This festival is celebrated  to commemorate the pastime of the Lord lifting the Govardhana Hill on His little finger, in order to protect the residents of Vrindavan from torrential rains sent by Indra. The Supreme Personality of Godhead performed this pastime as a seven year old boy in order to crush the pride of Indra, the Lord of the heavens. Lord Krishna forbade the residents of Vrindavana from worshipping Indra.  He induced them to worship Govardhana Hill instead. The Govardhana Hill is not an ordinary hill.  It is actually very dear to the Lord.  On this day Govardhana Hill is worshipped in a small replica form, made of cooked rice and other edibles in temples all over Vrindavan.  This replica of the Govardhana Hill is generally known as ‘annakoota’.  Huge quantities of food are prepared in this ceremony and are very extensively distributed.

 Click here to view the Photo Gallery Govardhan Puja 2010

At ISKCON Sri Radha Krishna Mandir, Bangalore, the Krishna Deity is decorated in Giridhari alankara, holding a small Deity of Govardhana Hill on the pinky of His left hand.  Devotees worship a hill made of 100% vegetarian cake weighing about 500 kilograms! This cake is baked at the temple’s bakery and is made of different flavours and topped with cookies of various kinds. At the end of the ceremony the cake is distributed as prasadam to all those who are present.

Devotees strive to make an exact replica of the original Govardhana Hill.  The Govardhana cake is offered to the Krishna Balarama Deities.  Then the Govardhana Puja pastime is narrated to the devotees.  After this an arati is performed for Krishna Balarama accompanied with the singing of a song which describes Lord Krishna’s various pastimes in Vrindavan.