When one day, Lord Krishna woke first from a rest in the forest with His cowherd friends, He decided to wake everyone and call the cows grazing at a distance by playing His flute.
When Krishna blew the nectar of His lips into the flute, a melodious raga with a slow rhythm and a deep base emerged from its end. This wonderful vibration enchanted the peacocks in and around the Govardhan hills.
Their hearts began to sing in happiness and fill the skies with their own song. The resonant vibrations from the flute encouraged the peacocks to dance. Krishna, who is the source of all dramatic arts, was pleased with their dance and encouraged them by His kind glances and sweet smiling. They cried with joy and it sounded all over the hills. In time, their sounds became indistinguishable from the echoes.
They became excited and jumped up and down, flapping their wings.
As the peacocks danced, the kings of peacocks made his way to the Lotus Feet of Sri Krishna, touches His Holy Feet and makes a sound which Sri Krishna understands as a thanking note and requesting Him to dance with them. Sri Krishna accepts to dance and moves amidst them, dancing like the peacocks increasing the tempo and playing to the rhythm of His steps. The bliss of the peacocks increased multifold when Sri Krishna danced with them. It was so overwhelming, that some peacocks fainted.
All the animals and cowherds of the Govardhan hills stood transfixed, unable to move their eyes away from the dance of Sri Krishna. The flute in Sri Krishna’s hand seeing the uncommon performance of its Master began to sing on its own.
The spectacle was extremely splendid when seen from the top of the Govardhan hills, the heaven and even the Netherland. They danced for a long time and slowly the tired peacocks stopped dancing.
Then Lord Krishna danced to the rhythm of His own steps. After many days, when He stopped dancing, there was an enchanting silence.
The king of the peacocks approached Sri Krishna with great humility, bowed down his head and said,
“You have created a festival of bliss for which we remain eternally indebted to You. It is our duty to offer You ‘Gurudakshina’. I request You to accept our only opulence, our plumage. Wear them on your crown as a decoration.”
With large tears of ecstasy, the king of peacocks dropped many divine feathers.
Sri Krishna lovingly accepted the offering of the peacocks and picked up the feathers and to everybody’s joy, placed a few of them on His turban.
Thus He came to wear the peacock feathers.
It is also said that the all the seven primary colors are present in the feather of a peacock.
Lord Krishna wears the peacock feather in His hair to show that He has all the colors of life within Him.
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