Little Krishna saw that everyone in Vraja was busy arranging a great offering for Indra. His father, Nanda, and the other cowherds were hard at work. Krishna wanted to know why.
Krishna was there with his brother, Balarama. He spoke politely to Nanda. “Father, what is all this for? Who is it for? I have a great wish to know.”
“Indra rules the rain,” said Nanda. “His clouds bring the water that makes our grain grow, and the grain feeds us. This is the old way. Whoever gives it up will lose their good fortune.”
“Our work is with our cows,” said Krishna, “and our home is the forest and the hills. Let us give this food to the cows, to the priests and to the hill, Govardhan.” Nanda and the elders agreed.
The cowherds cooked sweet rice, vegetable soups and cakes. They fed the priests and gave grass to the cows. Then they walked round Govardhan, with the cows and calves in front, and the women in their ornaments singing in ox-carts.
Then Krishna took a huge form that no one had ever seen, and said, “I am Govardhan!” He ate the food. The people bowed, and then they all went home to Vraja.
Indra learned that his offering had been put aside and that the cowherds had taken shelter of Krishna. He was very angry. He called his storm clouds and sent them to Vraja.
The clouds came to Vraja, though it was not the time for rain. Rain poured down, and the wind howled.
Thunder rolled and rolled. The rain fell as thick as pillars, and soon the ground was one big flood. No one could tell high ground from low.
The people were cold and shivering. The cows shivered too, and they covered their calves with their own bodies.
They ran to Krishna. “Krishna, Krishna!” they called. “Please save the cows from Indra’s anger! Please save us too!”
Krishna saw that his people were in trouble. He knew that Indra had sent the storm. “They are my own family,” he thought. “I will protect them.”
Then Krishna lifted the hill, Govardhan, with one hand. He held it up as easily as a child holds up a mushroom.
“Come, Mother! Come, Father! Come, people of Vraja!” called Krishna. “Bring your cows under the hill. It will not fall. Do not be afraid of the wind and the rain.”
They all went in under the hill, with their carts and their cows, their servants and their priests. There was room for everyone.
The storm roared on outside, but the people were safe under the hill. One day passed, and then another, until seven days had gone by.
In all that time Krishna forgot his hunger and his thirst. He kept the hill held high, and he did not put it down.
And all the while the people of Vraja gazed at Krishna.
High above, Indra saw what Krishna had done. He was astonished, and his pride came tumbling down. He told his clouds to stop.
The rain stopped. The wind was still. The sky was clear, the sun came out, and the rivers went down. “Come out, all of you,” called Krishna. “Give up your fear!”
The cowherds gathered their cows, loaded their carts and went out. The women, the children and the old people followed. Then, while everyone watched, Krishna set the hill back just where it had always stood.
Everyone came forward to Krishna, some to hug him and some to bow. His mother, Yashoda, Mother Rohini, his father, Nanda, and mighty Balarama all hugged him and blessed him.
The women honoured him with water mixed with curd and whole grains of barley, and wished him every blessing. Up in the sky the gods sang and let flowers fall.
Krishna went back to his cows, with his friends and Balarama around him. The girls of Vraja walked home, singing about how he lifted Govardhan.
For grown-ups
Where this story comes from
This story is retold from the Bhagavata Purana (also called the Srimad-Bhagavatam), Canto 10, chapters 24 and 25: verses 10.24.1-38 and 10.25.1-33. The English wording we checked is the A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada translation on vedabase.io. The story ends at 10.25.33. Govardhan Puja is the fourth of the five days of Diwali, and our Diwali festival page tells how families keep it. It is a faithful simplification. We shortened and skipped scenes, and we name them below. We did not add events, and we did not change anyone's reasons. The speeches are simplified, not word-for-word. The line on page 6, “I am Govardhan!”, is adapted from “I am Govardhana Mountain!” (10.24.35). We checked this telling against one edition only. On page 6, the great form is Krishna himself. The text says that Krishna takes a huge form, says he is Govardhana, and eats the food (10.24.35). It does not say where the form stands. The story follows this one edition (10.24.35-36).
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Three things this telling leaves out, and why
- Krishna's long talk about work and karma (10.24.13-19, 22-23). Before he proposes the new offering, Krishna argues at length that people's own work, and not the gods, shapes their lives. He compares trusting the wrong source of help to an unfaithful wife (10.24.19) and speaks of the three gunas (10.24.22-23). This is hard for ages 6 to 9, and the simile is not for a bedtime book. The story keeps the part a child can follow: the cowherds live by their cows, in the forest and on the hills (10.24.21, 24).
