Once Lord Krishna stood surrounded by his friends when he, for no reason whatsoever, decided to ask the people of Vraj to stop praying to Lord Indra. Lord Indra turned furious at Krishna'sodd behaviour and summoned Samvartak, the dark clouds, to pour rain over the town of Vraj and not stop till he ordered it to do so. Indra even decided to follow Samvartak with his Airavat, the leader of the elephants and his army.
In no time, dark clouds loomed large over the sky. Lightning thundered and winds howled. Soon it began to rain and it poured cats and dogs incessantly for a week. The people of Vraj rushed to Lord Krishna to do something to stop the rain. The village began to get inundated and the fields got submerged in water. Krishna thought over the situation and wondered as to why it had begun to rain all of a sudden because it was no time for the rain to come. He said, ?It seems the gods in heaven are angry with me. I must do something to quell their rage.?
Krishna went to Mount Govardhan and picked up the mountain with the help of one of his fingers of the right hand. Then he instructed the villagers and the cowherds to come and take shelter under the mountain with all their cows and belongings. The villagers did as advised and started collecting their belongings, before coming under the mountain. Meanwhile Krishna kept holding the mountain with one of his right hand finger till all the people got assembled under it.
Seeing Krishna'sdetermination and will power, Lord Indra asked Samvartak to stop the clouds from pouring rain. At the pleasant sight of the clear sky, the citizens of Vraj returned home. But before entering their houses, all of them one by one, touched Lord Krishna'sfeet for saving their lives. Due to this incident Krishna is often referred to as Govardhan Dhari (the one who holds Mount Govardhan).
