Indra and Surabhi Offer Prayers

Chapter twenty seven describes the prayers Indra recited out of fear, Krsna’s mercy on him, and his abhiseka by surabhi, on account of which Krsna is called Govinda. Seeing that Vraja had been protected from the rain, Indra out of fear approached Krsna. The Surabhi came on the order of Brahma to bathe Krsna and help Indra. Surabhi says in verse 11: I have been sent by Brahma. Goloka referred to in this verse is a place in svargaloka, not the spiritual world. Krsna’s surabhi from the spiritual world could not be with Indra in svarga loka.

In order to see to what extent the lightning bolts of Indra had broken the back of Govardhana, one morning Krsna went alone there. This was the opportunity for Indra to meet him alone (vivikta). The place of the meeting is described in Hari Vamsa: Indra saw Krsna seated at the base of the mountain. Surabhi had sent Indra with the instructions. “Go alone without your carrier, in a humble mood, and offer obeisances at Krsna’s lotus feet to excuse yourself from the offense.” By his glance Krsna said, “O king of the devatas! I see that you have unprecedented affection for me. You have come to show mercy to me, who have committed offense to you for stopping your worship.” Thus Indra became ashamed (vriditah).

First with his own eyes Indra saw the powers of Krsna. Later, having understood his offense, in order to find a means of alleviating his offense he went to Mount Meru, where he heard from Brahma about Krsna’s powers.

“You know that I was so foolish to stop your worship and on the pretext of worship of Govardhana enjoy the offerings meant for you.” Fearing such words from Krsna, Indra spoke. “Oh Lord, though I am bewildered by your maya, I now know a little about you, by a speck of your mercy.” This is the intention of this and the next verse. “Your form (dhama) is peaceful, not fierce (santa). It is pure knowledge (tapomayam). Does it arise from sattva guna? No, it is visuddha sattva, spiritual cidanandamaya. Therefore it is impossible for you to have any raja or tama guna. Rather, by your influence you destroy the material gunas within others. By remembering your form, people can destroy raja and tama guna (dvasta raja tamaskam). You are not influenced by the gunas as we are. Though you are not influenced by maya like the jivas, sometimes for amusement you accept a role in this world. Is not that a fault also? No, because you have no desire to accept any relation with the material realm.”

“O Lord! If you have no desire to accept the gunas, how then do the effects of the gunas such as greed, the markings of ignorance, appear within you? How could you stop my worship without these gunas? ---Without greed and anger, you punish in order protect dharma.”

As you are the complete lord, what purpose do you have in protecting dharma and punishing evil? It is for the auspiciousness of the universe. Because of your natural mercy you have affection for those who follow dharma, like the father towards his son, and the guru towards the soul of his disciple. As adhisa, you are capable of delivering all from suffering and bestowing happiness. But to the evil people, you are insurmountable time, which purifies them through punishment. Therefore to give benefit towards both types of people you perform pastimes through your avatara forms that you accept by your independent will (iccha tanubhih). These are the pastimes of killing the demons such as Putana and protecting the righteous. As well, it is your pastime to deflate the pride of your devotees such as Brahma who become intoxicated with the small power that you give them.”

“Among those who think themselves the Lord, I am the lowest.” With this mood, Indra speaks. Mad vidha ajna indicates that he is the most foolish of the foolish, as the comparison (mad vidha -like me) indicates the extreme, as in the example of a face beautiful as the moon (the moon indicates most beautiful). “Seeing that you are fearless at the time of fear, during the time of the severe rain, I give up my false identity as controller.” Or the meaning can be : “Not knowing what kind of punishment I will get, seeing you as a cause of fear, I give up my false identity.”

“Giving up pride, we follow (prabhajanti) the path of your devotees (aryamarga), without pride (apasmaya). Therefore, this pastime of lifting Govardhana is your punishment for me (anusasanam).”

“I lift Govardhana to protect Vraja , not to punish you. I will call Yamaraja and arrange for you punishment now.” Fearing such talk, Indra in great fear speaks. “You are the most famous father and guru. Because you are most merciful and forgivingnyou can forgive the offense of this ignorant person (avidusah) immersed in the ocean of power and forgetting your powers. You should not purify me by punishment, because I am like an animal (mudha cetasa). The moment after the master has beaten the animal, it again commits the same offense. Instead you should mercifully correct my bad tendency so that my animal tendencies do not arise again.” Indra does not make this prayer with a completely pure heart, for he shows submissiveness in order to save himself. In the seventh verse he mentions this. Then later, at the time of Krsna stealing the parijata flower and other pastimes, he again forgets and commits the same mistake.

“I am foolish. You have appeared in this world for our benefit because of our prayers. Even knowing this I have been blind. Now, having been punished, I have attained better vision and can understand the truth. In order to destroy those leaders of the demons who create burden for the earth, and in order to produce auspiciousness for those who serve your feet, you appear. But I am neither of these. Thus, you neither destroy me nor bestow on me auspiciousness. You are neutral towards me. This is my misfortune.”

