The following edit and translation is taken from Swami Chinmayananda’s translation of ‘Bhaja Govindam’, almost all the credit goes to him, which then goes to Adi Shankara, then to the first guru Sada Shiva, and my guru in the middle! I enjoyed immensely making this version and hope you do too.
Bhaja Govindam is one of the seemingly smaller but, in fact, extremely important works of Adi Shankara. The fundamental imports of Vedanta are here in simple, musical verses so that, even from early childhood, the children of the learned folk can grow up amidst the melody of Non-dual wisdom.
The musical rhythm in these stanzas makes it accessible for children to remember and repeat. For an intelligent young woman or man, a sincere study of Bhaja Govindam can remove all delusions (moha) and so the poem is also called Moha Mudgara (delusion hammer)
A popular story describes the circumstances in which this great poem arose from the almighty heart of the inspiring teacher. It is said that, once in Banarasa, as Sankara was going along with 14 disciples, he overheard an old pundita repeating to himself grammar rules. At this futile effort put forth for mere intellectual accomplishment, and thus wasting his life without realising the great Truth of himself. The Acarya is said to have broke out into these stanzas, famous as ‘Moha Mudgara’ now popularly known as Bhaja Govindam ‘Worship Govinda, Worship Govinda, Grammar rules won’t save you at the hour of death.’ – While living strive to realise the deathless pure existence of perfection.
Taking the opening stanza as a refrain or chorus, to be chanted for emphasis at the end of the verses to follow.
Looking at the first 12 verses given out by Shankara himself. (There are a further 14 – said to be contributed by his disciples.) To see one flower is indeed lovely but a whole bouquet of flowers is truly beautiful and rewarding, even looked upon from a distance. Similarly, just to hear these stanzas chanted is thrilling enough, and for industrious bees that are capable of courting the flowers and entering deep into the heart, there is always sweeter honey as a special extra reward. So too, for the students who are capable of entering beneath the superficial joys of the phonics and melodies, delving deeper into the piercing revelations suggested in these verses, there is real nectar- a consoling vision of life, forever satisfying – in Bhaja Govindam.
Though classified as a devotional song (strotram) the chorus alone is designated as a true prayer. The rest, with pure precision, breaks apart the shell of thoughtlessness that muddies the glory of the mind, forcing one to be helplessly stupid with worldly endeavours. The verses can be considered as a book of categories (Prakriya) in the science of Vedanta.
Unlike texts such as Atmabodha, Vivekachudamani, Panchadasi and others- Bhaja Govindam gives, within a limited canvas of composition, a more eloquent picture of the art of Self Realistaion and a deeper diagnosis of human unhappiness and suffering. It not only indicates to the students the goal and the path, but also reveals the wretchedness in the present way of life, skewed values and dire consequences that await if one only pursues the path of ego and desire.
It is addressed to Jnanis as a book of instruction to walk straight on your path to the goal. Full of refreshing ideas. Shankara is advising his beloved students in the deep chambers of his own sacred retreat.
A disciple is one who is taught by the teacher. One who has become improved, more introvert, having left the extrovertedness from the past. One who controls and curbs the activities of the sense organs.
This poem is not designed in any sense as a mild, soft musical chant that gurgles through the heart of soft emotions generating feelings of divine sentiments. Bhaja Govindam has a ‘crack-whip’ style and effect. There is no such softness, no delicate consideration in the approach to correcting the err in one’s ways. When the house is on fire, no formalities need be respected waking up your loved ones. The urgency of the moment demands they must be awakened immediately.
“Thus here, in Moha Mudgara are a few criminally sweet slashes, with a hateful love for the welfare of the beloved disciples still sleeping in samsara sorrows – when the house of life is ablaze with death.”
1 Worship Govinda, Worship Govinda, Worship Govinda. Oh fool! Rules of Grammar will not save you at the time of death.
The opening stanza is considered as a chorus and generally repeated at the end of each of the following verses. In this refrain the disciple is asked to pack their heart with thoughts of God rather than with anxieties to acquire, hoard or posess worldly gains or achievements. The grammar rule that has been indicated here stands for ‘all secular knowledge and pursuits.’ The import of the statement is that grammar and such other worldly sciences cannot save the soul when death comes to snatch the body away from its temporary appearance. Knowledge of grammar is no doubt necessary but it is a means to an end. To understand and fully appreciate the advice of the teacher it’s useful. But to waste a precious lifetime in a pursuit of non essentials, missing the mark on the supreme goal in life, is being condemned here by Shankara. One must be able to meet death, not as a moment of utter annihilation, but as a springboard to Eternal Existence, peaceful and divine.
