Geetha Patil
CHICAGO: Hindu Mandir of Lake County, Grayslake, a Chicago suburb, performed the Govardhan Puja/ Annakuta (mountain of rice decorated with variety of foods), in a traditional way on Saturday, November 21, 2020 with small group of devotees on site and many more on online.
In adherence with Government guidelines, this year’s Diwali & Annakuta Pujas were simpler but focused on giving everyone the opportunity for darshan of the Lord and Prasadam.
Temple priest, Pt Anil Joshi Ji performed Abhishekam, Annakuta offering, Archana and Aarti by chanting 108 names of Lard Krishna and Krishna Maha Mantra. Due to COVID-19 safety and sanitation measures, no outside food from the devotees was accepted but the temple priest, Pt Joshi Ji and his wife Kiran Joshi prepared at their home a wide variety of vegetarian delicacies such as sweets, snacks, curd items, Indian breads, pakoras, fruits and juices and offered to Shri Krishna Paramatma to express gratitude on everyone’s behalf. He built a replica of Govardhan Hill with rice to commemorate the incident from the Bhagavat Puran where Lord Krishna lifted the Govardhan Hill to provide the people of Vrindavan village shelter from torrential rains.
Pt. Joshi delivered his discourse on the history, significance, vidhi, and benefits of Govardhan Puja. He said that by performing or participating in this puja, devotees obtain two kinds of blessings: 1) to overcome the feelings of egoism and socio-economic and power inequalities 2) to live peacefully, sacrifice, and share love with each other. In addition, he requested every devotee to worship Lord Krishna as the lifter of Govardhan Hill, worship the hill as His incarnation, and worship the cows and bulls that are dear to the Lord.
In his Ashirvachanam, he blessed all the devotees to be happy and prosperous and not forget our traditions and philosophy and preserve our Hindu heritage. At the end of the event, the Hill of Prasadam (sanctified food) was distributed to the devotees as carry out packages due to COVID situation by following proper social distancing.