“Therefore let me just surrender to your lotus feet, and offer you respects.” This is expressed in two verses. Uddhava says: Krsna the original lord, the lord of matter and spirit, appears in this world in different avataras as portions of mahavisnu, who is also his part. Therefore Indra in this verse pays respects to all the amsa forms which are within Krsna when he appears on earth. “I pay my respects to the lord of mahavaikuntha, Narayana (bhagavate). I pay my respects to mahavisnu (purusaya), creator of mahatattva. I pay my respects to the soul of the samasti, garbhodadasayi visnu (mahatmane).” After paying respects to the amaas, he pays respects to the amsi, the source of the amsas. “I offer respects to Vasudeva, son of vasudeva (with a mention of his father). I offer respects to Krsna, lord of the satvatas (with mention of the name of his followers).”

I pay respects to you who accept bodies for giving happiness to your devotees with emotions of dasya, sakhya vatsalya and srngara, since you are the object of various types of prema. Being non-material, that body is pure, a form of knowledge beyond maya. As you are the possessor of all energies such as maya, you are everything (sarva). Therefore you are the cause of all (sarvabija). And therefore you are the soul of all entities. I pay respects to you.”

“O Indra, you are my devotee. That I can understand from your recitation of praise. But without your permission, your wicked clouds attacked my Vraja. Therefore you should punish them.” Fearing such an innocent scolding from Krsna, Indra considered, “Alas, I cannot be duplicitous with the supersoul who knows everything.” Therefore he decided to admit that everything was his fault in this verse.

“But how is it possible for my devotee to do this?”

“When my worship was stopped, I became angry.”

“Though I, your master, stopped your worship, I cannot believe that my servant would do such a thing.”

“What is not possible out of pride (manina)”.

“Though pride may somehow arise in my devotee, he will remove that with intelligence.”

“But intense anger (tivra manyuna) destroys even intelligence.”

“Though I have caused great disturbance to Vraja, I have received mercy from you, like a sick person getting diagnosed by the doctor. Thus, I am now cured of the disease, having given up the urge to release my lightning bolts. Because you control everything, you are the lord. Because you create benefit for all, you are guru. Because you are the object of love, you are atma.”

Because Indra spoke with sincerity, Krsna also replied with sincerity.

Though Indra was alone, Krsna addresses him in the plural. This indicates other devatas like Varuna (who is mentioned in the twenty eighth chapter) were also included in his orders. “Being sober (yuktah), without pride , be situated in your positions, otherwise I will punish you again.” The Lord did not promise here that Indra would not be afflicted by pride again. That is because later Indra would show pride when Krsna stole the parijata flower. Price would be necessary for carrying out that pastime.

Though the offspring of the Surabhi from svarga are material, she thought of the spiritual cows of Vraja as her own offspring, though they were offspring of the spiritual surabhi. Similarly, though Krsna is actually coming from the dynasty of the spiritual moon, the material moon often thinks of Krsna as her offspring. Surabhi with the cows of Vraja (thinking of them as her own children) addressed Krsna (upamantrya) and offered prayers.

Out of joy she called out twice to Krsna. “You are called mahayogi because you protected my offspring by lifting Govardhana using your strength of yoga. We have accepted you as our master, because what use is Indra, who tried to destroy my offspring.”

“You are the devata (daivam) who gives supreme happiness (parama ka). Therefore you are our Indra. As you are the lord of the universe (jagatpati), though you presently appear in a cowherd family, you are qualified as Indra because you stopped the sacrifice to Indra and defeated him.”

“As you are Indra, we will install you in the role of Indra with abhiseka.”

“By whose order do you want to do this? Is it some independent desire?”

“It has been ordered by Brahma.” When Indra was afflicted with fear and went to Brahma and explained everything, Brahma, remembering his previous offense, fearfully thinking, gave me this order. “O surabhi, you are very dear to the Lord, who protects your offspring. Therefore you should go to Krsna, the ocean of mercy and get Indra forgiven for his offense, and perform abhiseka, installing him as Indra for the cows.

What is the benefit of this abhiseka for becoming Indra (king) of the cows to you, whose hard to attain feet are served by siva and brahma and who is the Indra (king) of billions of universes . It is an action only for the purpose of elevating us. You appear to relieve the burden of the earth , though you are the soul of the universe, and therefore invisible. If you did not appear, how could we get good fortune?”

Praying to Krsna to accept the post of Indra, Surabhi then bathed Krsna in her milk. Then Indra, ordered by Aditi and other heavenly mothers, bathed Krsna. Indra, thinking himself a fallen servant, first remained standing there, and only being ordered by Aditi and others, taking their order as qualification, he performed the bathing. Though Krsna was known as belonging to the dasarha lineage of the Yadu dynasty, because he had a greater desire to be a cowherd, they named him Govinda. Go means cows and vinda means to protect. Go can also mean svarga. With that meaning govinda means one who enjoys the position of Indra. Ga can also mean senses. Govinda then means one who protects or nourishes (vind) the devotees by attracting their senses.

The leaders of the devatas (deva nikaya ketava) such as Varuna praised Govinda. They covered Krsna with a shower of wonderful flowers. The cows moistened the earth with their milk.

The rivers flowed with various tastes, such as milk. Without cultivation, the plants yielded mature grains and fruits. The mountains manifested excellent jewels.

All living entities gave up their natural animosities towards each other and became friends.