‘Bhaja’ means worship. Not merely routine or mechanical in any sense but ‘seeking our identity with the Lord’ is true bhajan, true seva– service. Totally subjective surrender, in love and devotion, at the altar of the Lord in the day to day environment of the devotee. This process of worship has been classified under 9 types.
1. Listening to the glory of God – Sravanam
2. Singing the glory of the God – Kirtanam
3. Constantly thinking about God, the beauty and nature – Smaranam
4. Adoring the feet of God – your support and foundation- Padasevanam
5. With the help of mantras and Vaifika hymns, employing the necessaries prescribed for worshiping the Lord – Arcanam
6. Paying respect to the Lord – Vandanam
7. Serving God – Dasyam
8. Kindly invoking God and conversing together as friends – Sakhyam
9. Offer yourself in totally surrender to God, as a gift to the altar of Life – Atmanivedanam
‘Govinda’ another name for Vishnu – the Sustainer or the Highest Reality. Shankara breaks down the word in four ways.
1. The One who finds or knows the earth – meaning realising the substrate, the foundation upon which the whole universe arises and disappears
2. The Lord of cattle , not only the divine cowherd boy of Gokula, but as the very life-giving factor behind all animal passions and the very essence behind the living kingdom.
3. The one who confers speech – the very power because of which all living creatures, through the medium of speech mutually share knowledge with each other – “be it in the braying of an ass, the barking of a dog or the thunderous eloquence of a speaker.”
4. That which is known through the Vedanta scripture, the Supreme Reality, indicated by the great statements (mahavakyas) such as Tat Tvam Asi. You are That.
In short, Govinda stands for ‘essence’, the Ultimate Truth behind the ever changing flux of phenomena. Therefore Bhaja Govindam means ‘seek your identity with Govinda’ and do not waste your time in mere grammar perfections, worldly pursuits, possessions or transient fame and passing joys.
(2 ) Oh fool ! Give up your thirst to amass wealth, devote your mind to thoughts of Reality. Be content with what comes through your actions already performed in the past. Worship Govinda Worship Govinda
The extrovert personality easily becomes enmeshed in the finite pleasures and seeks fulfilment from the world. Motivated by wealth, acquiring, hoarding and enjoying and by doing so involves himself in the sorrows of samsara, all the while you are really endless peace and perfection in yourself.
Suffering from ignorance – Shankara calls them fools (mudha). He appeals to us to give up ‘the thirst to possess wealth’. In the sense the possessor vainly feels only temporary satisfaction. Wealth in itself is innocent. It’s not said here ‘renounce wealth’ but only the insatiable thirst that goes with it. ‘Desire for wealth’ is the relationship the individual keeps subjectively with objects believing to bring happiness. No need to condemn objects, manage your relationship to them with intelligence and a spirit of renunciation.
Cleanse the mind of passions, lust for objects and greed, then meditate on the Reality. If the mind is withdrawn from objects, it gathers in itself an infinite momentum but if it cannot discover a creative field of self application, it is sure to dissipate itself back into objects.
Sankara indicates how we must live in the world. His advice is to live joyously in contentment and satisfaction with what we get ‘as a result of our actions’. Honest labour seems to be the way in which true happiness and inner peace can be gained. There is no limit to human imagination. Desires multiply the more we satisfy them. Stay vigilant whenever you feel that hunger gnaw at your peace.
(3) Do not get drowned in delusion by going wild with passions and lust by seeing a woman’s navel and chest. These are nothing but a modification of flesh. Do not fail to remember this again and again in your mind. Worship Govinda Worship Govinda
Previously the seeker is advised to give up covetousness for wealth and here the advice is to give up lusting after women. Since the days of the Upanishads to now, we find all teachers warning against ‘women and gold’. But no insult is meant to either, it’s a statement of fact. All intelligent creatures have these two urges.