- The warning about the hill (10.24.37). Krishna says the hill can harm those who neglect it. Left out because it is a fear and the story does not need it.
- Indra's words and his orders (10.25.3-7). Indra insults the cowherds and Krishna, orders the clouds to destroy the village's animals, and says he will follow on his elephant, Airavata, with the wind-gods. Left out as speech, as an order to harm animals, and as a long scene. The story says that Indra learned his offering was put aside and that the cowherds had taken shelter of Krishna (10.25.1), and that he was angry. Indra is a deva, and the story shows him with respect. Airavata is not named.
- Lightning and hail (10.25.9). The verse says the clouds blazed with lightning and hurled hailstones. The story says rain, wind and thunder only. Nobody is hurt in the story. The verses say the people were cold and the cows trembled (10.25.11-12).
- “Practically unconscious” (10.25.14). The translation says the people were rendered “practically unconscious” by the hail and wind. The story says they were in trouble.
- Krishna bowing to his own form (10.24.36). The verse says Krishna bowed to the hill with the people. The story says the people bowed. The two readings sit together in the text, but a child hears a puzzle, so we left it out. The speech “Just see how this hill has appeared in person” (10.24.36) is left out for the same reason.
- Who was fed, and the rules about people (10.24.20, 28). The verses list the duties of the classes of people, and say that food went to everyone including people outside the classes. The story says the priests were fed and the cows given grass. It says no more about who ate.
- The “little finger” (not in these chapters). Many tellings and pictures show Krishna lifting Govardhan on his little finger. The verse says he lifted it “with one hand” (10.25.19), and the story follows the verse.
- The gods' music and Tumburu (10.25.31-32). Besides flowers, the gods play conchshells and kettledrums and the Gandharva Tumburu sings. The story keeps the singing and the flowers.
- What comes next: Indra and Surabhi (SB 10.27). After the lifting, Indra comes to Krishna in private, ashamed, and Surabhi, the mother of cows, comes with him. That is a different chapter, and the story ends before it at 10.25.33.
- Annakut, the mountain of food (custom, not in these chapters). Our Diwali page names Govardhan Puja and Annakut, “the mountain of food offered to Krishna, remembering Govardhan lifted”. This custom is not in chapters 24 and 25. The verses say that food was cooked and offered, and that the hill was honoured with the priests and the cows (10.24.26-28, 32-33). They do not say a mountain of food was made. No page of the story shows annakut. Our guide, Purohit, can tell you how families in your tradition keep the day.
Nanda's answer (10.24.8-11) is one page, and Nanda's warning there, that whoever gives up the custom will not find good fortune, is the source's own (10.24.11), told in fewer words. Krishna's reply (10.24.13-25) and the elders' agreement (10.24.31) share page 4. The foods named in Krishna's feast plan (10.24.26: sweet rice, vegetable soups, cakes) and the walk round the hill with the women singing (10.24.32-34) share page 5. Krishna taking the huge form, the bowing and the walk home (10.24.35, 36, 38) share page 6. Indra's anger and the sending of the clouds (10.25.1-2, 8) are page 7. The storm (10.25.8-10) takes two pages (8-9), and the people and the cows (10.25.11-12) take page 10. Krishna's thoughts (10.25.14-18) are one page; the story keeps only “they are my own family” (10.25.18) and the decision to protect them. The seven days (10.25.23) are three pages: the days pass, Krishna forgets hunger and thirst, and the people look at him. The verse names no other event for those days. The gods' music (10.25.31-32) is cut to singing and flowers. The source says the lifting was done to break Indra's false pride (10.24.31; 10.25.16-17). The story shows Indra angry at first and his pride gone at the end (10.25.24).
The question children ask here
“Why did Krishna ask them to honour the hill and the cows, and not Indra?” In these chapters the text gives these reasons:
- the cowherds' work is with their cows, and they live in the forest and on the hills (10.24.21, 24);
- Krishna asks that the same gifts go to the cows, the priests and the hill (10.24.25);
- and the text says Krishna wanted to break Indra's false pride (10.24.31; 10.25.16-17). When Indra sees Krishna hold up the hill, he is amazed and his pride is gone (10.25.24).
“The people lived by their cows and their hills, so Krishna asked them to thank those too. And Indra was too proud, until he saw the hill held up.”
A Sanatani Production
