Ancient Wisdom Today

THE

BHAJA GOVINDAM
of Adi Shankaracharya
Dr M.N. Nandakumara looks at the beauty and meaning of
Adi Sankaracharya’s 8th century poetic hymn Bhaja Govindam

di Shankaracharya is considered to be as one is capable of supporting one’s family

A one of the greatest intellectuals India has

ever produced. He is known for his
clarity of expression, his vision, his experience
then one is respected. The day one becomes
old and weak and helpless, then no one will be
interested says Shankara.
and his understanding of the realities of the world. Shankara clearly states that attachment is
The credit of establishing Advaita Vedanta, the root cause for all miseries in this world. He
the non-dualistic philosophy, at a time (7th-8th says "where is the room for lust, when one is
Century AD) when the very essence of Vedic past one’s youth? Where is the so-called lake
teachings was under threat, should go to Adi when all the water has dried up? Where are
Shankara. He was direct in his approach, clear one’s friends and relatives when wealth is gone?
in his expression and exposition and had a Oh man think, think. Where is the bondage
unique understanding of head and heart. when true knowledge is experienced?" He
"When intelligence matures and lodges pushes aside all dogmas in his effort to
securely in the heart, it becomes wisdom. establish the true realities of this world by
When that wisdom is integrated with life and following the path of jnana supported by the
issues out in action, it becomes devotion. paths of bhakti and karma. One must bring
Knowledge, which has become mature, is God into every action one performs. One’s
spoken of as devotion. If it does not get trans- entire life should be enveloped in such
formed into devotion, such knowledge is useless
tinsel" Bhaja Govindam by Sri C Rajagopalachari.
Popularly known as Bhaja Govinda Stotra ‘The Bhaja Govindam is
this poem also is known as the Moham
Mudhgarah – a hammer to crush delusion. On a devotional song, but it
first reading we feel that the Bhaja Govindam
is a devotional song. Indeed it is, but it also
also contains within the
contains within the simplest of Sanskrit verses,
the very essence of Indian philosophy. As a
simplest of Sanskrit
poetic work, it is a devotional song par verses, the very essence
excellence, perhaps the most popular in India
by any composer, and as a philosophical of Indian philosophy’
treatise, there are few that can compare.
Shankara begins by saying "Oh fool stop thoughts. Then even the Lord of Death will
SRI ADI SHANKAR- wasting your time in unnecessary things. have no argument with such a person.
Meditate upon God and try to understand Finally Shankara says that, when a person
ACHARYA
what His real nature is." Shankara’s intention dedicates himself totally at the feet of his Guru,
the great exponent here perhaps is that we should not be imitators then will he be released from all bondage
of Advaita Vedanta but should strive to understand and experience instantaneously. When one performs one’s
non-dualistic the realities of the world. Desire for wealth will duty with uniformity of action, speech and
philosophy not bring peace, but enjoying life with what thought, then one will see the Supreme Lord in
one has earned by sincere hard work will. one’s own heart ■
"Children are involved with games, youngsters
are involved with love, older people are Dr MN Nandakumara teaches at the Bharatiya Vidya
engulfed in worries but in HIM no one is Bhavan in London and at Cambridge University, and is one
interested, how sad." says Shankara. As long of the most eminent teachers of Sanskrit in the UK