All living organisms instinctively move towards inner peace and harmony but always bedevilled by – 1 escaping pain and 2 finding joy. It’s only to escape the anxiety of insecurity that anyone chases security in the form of wealth. When you feel a modicum of stability you suffer the irresistible enchantments of the flesh i.e pleasure seeking of all sorts.
There’s a natural charm built into the creation to mate. Wisdom advises us to caution control and discipline so these energies can be purified and sublimated. An intelligent intellect can achieve this, an animal cannot – acting according to instincts and impulses. The glory of a human being is that you can make choices and re divert the pressure of binding vasanas into something nobler and more divine. This technique of reversing the process of instinct, to flow in the direction of rational thought and contemplation is called ‘pratipaksa bhavana’.
Sankara in the very opening stanzas of Bhaja Govindam, solicites powerful insight to cure two hardwired human motivations. It takes many lives to soar the sacred evolution scale and rise above the basic instinct of ego preservation, what an achievement indeed!
The world of objects continue to exist – apparently, and may try to play pranks with you. Your subjective likes and dislikes might throw shadows to the walls of the cave, leaving your reality in all kinds of distortions. However through close observation, diligent enquiry and logical analysis we can remove the filters of fears and desires and see everything in its natural beauty and innocence. Just like in twilight we superimpose the snake onto the rope. Upon closer look the reality is revealed instantly. Objects like money and relationships are not a threat, only your false values imposed upon them taking your power from you.
(4) The life of anyone is as uncertain as rain drops trembling on a lotus leaf. Know that the whole world remains a prey to disease, ego and grief. Worship Govinda Worship Govinda
In this stanza Shankara is helping us realise the ephemeral and somewhat painful imperfections of this uncertain embodiment here on earth. He sees human life like a minute particle of water trembling at the tip of a lotus petal. Life is uncertain, disease and conceit are hard to escape and plagued by endless desires.
Since life is so uncertain and the world is in a sense nothing but sorrow when you don’t know What You Are, the general import of the verse is that there is no time for anyone to waste.
(5) So long as you are fit and able to support your family, see the affection all those around you show. But no one at home cares to even have a word with you when the body degrades due to old age. Worship Govinda Worship Govinda
As things go, humans are essentially selfish. Generally people give to get. ‘Nothing for nothing’, seems to be a law that governs nature. Ordinarily even intimate relationships and immediate family members are deferential toward the ‘bread-winner’. In short, the one who is capable of earning and saving, is often respected and adored by others who have some hope of benefitting by a share of the savings.
To be forewarned is to be forearmed. Knowing this natural tendency of the comfort of all loving human hearts, let the one of intelligence earn as much as they can, seek success, strive, struggle and adventure forth. Let everyone earn, save and distribute according to their abilities to serve those around them. Let everyone enjoy as much as is your desert, popularity, affection, consideration and even reverence from others. But do not misunderstand this to be the goal of life. The real achievement is gained through contemplation for your inner peace and tranquility, so that long before the world comes to reject you, you can reject the world of activities and retire into a richer inner world of serenity.
(6) When one is alive, family members inquire kindly about their welfare. But when the soul departs from the body, even the husband or wife runs away in fear of the corpse. Worship Govinda Worship Govinda
Meditation on life should not land the student at the bottom of some dark pit of lifeless pessimism. At the same time, one should not be blindly optimistic about worldly achievements and the brittle vanities of life. The rishis, with an ideal detachment observed life as it is, and with relentless honesty painted it with shattering realism only to help the student realise it all fully. This culminates only in a healthy optimism and where the student’s old unhelpful values fade away, teachers of Vedanta are very careful in substituting a set of healthier and more enduring values for positive living.
‘Even the nearest and dearest, your own life’s partner, dreads and fears the darling body of her beloved husband, when once life has ebbed away from it.’
To contemplate this fact of life helps develop healthy dispassion and a spirit of detachment from body vanities. No doubt the body is to be looked after, for it serves us well. Keep it clean and beautiful, feed it, clothe it, wash it – just as we serve all other vehicles we make use of in the world. Serve the body but always with a firm and steady understanding that this is only an instrument with which we may realise our Higher Nature. It will not remain forever, nor will it serve with equal efficiency for all times. It will perish and it must.
