One of the
main messages in the incarnation of the supreme lord as Lord
Krishna was to stop all the Vedic rituals to appease the
demigods. Even though everyone realized that there is only
one supreme lord, vested interests were responsible for this
trend of encouraging rituals for demigods, who were just
angels and were agents of the supreme lord. It was totally
an agrarian society at that time and rains very important to
them. The demigod Indra was allotted this portfolio. He was
also the king of all the demigods. For ages, the cowherds
used to carry rituals to appease this demigod so that they
have adequate rainfall. Indra had also become arrogant and
Lord Krishna wanted to teach him a lesson that he was not
above the supreme lord.
He enquired
with the local elders and wanted to know the purpose of
appeasing Indra. He convinced them it was not necessary and
instead suggested that they clean and worship the Govardhana
hill which was in the vicinity of their dwelling.
Accordingly, the villagers relented and carried this out.
This angered Indra and he caused extensive rainfall
continuously, flooding the area. The problem became severe
and lives of cattle and people was at stake. They all
appealed to Lord Krishna to save them. He just lifted the
entire hill from the base and held it by his little finger
like a big umbrella. All people and cattle moved under it.
He held the hill continuously for seven days before Indra
realized his folly and understood who Lord Krishna was. The
rains stopped and people moved out. Krishna also replaced
the hill in its original position.
Krishna was
probably the first environmentalist. Throughout his life,
one of the messages was always to take care of the
environment, even 5500 years ago. In the Vedas, all
scientific facts were addressed in a religious manner, so
that common people followed them. They were not educated or
intelligent enough to understand the principles behind them.
Education was restricted to the priestly and ruling class.
Unfortunately, charlatans used such things to their
advantage, which led to degeneration of the Vedic society.
End of
Chapter 11
Written
by Madhavan T Gopalachary
