Importance of Gopastami - Gopastami is one of the most important and cheerful pastimes among all the pastimes of lord Shri Krishna. The eighth lunar day of Kartik month is known as Gopastami. It is believed that on this auspicious day Nanda Maharaj send his children Krishna and Balrama for the first time to herd the cows. Krishna now stepped into the age of kumara from pauganda. Till the age of pauganda, Krishna was a calf keeper. After stepping into the age of Kaumara, on the auspicious day of Gopastami lord Shri Krishna started to herd the cows. To witness this incident Shri Radharani took the form of his Sakha.

How Gopastami is celebrated

On this auspicious day, people worship cows. They offer fodder to cows. On Kartik month’s Shukla Ashtami tithi early morning people bathe cows, offer them flowers, and scents and decorate them with different clothes.

People feed fodder to cows and do parikrama, and then go after cows for some distance. Then in the evening when cows come back that time is known as godhuli muhurat. At that time also they are greeted and worshipped. After this, they touch their lotus feet and pray for their healthy and prosperous future. The charity is given in gaushala on this day.

In Srimad Bhagawatam, it is stated that lord Shri Krishna used to walk barefooted at the age of six keeping cows ahead. At that time even his footsteps were not properly developed. Krishna gets delighted when the foot dust of cows falls on him.

Krishna used to walk barefooted in dust leaving footprints of his lotus feet everywhere. This is the reason for the dazzling beauty of Vrindavan.

Reason for the importance of cows 

Krishna was fond of cows. He used to apply gauraj tilak on his forehead. He showed his affection for gau seva through his words and pastime to people. In this way, Krishna and Balrama are the symbols of cow protection. In Hindu, culture cows are not considered an ordinary animals. Cows are considered mothers. It is said that by drinking cow's milk our brain works more actively and we can analyse our shastra easily. In shastra, it is said that inside cows 33 thousand gods and goddesses exist. The cow is the symbol of our prosperity.