(7) Childhood is lost by attachment to playfulness. Youth is lost by attachment to lovers. Old age passes away by thinking over many past things. But there is hardly anyone who wants to be lost in Me – parabrahma. Worship Govinda Worship Govinda
Chronologically following the autobiographical story of any one person. Shankara says the childhood days are wasted in attachment to toys and games natural to the age. In youth energies are dissipated in passion for sex and sports. As age gathers, so do the anxieties and fears that wear you out. All through the short life, attached to one thing or another, never getting any chance of finding the time to attach to the Self, to the Supreme.
The extreme sense of attachment to the world is to be given up intelligently so that life may have a goal, mission or purpose. Human beings are unique in that they have the freedom to rationally judge even their own inclinations, and reject them if they are foolish or dangerous. Human beings can raise their standards. Detach from the world and attach yourself to God. Or ‘Let Go and Let God’.
(8) Who is your wife ? Who is your son ? Strange is this samsara. Of whom are you ? From where have you come ? Brother, ponder over these truths here. Worship Govinda Worship Govinda
There’s no denying the fact that the institution of home, the bonds of family relations, and so on, all intend to have beneficial influence on individuals so they can help a person liberate from egocentric selfishness. And yet, they are themselves, even at their best, limited. They can never be an end in themselves. Partners living together in mutual love and respect as a couple and perhaps growing a status role of parents have much to learn from each other.
Both get well trained by mutual association if they live in a true spirit of togetherness. But, nonetheless, they often grow into such an unhealthy state of attachment to each other that the very balm becomes a poison. According to Hindu scriptures, couples in wedlock must live, no doubt, in a spirit of togetherness, but the teachers insist ‘Let there be space between the two’ – let there be no clinging attachment to each other, which is unhealthy.
Family is the field of trial and test, where individuals can grow into healthier personalities but it is not the final destination. Live life with detachment at home; it is life’s college. Not mistaking it as life’s main field of achievement.
Intelligent inquiry corrects our delusions. Shankara asks you to inquire; Who is your wife? Who is your daughter? On analysis we see your wife was once the daughter of her father. Then who will die first, leaving a widow or widower? We are born independently and depart alone. In the space in between we meet, travel together, serving each other well. So, realise the right attitude one should have in maintaining a healthy relationship with the world.
And with your child? Before being born it was a foetus, before that only a seed generated by the food the body consumes. That’s why the body is called the ‘food sheath’ being nothing but the effect of the cause. And yet we are so fixated on who we think we are and everyone else is. Maya the deluder indeed!
The transactional world, samsara, fascinates the unthinking mind. Nobly meditate and inquire into ‘To whom do I belong? What factor gives me life? From where have we all come to play this passing show in the field of the world? What is the destination?’
‘O Brother’, please contemplate. Shankara instead of the teacher, assumes the role of an elder brother, helping a confused younger brother.
(9) From keeping company with the wise – satsanga, comes non-attachment, from non-attachment comes freedom from delusion, which leads to steady wisdom. From steady wisdom comes liberation while living – jivanmukta. Worship Govinda Worship Govinda
Shankara offers a ‘ ladder of progress’. In spite of our appreciation of the sound rationale in everything that’s been said so far, the fact is we still live amidst the temptations of life, where security and pleasure are ringing bells in every ear. I can build an intellectual barrier against my impeding vasanas, I may restrain their flow for some time. But objects of fascination are so numerous, their enchantments so powerful that the sorcery of the sensuous world is irresistible for an individual seeker to fight against.
In order to reinforce the efforts of the student and give you more courage and strength- the advice is to have plenty ‘company of the good’ (satsanga).
The company we keep is very important. The worldly seekers are carelessly choosing friends and indiscriminately choosing associations. It’s easy to be snatched away by bad company. To be in the ‘company of the good’ is to be with those who are devotees of God and are themselves seekers of knowledge. In such an assembly a high power is created and a fortress against the world outside.
