The Webmaster

How I acquired my deities.

In 1998 I was visiting Vrindavan, India, and by Krsna's arrangement went to Govardhan Hill for pilgrimage. While there, I visited Kesava Bharati Prabhu, my Godbrother who lives at an ISKCON ashram directly across the street from Govardhan Hill. Kesava Bharati Prabhu and I were talking, and I saw that he was worshipping a Govardhan Sila very nicely. Coincidentally, I happened to read a couple of days before that we are not supposed to take stones (Govardhan Silas) from Govardhan. The only legitimate way to receive a Govardhan Sila is to be given one by a saintly person who lives at Govardhan. So while in the course of our conversation, it occurred to me that Kesava Bharati was indeed a saintly person who lived at Govardhan. Therefore I just happened to ask him, "Do you have any Govardhan Sila that you could give to me?"

Elated with this request, Kesava Bharati Prabhu presented me with a small Govardhan Sila that they had been keeping at the base of their Tulasi plant. Accepting this as the Lord's arrangement, I named Him Giriraja. I formerly began the worship of Giriraja a few weeks later in Mayapur, on Amalaki Ekadasi, which was the 16th aniversary of my taking the sannyasa order of life. To this date, I have yet to miss a single day of puja (worship) of Giriaja. To see how that puja evolved, click here.

After that I came to Bhaktivedanta Manor and continued my daily worship of Giriaja. Damodara Pandit dasa, a South American devotee who was doing pujari service at the Manor, one day approached me and offered me two other small Govardhan Silas. These two small Silas had been under his care for some time but had not ever been worshipped. Seeing that I was regularly worshipping Giriraja, Damodar Pandit offered me these other two small Govardhan Silas.

Although I put these two Silas on my altar right away, I didn't actually name Them until I started putting eyes and tilak on Them about a year later. Since then They have come to be known as Giridhari and Chota Giri.