Rows of diyas along the doorstep. Rangoli patterns drying on the porch. Lakshmi puja after sunset, the whole house lit up against the dark. For most families, Diwali is the biggest night of the year — and most people know it marks Rama’s return to Ayodhya after defeating Ravana. It is a tradition that thrives in the Bay Area too.

What fewer people know: the very same night, in a completely different part of the Ramayana-Bhagavatam universe, Krishna was doing something just as significant — teaching an entire village that devotion matters more than ritual, by lifting a mountain.

Diwali’s Best-Known Story: Rama’s Return to Ayodhya

After fourteen years of exile and the defeat of Ravana, Rama returned to Ayodhya — the return journey and coronation are recorded across Yuddha Kanda’s closing chapters of Valmiki’s Ramayana. Popular tradition holds that the citizens of Ayodhya lit rows of lamps to welcome him home in the darkness of Kartik Amavasya — the origin most people associate with Diwali’s lamps, even though that specific detail comes down through later retellings rather than a single verse of the Sanskrit original.

The Same Night’s Other Story: Govardhan Puja

In Vrindavan, the day after Diwali carries an equally significant, more localized memory: Govardhan Puja. The Srimad Bhagavatam (Canto 10, Chapters 24–27) tells it directly. Every year, the cowherds of Vrindavan performed a grand sacrifice to Indra, the demigod of rain, for a good monsoon. A young Krishna questioned the custom — why worship a demigod for what ultimately comes from the Supreme, and from Govardhan Hill itself, which sustains their cows and land directly? He convinced the village to redirect their offering into a feast for Govardhan Hill instead — the tradition now called Annakuta, “mountain of food.”

Indra, enraged at being skipped, sent torrential rain to flood Vrindavan. Krishna lifted Govardhan Hill with one hand and held it aloft for seven days, sheltering the entire community beneath it, until Indra — humbled — came down and surrendered. It’s one of the clearest scriptural arguments in the entire Bhagavatam for a principle this whole blog series keeps circling back to: sincere devotion outperforms calculated ritual, every time.

“Lord Krishna, who is by nature always compassionate, saw the condition of those who had only Him as their shelter, and He smiled broadly and lifted Govardhana Hill with one hand, just as a small child picks up a mushroom.”

— Srimad Bhagavatam 10.26.25 (paraphrased)

Two Victories, One Festival Window

Rama’s homecoming and Krishna’s mountain both land in the same few days of the Hindu calendar — Diwali and Govardhan Puja, back to back. Whether your family’s Diwali centers on Lakshmi puja and lamps, or extends into Govardhan’s Annakuta feast, both threads run through the same tradition of avatars, the same Vishnu, wearing two different forms four thousand years apart.

Underneath both stories is the same idea Diwali is really built on: light overcoming darkness, and a community’s joy at being sheltered and reunited. Ayodhya didn’t welcome Rama home with one lamp lit quietly indoors — the whole city came out together, every household’s light adding to the next, until the darkness of his fourteen years away was answered by an entire kingdom glowing as one. Vrindavan’s response to Krishna’s protection was the same instinct turned into festival: a mountain of food, shared, danced around, celebrated together. Diwali has never really been a private ritual — it’s what a community does with its joy when the darkness lifts.

Families who already mark Dussehra know the Ramayana half of this story well. See how Dussehra and Diwali complete the same Ramayana arc →

Bring a Diwali Kirtan Into Your Own Home

Diwali is already a night for gathering — family arriving in their best clothes, diyas being lit one by one along the entryway, neighbors and cousins drifting in and out. A home kirtan gives that gathering its center. Picture it: your living room, diyas glowing on every windowsill, everyone seated close together as the evening opens softly — a few gentle bhajans while people are still arriving, finding their seats, settling in. Then the katha: a devotee telling both of Diwali’s stories in one sitting — Rama walking back into Ayodhya after fourteen years as the whole city lights up to receive him, and Krishna, not far away in spirit, lifting an entire mountain on one hand to keep his village safe. Two victories, one night, told the way your grandparents might have told them, but live, in your own home. To book a home kirtan Bay Area session, use the Calendly widget above or send a WhatsApp message.

From there the kirtan builds. What started soft turns into full mridanga and kartals, Radhey Radhey, Hare Krishna and Hare Ram rising in volume and speed, the energetic Braj rasiya-style singing and dance that pulls everyone — not just the kids, not just the elders, everyone — onto their feet. This is the part of the evening people remember: aunties dancing next to their teenagers, uncles clapping who swore they wouldn’t. The room fills with the exact joy the festival is named for.

It closes the way Diwali should: arati with dance, every diya in the room raised together in front of the deities, the whole gathering’s light moving as one — the same instinct that lit up Ayodhya, recreated on your own street. This is a free 2-hour program: kirtan, katha, and arati, built for exactly this kind of community celebration.

Devotees bring the instruments and lead the chanting; you bring your family, your community, your own home — no cost to host. Not sure what to expect? See a clip below, or see more real footage from past home kirtan sessions on our Instagram →

Book a Diwali home kirtan session →

Check Availability & Book Your Evening

If lighting diyas together has been your Diwali ritual, live kirtan gives that same togetherness a sound — the whole room’s joy given a voice, not just a glow. Learn what kirtan is and how it works →

Want to host this kind of evening at your home? Choose a date below — our kirtan team will travel to you.

A Tradition Rooted in Both Stories

The Gaudiya Vaishnava tradition ISKCON belongs to holds Rama and Krishna in equal devotional regard — both understood as forms of the one Supreme, their stories told side by side rather than in competition. ISKCON, founded in 1966 by A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, carries this tradition forward. ISKCON is recognized globally as a leading institution for Gaudiya Vaishnava practice, and ISKCON of Silicon Valley has served the Bay Area’s devotional community for over 50 years.

The Kartik month that begins around Diwali carries one more celebration worth knowing: Tulsi Vivah, the annual marriage of Tulsi Devi to Vishnu →

Diwali itself opens a much bigger devotional window: the full Kartik/Damodar month and its daily ghee-lamp practice →

Host Diwali Kirtan at Your Home This Year

Whether your Diwali centers on Lakshmi puja, an Annakuta feast, or both, ISKCON of Silicon Valley can bring the celebration to you and make this Diwali one to remember. Our devotees have led hundreds of home kirtan evenings across the Bay Area; see the energy for yourself on Instagram →

Book a Diwali kirtan and katha session at your home →

Prefer to join a celebration at the temple instead? See the current Diwali and Govardhan Puja program schedule at ISKCON of Silicon Valley →

Contact ISKCON of Silicon Valley →

Frequently Asked Questions

Gaurav Verma

Kirtan Volunteer · ISKCON Silicon Valley

Gaurav has been leading bhajans and kirtans in Bay Area homes for more than 10 years. He teaches harmonium for kirtan on YouTube, shares bhajan albums on SoundCloud, and coordinates the Vrindavan Mellows home kirtan service across the San Francisco Bay Area.