Shri Govardhan Maharaj Aarti श्री गोवर्धन महाराज

Overview

Shri Govardhan Maharaj Aarti is a Braj Bhasha aarti of five stanzas in praise of Govardhan Hill (Giriraj), the small mountain in the Braj region that, in the Bhagavata Purana’s account, Krishna lifted on the tip of his little finger for seven days to shelter Vrindavan’s cowherds and cattle from the deluge sent by an angered Indra. Each stanza describes Govardhan adorned like a deity in its own right — a crown at its brow, earrings, a jeweled necklace, and offerings of betel leaf, flowers, and poured milk — before the refrain “Shri Govardhan Maharaj, o Maharaj, tere mathe mukut viraj raheo” returns, exactly as it is sung and printed in devotional collections. It is sung especially around Govardhan Puja, the day after Diwali on which the hill itself, not only an image of Krishna, is worshipped directly.

Origin and source

The composer of this aarti is not reliably established; devotional sources present it as part of the Braj Bhasha oral tradition sung by pilgrims and worshippers at Govardhan Hill, rather than as a text with one certain point of origin. Its closing stanza turns from praising Govardhan’s ornaments to appeal directly to “Girirajdharan Prabhu” — Krishna, under the epithet that names him as the one who bore up Giriraj, the same epithet (“Giridhar”) used for him elsewhere in Braj devotional song. In the Pushtimarg tradition founded by Vallabhacharya, the connection between the hill and Krishna goes further still: Govardhan is worshipped not only as the setting of that story but, through a Govardhan Shila (a stone taken from the hill), as a direct, worshippable form of Krishna himself — distinct from being merely a place associated with him.

How it is recited

This aarti is sung on Govardhan Puja, the day after Diwali, when devotees shape a small representation of the hill from cow dung and offer it lamps, flowers, and the Annakut (“mountain of food”) — an array of dishes that gives the festival its other name. It is also sung by pilgrims completing the roughly seven-kos parikrama, the circumambulation path around Govardhan Hill named in the aarti’s own third stanza, which passes the Chakleshwar Mahadev shrine near its start. As with other aartis, it is sung while a lit diya or camphor flame is circled before the hill or its representation, with the refrain repeated by everyone present after each stanza.