Chapter 24 - Prevention of Sacrifice to Indra

[Sanskrit text for this chapter is available]

Introductory:

The story of Kṛṣṇa’s opposition to Gopas’ offering a sacrifice to Indra and his advice to offer it to mount Govardhana instead, is recorded in Viṣṇu Purāṇa. 5. ch. 10 and HV. 2, ch. 15. These stories show that Kṛṣṇa directly over-rode the older Vedic gods, especially Indra, and that the Kṛṣṇa cult superseded local and contemporaneous divinities including the great god Indra of the Vedic period. Indra’s attempt to punish the cowherds by downpour of heavy rains and his final discomfiture by Kṛṣṇa who protected the cowherds with their cattle and other belongings under the umbrella of mount Govardhana lifted by him, show the recession of the Vedic religion and the positive advance of the Kṛṣṇa cult.

The roots of rivalry between Indra and Kṛṣṇa cults go back to the Vedic period, if we are to accept Nīlakaṇṭha Caturdhara’s interpretation of Ṛg Veda Saṃhitā. 5.48.3 given at the beginning of his com. on HV. 2. ch. 15.

It is as follows:

āgrāvabhir ahanyebhir aktabhir variṣṭhaṃ
vajram ājigharti māyini /
śataṃ vāyasya pracaran sve dame saṃvartayanto vivartayannahaḥ //
  —Ṛg Veda Saṃhitā. 5.48.3 (as quoted by Nīlakaṇṭha)

“For (seven) nights, Indra sent down heavy showers like his most powerful weapon Vajra on māyin i.e. Kṛṣṇa, who had assumed a human form through His Māyā Potency, and who made the Gopas to use the materials (collected) for Indra’s sacrifice to the sacrifice of mount Govardhana”.

Śrī Śuka continued:

1. While living in that very locality (viz. Vṛndāvana, Vraja) in the company of Balarāma, even the glorious Lord Kṛṣṇa feigned as if he did not notice the cowherds engaged in preparation for the Indra-yāga (worship of the rain-god Indra).^[1]

2. Despite his thorough knowledge of it, the omniscient glorious Lord who was the indwelling Soul of all beings, with great humility, enquired of elderly Gopas of whom Nanda was prominent.

3. “May it be told to me, Oh father, what occasion for your hurry and flurry has arrived? (If it be a sacrifice) what is the fruit or purpose of it? Who is regarded as competent to perform it? And with what materials is it to be performed?

4-5. I am desirous of hearing it, Oh father! Please do tell it to me who am eager to learn. For there is nothing worth concealing in the case of the righteous who look upon the selfsame soul as abiding in all beings also in the case of those who dp not discriminate between people (or things) as their own or as of others (and are of impartial outlook), have no friends, aliens or enemies, and have nothing to hide from others. But to those who retain this discrimination, the neutrals may be avoided as enemies, but a friend or a well-wisher has been called as one’s own self^[2] (and as such, nothing should be kept secret from him. I, being such, should be confided with this sacrifice affair).

6. People perform actions with or without understanding the purpose or the fruit of the act. The ignorant persons do not accomplish the fruit of that action (to that extent) as people with full knowledge achieve.

7. May it be clearly explained to me who am inquisitive about it, as to whether your present course of action (viz. performance of sacrifice to Indra) has been undertaken after enquiring into the Śāstras or in consultation with friends or is it a mere blind traditional function in the ways of the world.

Nanda explained:

8.^[3] The great god Indra is (the presiding deity of) the rainfall itself and clouds are his loving manifestations. They shower water which is the very source of delight^[4] and life of all beings.

9. Oh child! We and other people like us, worship^[5] Indra, the ruler of clouds and controller of the world, by performing sacrifices with materials produced with his seminal discharge viz. rain-water.

10. It is on the remnants of the sacrifice that people subsist for achieving their three purposes in life (viz. dharma—righteousness, artha—affluence and worldly prosperity and kāma—enjoyment of pleasures). The rain-god is the real bestower of fruits to persons who exert in agriculture, industry etc.

11. He who, out of passion, greed, fear or hatred, gives up the customary religious rites handed down by tradition, does not attain his real good.

