The Govardhana hill is worshipped on this day 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 a small replica of the Govardhana Hill is made out of cooked rice and other edible items in the temples. This replica of the Govardhana Hill is generally known as ‘annakoota’. Huge quantities of food are prepared in this ceremony and are very sumptuously distributed.
At Srila Prabhupada's ISKCON Bangalore, Lord Krishna is decorated in Giridhari alankara, holding Govardhana Hill on the little finger of His left hand. Devotees worship a hill made of 100% vegetarian cake weighing about one thousand kilograms! Devotees at the temple strive to make an exact replica of the original Govardhana Hill. 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.
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 the song – jaya Radhe jaya Krishna jaya Vrindavan – which describes Lord Krishna’s various pastimes in Vrindavana.
