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By Yadava Hari dasa
The devotees in Indonesia did special Go-Puja on Gopastami day (October 28, 2017). They together celebrated this holy day that falls in Damodara Masa. In this holy month, as we know, we celebrate a wonderful past time of Sri Krishna wherein he was tied in ropes by Mother Yashoda. This gave Him the name of Sri Damodara and the month of Kartika also came to be known as Damodar month. This spiritually enlivening month of Damodar is marked by several endearing pastimes of the Lord, including deliverance of Nala-Kuvera, Govardhan puja, and taking the cows for grazing for the first time. The last pastime is indicative of the Lord’s immense love for mother cow. The Indonesian devotees were thus very excited to celebrate this Gopastami day by performing the Go-Puja in a special way. GAURI coordinated this celebration by inviting the devotees to do the special Go-Puja at their Goshalas.
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Earlier the Lord was allowed to take the calves for grazing. Gopastami marks the day when Sri Krishna for the first time went out to graze the cows. In this way, He became a gopa, a cowherd boy. On this day Sri Krishna became a qualified cowherd boy. Before this day, He was a tender of the calves. Thus, Sri Krishna along with His elder brother Balarama, passed the childhood age known as kaumara and stepped into the age of pauganda, from the sixth year up to the tenth. At that time, all the cowherd men conferred and agreed to give those boys who had passed their fifth year, the charge of taking the cows to the pasturing ground. Given charge of the cows, Krishna and Balarama traversed Vrindavana, purifying the land with Their lotus footprints. It is stated in the Kārttika-māhātmya section of the Padma Purāṇa :
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śuklāṣṭamī kārttike tu
smṛtā gopāṣṭamī budhaiḥ
tad-dinād vāsudevo ‘bhūd
gopaḥ pūrvaṁ tu vatsapaḥ
“The eighth lunar day of the bright fortnight of the month of Kārttika is known by authorities as Gopāṣṭamī. From that day, Lord Vāsudeva served as a cowherd, whereas previously He had tended the calves.”
The word padaiḥ indicates that Lord Kṛṣṇa blessed the earth by walking on her surface with His lotus feet. The Lord wore no shoes or other footgear but walked barefoot in the forest, giving great anxiety to the girls of Vṛndāvana, who feared that His soft lotus feet would be injured. Krsna said at that time that the cows are worshiped even by the demigods, and He practically demonstrated how to protect the cows. At least people who are in Krsna consciousness should follow in His footsteps and give all protection to the cows. Cows are worshiped not only by the demigods but by Krsna Himself who demonstrated it on several occasions, especially on the days of Gopastami and Govardhana-puja.
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We hope in the spirit of joyous celebration, the devotees would follow the teachings of Sri Krishna of providing protection and giving love to the cows. Particularly on the day of Gopstami, the devotees took the time to come to Goshala, do Go-Seva and Go-Puja. Hopefully, this simple celebration could bring auspiciousness to the world.
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