch, he said:
53 Here, made by my divine command, is something the gods couldn’t have made: a mountain that’s a house, cowherds. A shelter for the cows, out of the wind. 54 Quickly, get the herds of cattle in here, for their safety. Stay comfortably in places away from the wind, and be comfortable regardless of your troupe, or your herds, or your wealth. 55 I’ve created this region in order to refute the rains, and you must share it. The land that I’ve made by pulling up the mountain is spacious—it could even swallow the three worlds, to say nothing of a herding company.
56 Then there was uproar: shouts of joy from the cowherds, alongside the mooing of cattle, and the noise of the clouds outside. 57 The cows, arranged into herds by the cowherds, entered into the mountain’s broad cleft, into the depths of its belly, 58 while at the root of the mountain the lone Krishna, like a raised rock pillar, supported the mountain with one hand, as if it were his cherished guest. 59 Then the company’s equipment and the harnessed carts, which were in danger from the rain, were also taken into the house made from the mountain.
60 That deed of Krishna’s was beyond the capacities of the gods, and when the thunderbolt-wielding master witnessed it he simply called the clouds off, his intention unfulfilled. 61 After the seven days and nights had elapsed, and after his festival had disappeared from the earth, the slayer of Vritra, surrounded by his clouds, repaired to the highest heaven. 62 And after the seven days and nights had elapsed, in the month of Tishya,* after Shatakratu had failed, and the clouds were gone, and the sky was clear, and the day was lit up by the sun, 63 the cattle, weary no longer, retraced their steps, and the herding community returned to its own home once again. 64 As for Krishna, the stable-bodied wish-granting master: he was happy, and he put the prize mountain back down in its proper place for good.
62. Govinda’s Consecration
1 Vaishampāyana said:
Shakra was amazed after he’d seen Govardhana lifted up and the cowherd community saved, and he decided to meet Krishna. 2 Shakra’s elephant Airāvata looked like a cloud bearing no rain, and he was in musth, his temples running with the juice of his madness. Shakra mounted him and journeyed to the earth’s surface.
3 The much-invoked smasher of citadels spotted the indefatigable Krishna sitting on a stone slab on Mount Govardhana. 4 The smasher of citadels saw that the youngster was eternal and blazing with great brilliance, and recognised him as Vishnu in disguise as a cowherd. 5 Shakra had many eyes, and inspected him with all of them. He was as dark as a forest of palm trunks and marked with the shrīvatsa, 6 and after he’d seen him sitting comfortably on top of the rock, favoured by fortune, like an immortal in the world of mortals, Shakra became shy. 7 As Krishna sat there happily, Garuda the snake-eating bull of birds, though hidden from view, provided shade for him with his wings. 8 Then, as Krishna concentrated on the affairs of the world in solitude upon the mountain, the slayer of Bala† got down from his elephant and went up to him.
9 The mighty king of the gods looked magnificent as he approached. His garland and unguents were divine, and his hands were completed by the thunderbolt. 10 Wearing a sun-coloured crown that emitted flashes of lightning, he spoke to him sweetly, in celestial tones. He said:
11 Krishna, strong-armed Krishna, your family’s pride and joy. You, a lover of cows, have done a deed that the gods couldn’t have done. 12 I unleashed the clouds that roll out the end of the age, but you saved the cows. And I’m impressed by that. 13 For who wouldn’t be amazed when, through a trick enabled by the self-born Brahmā,* you held this prize mountain up in the air and turned it into a house?
14 It was in anger, Krishna, after my festival was prevented, that I sent this excessive rainstorm upon the cattle for seven days and nights. 15 Those dangerous rainclouds couldn’t have been repelled by the gods, even together with the Dānava troops. But even as I stood there, you held them off.
16 Bravo! I’m very glad, Krishna, that despite being aggravated within your human body, you’ve kept the full measure of Vishnu’s fiery energy hidden. 17 But since you’ve assumed human form along with your own fiery energy in this way, I think that the deities’ eternal purpose is sure to be achieved. 18 Hero, with you as the gods’ guide, leading the way in every task, the objective will be achieved. Nothing can stop it.
19 Among people you’re the unique one, and among gods you’re the eternal one. I don’t see anyone else who could bear the burden you bear. 20 For the best bull is harnessed in pole position at a time of need, and likewise that’s how you’re harnessed—you with the bird as your vehicle—when the gods are in times of need. 21 This attack for the earth’s sake comes from your body, Krishna, just as gold comes from lodes of ore. It’s happening at Brahmā’s instigation, to be sure, 22 but in terms of wit or vigour the self-born lord Brahmā himself can’t match you, just as a lame person can’t sprint. 23 The Himālaya is the best of the immovables, the ocean is the best of lakes, Garuda is the best of birds, and you are the best of the gods.
24 The world of the waters is at the bottom, and above it are the earth’s supports. Above the realm of the snakes is the earth, on top of the earth are the humans, 25 and above the human realm, they say, is the path of the birds. Above the sky is the splendid sun, the gate of heaven, 26 and above that, Krishna, is the wide world of the gods, thick with flying chariots, where I’ve been appointed to the position of Indra of the gods. 27 Above heaven is Brahmā’s world, which is frequented in droves by the brahmin seers. The moon goes there too, as do the most important stars and planets. 28 Above that is the world of the cows, which is watched over by the Sādhya gods. That enormous world occupies a great deal of space, Krishna. In fact, it extends everywhere. 29 But your domain, which you built out of your austerities, is far higher even than that, and none of us can find out about it, not even by asking the Grandfather.
30 The underworld is the dreadful world of the snakes, and is for those who’ve done wrong. The earth is for those who are busy acting, and is t
he locus of all significant deeds. 31 The sky is the sphere of the flighty, those who follow the way of the wind. Heaven is the destination of the calm and self-controlled, whose deeds were meritorious, 32 and Brahmā’s world is the final destination of those who’ve engaged in holy austerities. But the world of the cows is a destination that’s hard to attain. It’s only for cows. 33 And as that world was sinking into distress, brave Krishna, you, steadfast and disciplined, sustained it by disarming the threat to the cows. 34 So I’ve come here inspired by what Brahmā and the cows have told me. I’ve come out of respect for you, your eminence.
35 I’m the lord of beings, Krishna: smasher of citadels and king of the gods. In the sequence of Aditi’s children, I was born before you. I’m older.*36 But since I’ve now seen that you possess the splendour of the splendid, my lord, you should forgive all that I did in the form of those clouds. 37 Likewise you must listen, in a spirit of forgiveness on account of your own gentle splendour, Krishna with the strength of an elephant, as I tell you what Brahmā and the cows have said. 38 Lord Brahmā and the sky-roaming cows in heaven are delighted by your celestial deeds of protection and so on, and they say this to you:
39 You’re protecting the cows, and the cows are protecting the worlds. Since we and the bulls are multiplying through our offspring, 40 we’ll be happy to provide the farmers with draught bulls, and the gods with a pure sacrificial offering, and the goddess of fortune with our purifying dung. 41 So from this day forward you’ll be our life-giving guru, mighty man. You’ll be our king, you’ll be our Indra.
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