Adrian Nicolae, from Romania, is a visiting professor of sociology at Kurukshetra University, north of New Delhi. Ellie (Elena) is Adrian’s daughter, soon to be twenty-three years old, studying ancient Indian history, culture and archeology at the same university.
Both Ellie and Adrian have physical disabilities. From early childhood, Adrian has had eye trouble and is now 85% blind; Ellie is immobile due to a motorbike accident and confined to a wheelchair. Since Adrian’s wife—Ellie’s mother—unexpectedly died of a heart condition eight months ago, life has been very emotionally strained and practically difficult for both father and daughter.
It is early February 2023, and Ellie’s birthday is approaching. Adrian wants to do something special for Ellie to celebrate and also to reconnect with her after her mother’s death. One recent evening, they watched (Adrian hearing the audio) a documentary about how Vrindavana and greater Vraja are rapidly changing in the 21st century. One scene showed streams of joyous-looking people doing parikrama around Govardhana Hill.
Adrian: “Ellie, let’s you and I together go to Govardhana! We can go around the hill as all these people do! For sure, it will be a memorable experience.”
Ellie: “But Dad, how will we manage? I can’t walk and you can’t see!”
Adrian: “We’ll get Joshi to be our guide, he’ll push your wheelchair, and I can follow along, walking behind you. I’m still fit.”
Ellie: “But Dad, they said on the documentary that one complete parikrama is twenty-three kilometers, and one is supposed to walk the whole way barefoot!”
Adrian: “Twenty-three kilometers—one kilometer for each year of your life... Anyway, don’t worry—for my part, I’ll manage, and with Joshi’s help, we can make it. We don’t have to hurry—we can rest along the way, and anyway, no one says we have to go all the way around. Or, we can do it over two or three days, staying in a guesthouse overnight. And didn’t they show in the documentary that electric rickshaws are always available if we need one?"
And so their adventure began. Joshi, a family friend and native of Kurukshetra, is all too pleased to join the excursion. He is a jolly, talkative fellow, and he happens to know Govardhana quite well, as his grandmother lived in Govardhana town.
Joshi: “We can start our parikrama where most people begin, in Govardhana town on the road heading south. It's crowded, as many initiate their trek with obeisances at this particular place. Well, Ellie, you can make obeisances in your mind; this counts just as well."
When they arrive at the place to begin their parikrama, Ellie says: “Now, help me down; I want to do this the right way by making proper obeisance to Govardhana.”
Initially hesitating, but well-built and strong, Joshi carefully helps
her out of the wheelchair and onto the pavement before the earthen pathway begins. Other pilgrims nod and smile approvingly as they see Ellie conscientiously offering obeisance despite her physical difficulty.
“Photo?!” Without waiting for permission, two teenage girls in jeans and bright red lipstick position themselves left and right of the three, gleefully waving over a young banana vendor to snap their photo as a group. Giggling and saying “thank you,” they hasten forth into the crowd on their own parikrama, not looking back.
Adrian, the sociologist, muses: “They don’t know us, and we don’t
know them, yet now we’ve been frozen in time together by a phone camera device, probably made in China. For sure, they will share our white, nameless faces with their friends. We will probably never see them again. Such are the shifting, superficial human interactions of modern times... or I should say postmodern times!”
“Well,” says Ellie, “Here at Govardhana, there could also be some shifting—and interesting—human-nonhuman animal interactions, especially with these monkeys...” She describes to her father the wily monkeys she sees scampering along the top of Govardhana's very modest-sized red rocky outcropping.
“Speaking of which...” pipes up Joshi, “Here at Govardhana, it’s
good to remember Hanuman, the semi-divine monkey servant of Lord Rama. They say that one explanation for Govardhana being here where it—or he—now stands is that ages ago Hanuman carried him here from up north on his way to south India to help Rama build his bridge to Lanka...”
Ellie: “So then that means Govardhana has been lifted up twice—
first by Hanuman, and later by Krishna, a young Hercules-type cowherd boy revered as none other than Bhagavān, the Supreme Being. That’s kind of the main story, isn’t it?”
Joshi chuckles: “Yes, for sure. Back then, it was news all over the
universe, making all the headlines: ‘COWHERD BOY, AGE 7, LIFTS HILL; HEAVEN’S KING HUMBLED’. Krishna’s devotees celebrate Krishna’s lifting Govardhana and holding the hill aloft for seven days and nights, balancing it on his left hand or, they also say, on his left pinky finger. It was his clever and elegant way of teaching a lesson to the too-proud storm-god Indra.”
Ellie also chuckles. “Left pinky finger—I love that. Anyone claiming to be God should be able to pass the seven-day-and-night-holding-up-Govardhana-with-left-pinky-finger test!
Adrian, skeptically: “I suppose that to get the full benefit of this
parikrama, we should have faith that this lifting business really happened...”
Ellie: “Dad, don’t worry about it. They say that by circumam- bulating Govardhana, our consciousness—our deepest awareness of reality— gets purified, and then we can understand and realize how everything is possible for Krishna. Bhagavan is by definition all-powerful, so if Krishna is Bhagavan...”
Adrian: “’Purified consciousness’—an interesting concept...”