Śrī Śuka said:

12. Hearing the explanatory speech of Nanda as well as that of other residents of Vraja, Keśava (Kṛṣṇa) addressed his father with a view to provoking Indra’s wrath (and finally to discomfit him).^[6]

The glorious Lord said:

13. A being comes into existence only by its own past deeds (karma),^[7] and passes away through the force of its own karmas. It is only through the instrumentality of one’s past actions, that the being experiences worldly pleasures, pain, fear or blessings (hereafter). (The favour or disfavour of a divinity is immaterial and irrelevant).

14. If there be any authority like the Supreme Ruler to dispense fruits of actions of others, and if he were to resort to confer fruits of the deeds on the doer of the actions, and he will have no control over him who abstains from committing any act.^[8]

15. What power can Indra exercise on beings who follow the course of their actions (and experience the resulting fruit)? He is incapable of modifying its destined course of action of human beings according to their own individual nature. (It is the Almighty God and not Indra who can do it.)

16. People are the slaves of their Nature and follow their own individual natural disposition and proclivities. The whole world of gods, asuras and human beings thus has their being established in nature and follow it.^[9]

17. It is through the force of past actions (karma) that a being comes by and casts off corporeal forms of a high or low order. It is (nothing but one’s Karma that assumes the role of) an enemy, a friend, an indifferent person, a preceptor or the Supreme Controller.

18.^[10] Hence abiding in one’s own nature (i.e. following one’s natural disposition) one should do one’s duty (according to one’s own class or position in life), and thus respect (lit. adore) it (one’s prescribed karma). That deed whereby one can lead a happy (and a successful) life is verily his deity.

19.^[11] A person who, entertaining faith in one god offers services to another, does not attain happiness and welfare, just as an unchaste woman gratifying her paramour, (fails to get prosperity or happiness).

20(A). Brāhmaṇa should maintain his livelihood by the study and the teachings of the Vedas; the Kṣattriya by the protection of the earth; a person from the Vaiśya community, by means of vārtā (as explained in the next verse); and a Śūḍra by rendering service to the twice-born castes (mentioned above).^[12]

21. Vāriā is four-fold: viz. agriculture, commerce, rearing of cattle and the fourth, usury. As far as we are concerned, cows (the cattle) have been the means of our subsistence.

22. The attributes called sattva, rajas, and tamas are causes of the maintenance, creation and dissolution of the Universe. It is through rajas that the universe of various kinds of things is created by the mutual union of man and woman.

23. It is after being impelled by rajas that the clouds shower water all round. By means of these waters people accomplish their purpose (of growing food etc.). What has the great Indra to do with this?

24. Father! We have no towns, no countries or territories, no villages or no houses to dwell. We are forever forest-dwellers, living in jungles and on mountains.

25. Therefore, let a sacrifice dedicated for the propitiation of cows, Brāhmaṇas and the mount (Govardhana) be instituted. And let this sacrifice be accomplished with the materials collected for the worship to Indra.

26. Let different varieties of sweet dishes from rice, boiled in milk with sugar, down to boiled pulses and various puddings and cakes be prepared and all the milk collected from all the cows be brought together.

27. Let sacrificial fires be properly fed with oblations by Brāhmaṇas who are well versed in the Vedas, and let various food preparations be given to them along with cows, as sacrificial fees.

28. Food should also be distributed to all others upto the cāṇḍāla, the low castes and dogs as may be deemed proper. Cows should be supplied with grass and the above mentioned articles of food be offered as bali to the mount Govardhana.

29. After taking your meals you put on your ornaments and painting yourselves with sandal-pastes etc. and putting on excellent clothes, circumambulate by the right side to cow, Brāhmaṇas, sacrificial fires and the Govardhana mountain.

30. This is my view and religious belief, Oh father. It may be adopted if it is approved of by you. This type of worship and sacrifice will be liked by cows, Brāhmaṇas, the mountain (Govardhana) itself and by me as well.

Śrī Śuka said:

31. Hearing the exposition of (the creed as elucidated by) the glorious Lord who, as the Time-Spirit was desirous of crushing the pride of Indra, the Gopas headed by Nanda approved of it with words, “Correct, very nice”.

