By Bhaktin Dian
OM Sri Surabhyai Namah.
Today we had a big celebration in ISKCON Indonesia. Those were Go-Puja, Go-Krida and Govardhan Puja, all of which help us to remember Sri Krishna’s sweet pastimes when He lifted Govardhan Hill to protect the cows and the residents of Vraja from the anger of Indra, the king of heaven. In this lila, Krishna has shown us how important is cow protection and how much He loves His cows.
In Indonesia, we have 30 Goshalas spread on different islands and from our latest report, we are taking care of about 70 cows. Therefore, this special day was very joyful, because devotees could all come to their nearest Goshala and do some Go-seva. Some were feeding the cows, petting them, bathing them, making garlands for them, or even some cleaning the Goshala. All members of the family had an opportunity to be involved in this seva.
On this auspicious day, all the devotees first performed arati to Mother Cow as the symbol of earth, and to Father Bull as the symbol of dharma. To all devotees and the temples that do not own cows, or where arati to real cows is unavailable, performed arati to the deity of Mother Surabhi or also in front of the photos. As long as we are sincere, there is no difference among these. Then after performing arati, all the devotees fed the cows. There were many fruits. The temple provided the fruits but some of the grhasthas also brought more fruits.
The next program was Govardhan Puja, performing arati to Giri Govardhan, preparing Raj-Bhoga and after that doing parikrama around Giri Govardhan. This celebration was simply very pleasing for everyone, especially for the kids, because of today, not like in other celebrations, there was no need of fasting to get the full mercy from mother cows, Giri Govardhan, and the lifter of Govardhan, Sri Giridhari. After the procession, in the end, the devotees honored a big feast of prasadam.
May this occasion bring prosperity to all of us, some auspicious vibrations to the world and increase our awareness of the importance of cow protection.