As a result of the influence of ‘good company’, the mind develops the capacity to withdraw from the sensuous fields of distraction and discovers the beauty of detachment. Delusion and false values given to the world no longer remain. It is the mind that puts value on objects and these inert objects become capable of distracting the mind. When you start to see clearly – because the mind has redeemed itself from its own pesky encrustations – the Shining Reality is known to the mind. When it becomes more established in the mind – the individual realises it’s oneness with God – ‘liberated in life’ (jivanmukta)
Just as we’ve noted the ‘ladder of ascension’ we are reminded of the ‘ladder descension’ that is described in the Gita – “Thinking of objects, attachment for them arises; from attachment, desire is born; from desire arises anger. From anger comes delusion, from delusion loss of memory; from loss of memory one loses the power to discriminate and without discrimination one perishes.” (chp 2. V 62-63)
(10) What good is lust when youth has fled? What use is a lake which has no water? Where are the relatives when wealth is gone? Where is samsara when the Truth is known? Worship Govinda Worship Govinda
Understand where the cause has ended, the effects cannot continue. When age and its youthfulness have passed away, where is lust and play? These maddening passions can only remain so long as “the skin is tight, the muscles are hard, the blood is stormy and the individual is young and hearty.” Lust only springs from youthfulness. When the cause is removed, the effects cannot remain.
When the waters dry up, the lake no longer continues to exist. The dried up lake can only express itself as the bed; when water is there it is expressed as a lake and can serve the world as such. If the waters of desire are playing in your mind, the passionate one strives to fulfill them. But when these desires dry up, there’s no more striving in the individual.
When wealth is reduced, where are the relations, dependents and supporters? They follow only so long as they are looked after and can profit. Wealth is an uncertain possession. Nobody can say how long a lover may court their beloved, or when they may, without regret, leave them in a time of scarcity and depart into the arms of another.
It’s clear from these examples, when the cause is absent, the effect is also absent. Carrying the analogy from subjective observations to spiritual perfection, Shankara asks the question, ‘When the Truth is realised, where is the samsara?’
(11) Do not boast of wealth, friends, and youth. Each one of these are destroyed within a minute. Free yourself from the illusion of the world of Maya and attain the timeless Truth. Worship Govinda Worship Govinda
False vanities and hollow cravings tie you to the wheel of sorrow- samsara. The process of change and the consequences affect you only when you maintain a relationship to it – the objects – feelings and thoughts through your own body, mind and intellect. By this can come a false attitude ‘my people’, ‘my things’, ‘my happiness’, ‘my ideas’, and so on. These false superimpositions lead to suffering in the storms of finitude and the floods of change. Yet the unavoidable contents of the objective world.
This world of appearances is a field of preoccupation only to the deluded ego and identification with it. Seek the knower of it all. The Principle that illuminates all experiences – Saksi – Caitanya – in the very core of your own heart.
(12) Daylight and darkness, dusk and dawn, winter and springtime come and go. Time plays and life ebbs away. But the storm of desire never leaves. Worship Govinda Worship Govinda
Day ends into night. Night dies to blossom forth the Dawn. Dawn grows in vigor and heat – to be noon, that soon mellows into dusk. “On the wheel of time, months glide along, a soft- footed silent march rolls in waves of years, sweeping everything in front of its relentless might. Hushed in the silence of its own wonderment, age slips unperceived, into its slushy grave.”
Time moves on. The future becomes the present which rolls away to join the endless ocean of the past. Time never stops, on any condition, for anyone. Memories gather from the past and barricade the present which blazes excitement for the future and blurs your vision. You waste time in unnecessary maneuvers, the irresistible stride of time, devouring hopes and plans.
In Kathopanishad, the young courageous heart of Naciketa consoles his old father ‘things born must die and perish away only to be born again.’ Nothing is permanent.
Later, the same spiritual hero, talking face to face with his teacher, Lord Death – ‘Even the longest life that you can give is but a trifle; may you keep to yourself the dance and the music’.
Life is at the mercy of time. Not recognising this, you desire to enjoy the sense objects, you strive and sweat to acquire and possess – and death snatches away everything.
Life steadily ebbs away, but desire, fed by sense gratification only grows more. Body decays, with no strength to enjoy and you still want more. Death crawls near. A mournful procession to the grave still you want the joys of pain ridden objects. Be wise. Let them go. Seek and know the always available Reality. The infinite alone will satisfy you. Seek it with a mind not perturbed by change and sorrow, “withdrawn from the fever of all passions.”
Om Tat Sat
