(Krishna Kshetra Swami)
hantāyam adrir abalā hari-dāsa-varyo
yad rāma-kṛṣṇa-caraṇa-sparaśa-pramodaḥ
mānaṁ tanoti saha-go-gaṇayos tayor yat
pānīya-sūyavasa-kandara-kanda-mūlaiḥ
Gentle girls, look! This mountain, Hari’s excellent aide,
Elated by the sensation of Rāma and Krishna’s feet,
Extends homage to those two, with all their cows and friends,
By providing water, choice grass, hollows, and roots that one can eat!
Reflection
The speaker of this verse expresses her amazement. Who ever heard of a mountain—symbol of hardness and firmness, being “elated”? She knows that the cause of Govardhana’s joy is the sensation of Balarāma’s and Krishna’s delicate bare feet running happily about upon his body. As the two divine boys walk and climb and run, they are accompanied by Vraja’s cows and calves, and by their many cowherd friends, the touch of whose hooves and feet multiplies Govardhana’s joy, since they are all absorbed in pleasing Balarāma and Krishna (who are absorbed in pleasing the cows and the cowherd boys).
As a mountain, Govardhana renders special services that others cannot provide: he has abundant pure water for slaking the boys’ and cows’ thirst; he maintains nice meadows with fresh, soft and juicy grass—the dream-meal of any bovine; with caves and hollows he gives relief from the glaring sun and accommodates the need for privacy to occasion secret (and hallowed!) trysts between Krishna and “a certain gopī”; and as hard play and cow-tending brings on young appetites, he relieves these with edible roots (kanda-mūla: “the bulbous root of Amorphophallus Campanulatus,” or elephant foot yam).
Govardhana supports—both literally and figuratively—divine companionship with the backup services of a reliable supplier of abundance. With his firm and reliable support, the thoroughly carefree yet serious play of Krishna and his friends can go on without interruption, permitting ever-varied development and refinement of dynamic action and interaction to unfold. For Govardhana, this opportunity of service inclines him to happily “stretch” or “extend” (tanoti, from ^tan) himself in bringing forth homage to the two Lords in the form of his abundance. And yet he renders service effortlessly, simultaneously providing a variety of conveniences without calling attention to himself.
The gopī who speaks this verse appreciates all these features of Govardhana, and she wants to share her appreciation with her friends. All in all, this verse enriches our appreciation of how devotees appreciate other devotees in their service to the Lord, providing us an impetus both to better and more reliably serve the Lord and to more deeply appreciate others in their efforts to serve the Lord.