18 Autumn 2003
 Bhaja Govindam Adi Shankaracharya
1 Seek Govind, Seek Govind, Seek Govind, O Fool! When the 18 Sheltering in temples, under some trees, sleeping on the naked
appointed times comes (death), grammar rules surely will not ground, wearing a deerskin, and thus renouncing all idea-of-
save you. possession and thirst-to-enjoy, to whom will not dispassion bring
2 O Fool! Give up the thirst to possess wealth. Create in your mind, happiness?
devoid of passions, thoughts of the Reality. With whatever you 19 Let one revel in Yoga or let him revel in Bhoga. Let one seek
get, entertain your mind, be content. enjoyment in company or let him revel in solitude away from the
3. Seeing the full bosom of young maidens and their navel, do not crowd. He whose mind revels in Brahman, he enjoys, verily, he
fall a prey to maddening delusion. This is but a modification of alone enjoys.
flesh and fat. Think well thus in your mind again and again. 20 To one who has studied the Bhagavad Gita even a little, who has
4 The water drop playing on a lotus petal has an extremely uncertain sipped at least a drop of Ganges-water, who has worshipped at
existence; so also is life ever unstable. Understand, the very world least one Lord Muraari, to him there is no quarrel with Yama, the
is consumed by disease and conceit, and is riddled with pangs. Lord of Death.
5 As long as there is the ability to earn and save, so long are all 21 Again birth, again death, and again lying in mother’s womb – this
your dependants attached to you. Later on, when you come to samsara process is very hard to cross over. Save me O destroyer
live with an old, infirm body, no one at home cares to speak even of Mura, (Lord Krishna) through Thy infinite kindness.
a word with you!! 22 The Yogin who wears but a godadi (shawl made of rags), who
6 As long as there dwells breath in the body, so long they enquire walks the path that is beyond merit and demerit, whose mind is
of your welfare at home. Once the breath leaves, the body joined in perfect Yoga with its goal, he revels (in God-
decays, even the wife fears that very same body. consciousness) – and lives thereafter – as a child or as a
madman.
7 So long as one is in one’s boyhood, one is attached to play, so
long as one is in youth, one is attached to one’s own young 23 Who are you? Who am I? From where did I come? Who is my
woman; so long as one is in old age, one is attached to anxiety, mother? Who is my father? Thus enquire, leaving aside the
yet no one, alas to the Supreme Brahman, is ever seen attached. entire world-of-experience, essenceless and a mere dreamland,
born of imagination.
8 Who is your wife? Who is your son? Supremely wonderful
indeed is this samsara. Of whom are you? From where have you 24 In you, in me and in all other places too there is but one All-
come? O brother, think of that Truth here. Pervading Reality. Being impatient, you are unnecessarily getting
angry with me. If you want to attain soon the Vishnu-status, be
9 Through the company of the good, there arises non-attachment; equal-minded in all circumstances.
through non-attachment there arises freedom from delusion;
when there is freedom from delusion, there is the Immutable 25 Strive not, waste not your energy to fight against or to make
Reality; on experiencing the Immutable Reality, there comes the friends with your enemy, friend, son or relative. Seeking the Self
state of ‘liberated-in-life’. everywhere, lift the sense-of-difference born out of ‘ignorance’.
10 When youthfulness has passed, where is lust and its play? When 26 Leaving desire, anger, greed and delusion, the seeker sees in the
water is evaporated, where is the lake? When the wealth is Self ‘He Am I’. They are fools those who have not Self-knowledge,
reduced, where is the retinue? When the Truth is realised, where and they consequently, as a captive in hell, are tortured.
is samsara? 27 The Bhagavad Gita and Sahasranama are to be chanted; always
11 Take no pride in your possession, in the people at your the form of the Lord of Lakshmi is to be meditated upon; the
command, in the youthfulness that you have. Time loots away all mind is to be led towards the company of the good; wealth is to
these in a moment. Leaving aside all these, after knowing their be shared with the needy.
illusory nature, realise the state of Brahman and enter into it. 28. Very readily one indulges in carnal pleasures; later on, alas, come
12 Day and night, dawn and dusk, winter and spring, again and diseases of the body. Even though in the world the ultimate end
again come and depart. Time sports and life ebbs away. And yet, is death, even then man leaves not his sinful behaviour.
one leaves not the gusts of desires. 29 ‘Wealth is calamitous’, thus reflect constantly: the truth is that
13 O Distracted One! Why worry about wife, wealth? Is there not there is no happiness at all to be got from it. To the rich, there is
for you the One who ordains? In the three worlds it is the fear even from his own son. This is the way with wealth
association-with-good-people alone that can serve as a boat to everywhere.
cross the sea of change, birth and death. 30 The control of all activities, the sense-withdrawal, the reflection,
14 One ascetic with matted locks, one with shaven head, one with along with japa and the practice of reaching the total-inner-
hairs pulled out one by one, another parading in his ochre robes silence – these, perform with care, with great care.
– these are fools who, though seeing, do not see. Indeed, these 31 O Devotee of the lotus-feet of the teacher! May you become
different disguises or apparels are only for their belly’s sake. liberated soon from the samsara through the discipline of the
15 The body has become worn out. The head has turned grey. The sense-organs and the mind. You will come to experience the
mouth has become toothless. The old man moves about leaning Lord that dwells in your own heart.
on his staff. Even then he leaves not the bundle of his desires.
16 In front the fire, at the back the sun, late at night he sits with his
knees held to his chin; he receives alms in his own scooped palm
and lives under the shelter of some tree, and yet the noose of Adi Shankaracharya
desires spares him not! Born in Kaladi, South India between 700 and 800 AD,
Shankaracharya met his Guru, Sri Govindapada
17 One may, in pilgrimage, go to where the Ganges meets the
at an early age and led the life of a renunciate
ocean, called the Gangaasaagar, or observe vows, or distribute and ascetic. He founded four ashrams (Mathas)
gifts away in charity. If he is devoid of first-hand-experience-of- and started the Swami order, the same lineage
the-Truth, according to all schools of thought, he gains no to which belong Swami Sivananda and Swami
release, even in a hundred lives. Vishnu-devananda.

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