32-33. And they carried out everything as Kṛṣṇa, the slayer of the demon Madhu, instructed them. Having got recited the benedictory hymns (and the expiatory rites to avert evil) known as Svastyayana, they propitiated with great respect, the mountain (Govardhana) and Brāhmaṇas with those very materials (collected for Indra-yāga, the worship of and sacrifice to Indra) and offered grass to the kine. With their wealth of cattle in front of them, they circumambulated the mount (Govardhana) by keeping that mount always on their right.

34. With the gracefully adorned Gopa women singing the exploits of Kṛṣṇa, and with Brāhmaṇas pronouncing benedictions, the cowherds who also wore excellent ornaments, rode their carts with bullocks yoked to them, and went round the mountain keeping it ever to their right.

35. In order so inspire confidence and belief in the Gopas, Kṛṣṇa, on his part assumed a totally different personality. Announcing that he is the mountain Govardhana itself, he with his gigantic body, consumed the enormous quantity of the food offered.^[13]

36. Thereupon, along with the inhabitants of Vraja Kṛṣṇa presented salutation to his own other form and exclaimed, “How wonderful! Lo! This mountain has manifested himself.

37. This mountain is capable of taking any form he likes, at will. He kills the forest-dwellers who showed disrespect to him. To him let us bow for the welfare of us as well as of our cattle.”

38. The Gopas thus carried out the worship of the mountain, the cows and the Brāhmaṇas according to the directions of Lord Vāsudeva and they returned to Vraja along with Kṛṣṇa.

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

Cf. PV. 5.10.26.

[2]:

Padaratnāvalī explains: one should not keep everything secret from everybody. One should avoid a neutral party as an enemy, but not do so in the case of a friend or a well-wisher who is as good as one’s own-self.

[3]:

Bhāgavata Candrikā quotes the famous verse which identifies the sun-god with the rain:

aṣṭau māsān nipītaṃ yad bhūmyāścodamayaṃ vasu /
sva-gobhir moktum ārebhe parjanyaḥ kālam āgate //

But he is under Indra’s control and as such, the presiding deity of rain and Indra are identified. The clouds are like so many bodies of Indra. They shower water which is so vital to the life of the people and are a source of strength and happiness to them.

[4]:

v.l.—prāṇanaṃ (Padaratnāvalī) “infusing life and activity”.

[5]:

VT explains—Otherwise it will be ungratefulness. The 3 P. pl. yajante instead of Vayaṃ yajāmaḥ is used as Nanda felt abashed before Kṛṣṇa.

[6]:

Of. Viṣṇu Purāṇa. 5.10.25.

[7]:

Padaratnāvalī Here karma means Nārāyaṇa as He is the agent of all activities (nārāyaṇa eva sarvasya kartetyabhiprekṣya sarvasya kāraṇaṃ karmaivetyāha /)

[8]:

Bhāvāratha Dīpikā: explains that this is a refutation of those who regard God as dependent on karmas. God is untouched by and above all karmas. He is the bestower of the fruit of an action to its doer.

Padaratnāvalī: If it is presumed that there is a Supreme Controller to dispense weal or woe as a result of the karma of a person, He will be a mere helper (sahāyabhūtaḥ) with no independence of His own.

[9]:

Padaratnāvalī identifies Nature with Nārāyaṇa. The above verses refuse the power to secondary divinities like Indra who are mistaken for the Supreme Lord. It is Nārāyaṇa who is designated by the term svabhāva.

[10]:

Padaratnāvalī interprets karma as Nārāyaṇa and states: One should perform his duty prescribed as such by his Varṇa (caste) and āśrama (stage in life), and dedicate every thing to Nature i.e. God Nārāyaṇa who is the creator and supporter of the world and is involved in every religious rite. The name of any god whom a being worships (e.g. god Gaṇeśa), denotes as a matter of fact Lord Nārāyaṇa Himself.

[11]:

Verse No. 24 in Padaratnāvalī’s Text.

[12]:

Cf. Viṣṇu Purāṇa 5.10. 16-31.

[13]:

Cf. Viṣṇu Purāṇa 5.10.47.