Joshi: “My grandmother was deeply convinced that Krishna indeed lifted Govardhana Hill. As kids, she had us spellbound as she would paint this incredible picture with words—a picture of Krishna's wonderful loving character that he would display so artfully to the complete fascination of the Vrajavasis, the residents of Vraja. As she described the scene, we—my big sister and I and neighborhood kinds—felt as if we were part of the event, as if Krishna was right there in front of us, as if we could reach out and touch him...”
Ellie: “Times have changed, haven’t they, Joshi Ji! Nowadays, who listens to their grandmothers? Everyone is listening to the TV and Internet. (Well, come to think of it, it was a TV documentary that inspired us to come here...). And yet, probably more people come here to do Govardhana parikrama than at any previous time in history, right, Joshi?”
Joshi: “For sure. But I was going to say about my grandmother: It
wasn’t just us kids enthralled by a charming grandmotherly storyteller. No. Once, I witnessed her give a stiff verbal shastric thrashing to a whole room-full of dumbfounded pandits... She was deeply learned in our scriptures.”
Adrian: “I would like to have been there to witness her silencing the proud pandits!”
As they continue along the earthen pathway that parallels Govardhana, they see by the side one wiry, balding-and-bearded sādhu sitting on a blanket, reading a book aloud to himself. Joshi asks him, in Hindi, what he’s reading. The man smiles, gesturing for Joshi and Adrian to sit with him on the blanket and for Ellie to sit facing them on her wheelchair: “I’m reading Indra’s prayers to Krishna when he begs forgiveness for his terrible misbehavior in response to Krishna’s inciting the Vraja-vāsīs to worship Govardhana instead of worshipping him...” He recites a Sanskrit verse, translates it into Hindi, then Joshi translates Hindi into English for Ellie and Adrian:
Unto him who assumes transcendental bodies according to the desires of his devotees, unto him whose form is itself pure consciousness, unto him who is everything, who is the seed of everything, and who is the soul of all creatures, I offer my obeisances... O Lord, you have shown mercy to me by shat- tering my false pride and defeating my attempt [to punish Vrindavana]. To you, the Supreme Lord, spiritual master, and Supreme Soul, I have now come for shelter.
―Srimad-Bhagavatam (10.27.11-13)
Adrian: “So this king of heaven—what was his name?...”
Joshi: “Indra. He’s known to be extremely powerful, sometimes
showing his power in the form of fierce thunderstorms...”
Adrian: “So Indra was humbled by Krishna when Krishna lifted this Govardhana Hill. But if he, Krishna, is more powerful than Indra, why didn’t he just prevent Indra’s rain storm from the start?”
Joshi relates the question in Hindi to the sādhu, whose reply Joshi translates into English: “That’s partly explained by this verse: Krishna assumes transcendental bodies according to the desires of his devotees. His devotees, the Vrajavāsīs, wanted above all to see Krishna’s wonderful form, and to enable them to do so without interruption, Krishna lifted Govardhana and became like a motionless deity for seven days and nights. Simultaneously, he shattered Indra's false pride by making Govardhana into a giant temple-like umbrella.”
Ellie emits a long sigh, “Lucky Vrajavāsīs...”
Adrian: “Lucky Indra...”
Ellie: “’Lucky Indra’? What do you mean, Dad?”
Adrian: “Well, even though he made such a big offense against
Krishna and the Vrajavāsīs, in the end, he could meet Krishna
and speak with him directly...”
Joshi, laughing: “Now you’re sounding like a Krishna-bhakta, a
devotee of Krishna!” He explains in Hindi to the sādhu what Ellie and Adrian are saying, and the sādhu laughs, then speaks energetically...
Joshi, trnslating: "He says that actually, you both are devotees of Krishna; otherwise, you would not be here at Govardhana.” The sādhu smiles and makes a gesture of blessing with his right hand.
Joshi: “He is blessing us—we can take it as a direct blessing from Govardhana.
Adrian and Ellie fold their hands in respect and gratitude, and Adrian places some rupee notes in the sādhu’s begging bowl before they stand up to proceed on their journey. By this time, the early morning fog has lifted.
Adrian: “I’m starting to like this.”
Ellie: “Like what, Dad?”
Adrian: “This walking around this hill. What do you call it? Parikrama. Govardhana Hill. It feels special like I’m getting some sort of ability to see internally, even if I can hardly see externally. Maybe my consciousness is getting ‘purified,’ as you say.”
Ellie: “Yes, and I also feel we’re in a special place, making me feel
like dancing, even if I can’t do so physically. So let’s keep going. Joshi, please push my wheelchair a little faster—we still have a long way to go. Dad, can you keep up? Do you want to rest? Do you want to put on your shoes?”
Adrian: “No, I’m fine. It feels good having this sacred earth touching my feet. Let’s go! Giriraja Maharaja ki jai ho! Joshi, next time we stop for a rest, please tell us how your grandmother beat the pandits into silence with her knowledge of the scriptures.”
Joshi: “For sure—it’s an amazing story...”
—From the book Mountain of Love—Devotees’ Reflections on the Govardhana by Krishna Kshetra Swami, 2023