Bhaja Govindam MS

Bhaja Govindam MS

भज गोविन्दं भज गोविन्दं
गोविन्दं भज मूढमते |
सम्प्राप्ते सन्निहिते काले
नहि नहि रक्षति डुक्रिङ्करणे ‖ 1 ‖

bhaja govindaṃ bhaja govindaṃ
govindaṃ bhaja mūḍhamate |
samprāpte sannihite kāle
nahi nahi rakṣati ḍukriṅkaraṇe ‖ 1 ‖

Worship Govinda, worship Govinda, worship Govinda, O fool! The rules of grammar will not save you at the time of your death.

मूढ जहीहि धनागमतृष्णां
कुरु सद्बुद्धिम् मनसि वितृष्णाम् |
यल्लभसे निज कर्मोपात्तं
वित्तं तेन विनोदय चित्तम् ‖ 2 ‖

mūḍha jahīhi dhanāgamatṛṣṇāṃ
kuru sadbuddhim manasi vitṛṣṇām |
yallabhase nija karmopāttaṃ
vittaṃ tena vinodaya cittam ‖ 2 ‖

O fool! Give up your thirst to amass wealth, devote your mind to dispassion and thoughts of the Real. Be content with what comes to you through actions performed by your own work.

यावद्-वित्तोपार्जन सक्तः
तावन्-निजपरिवारो रक्तः |
पश्चाज्जीवति जर्जर देहे
वार्तां कोऽपि न पृच्छति गेहे ‖ 5 ‖

yāvad-vittopārjana saktaḥ
tāvan-nijaparivāro raktaḥ |
paścājjīvati jarjara dehe
vārtāṃ ko’pi na pṛcchati gehe ‖ 5 ‖

So long as a man is fit and able to support his family by earning wealth, all those family members around him show affection. But no one at home cares for him, even have a word with him, when his body becomes invalid and totters due to old age.

यावत्-पवनो निवसति देहे
तावत्-पृच्छति कुशलं गेहे |
गतवति वायौ देहापाये
भार्या बिभ्यति तस्मिन् काये ‖ 6 ‖

yāvat-pavano nivasati dehe
tāvat-pṛcchati kuśalaṃ gehe |
gatavati vāyau dehāpāye
bhāryā bibhyati tasmin kāye ‖ 6 ‖

When one is alive, his family members enquire kindly about his welfare. But when the life-air stops and the soul departs from the body, even his wife runs away in fear of the corpse

मा कुरु धनजन यौवन गर्वं
हरति निमेषात्-कालः सर्वम् |
मायामयमिदम्-अखिलं हित्वा
ब्रह्मपदं त्वं प्रविश विदित्वा ‖ 11 ‖

mā kuru dhanajana yauvana garvaṃ
harati nimeṣāt-kālaḥ sarvam |
māyāmayamidam-akhilaṃ hitvā
brahmapadaṃ tvaṃ praviśa viditvā ‖ 11 ‖

Do not take pride in wealth, friends and youth. Each one of these is destroyed within an instant by Time. Free yourself from the illusion of the world of māyā and attain the realm of brahman, timeless truth.

सुरमन्दिर तरु मूल निवासः
शय्या भूतलम्-अजिनं वासः |
सर्व परिग्रह भोगत्यागः
कस्य सुखं न करोति विरागः ‖ 19 ‖

suramandira taru mūla nivāsaḥ
śayyā bhūtalam-ajinaṃ vāsaḥ |
sarva parigraha bhogatyāgaḥ
kasya sukhaṃ na karoti virāgaḥ ‖ 19 ‖

One who lives in temples or dwells at the foot of trees, whose bed is the surface of the earth, whose garment is a deer-skin, who has thus renounced all enjoyment of worldly possessions – to whom will such dispassion (vairāgya) not bring happiness? (Stanza attributed to Nityānanda.)

भगवद्गीता किञ्चिदधीता
गङ्गा जललव कणिका पीता |
सकृदपि येन मुरारी समर्चा
क्रियते तस्य यमेन न चर्चा ‖ 21 ‖

bhagavadgītā kiñcidadhītā
gaṅgā jalalava kaṇikā pītā |
sakṛdapi yena murārī samarcā
kriyate tasya yamena na carcā ‖ 21 ‖

Let a man read but a little from Bhagavad-gītā, drink just a drop of Gaṅgā-water, worship but once murāri, the enemy of ‘Murā’ (Lord Kṛṣṇa); he then will have no confrontation with Yama, the Lord of death. (Stanza attributed to Dṛḍhabhakta.)

पुनरपि जननं पुनरपि मरणं
पुनरपि जननी जठरे शयनम् |
इह संसारे बहु दुस्तारे
कृपयाऽपारे पाहि मुरारे ‖ 22 ‖

punarapi jananaṃ punarapi maraṇaṃ
punarapi jananī jaṭhare śayanam |
iha saṃsāre bahu dustāre
kṛpayā’pāre pāhi murāre ‖ 22 ‖

Birth again, death again, again resting in the mother’s womb! It is indeed hard to cross this boundless ocean of saṁsāra (cycle of repeated birth and death). O Murāri! by your causeless mercy please protect me (from this transmigratory process). (Stanza attributed to Nityanātha.)

गेयं गीता नाम सहस्रं
ध्येयं श्रीपति रूपम्-अजस्रम् |
नेयं सज्जन सङ्गे चित्तं
देयं दीनजनाय च वित्तम् ‖ 28 ‖

geyaṃ gītā nāma sahasraṃ
dhyeyaṃ śrīpati rūpam-ajasram |
neyaṃ sajjana saṅge cittaṃ
deyaṃ dīnajanāya ca vittam ‖ 28 ‖

Regularly recite from the Gītā, meditate on Viṣṇu (śrīpati) in your heart, and chant his thousand glories names (viṣṇu-sahasranāma). Take delight to be with the noble and the holy. Distribute your wealth in charity to the poor and the needy. (Stanza attributed to Sumatir.)

अर्थमनर्थं भावय नित्यं
नास्ति ततः सुख लेशः सत्यम् |
पुत्रादपि धनभाजां भीतिः
सर्वत्रैषा विहिता रीतिः ‖ 30 ‖

arthamanarthaṃ bhāvaya nityaṃ
nāsti tataḥ sukha leśaḥ satyam |
putrādapi dhanabhājāṃ bhītiḥ
sarvatraiṣā vihitā rītiḥ ‖ 30 ‖

Remember always that wealth is the source of misfortune. The truth is that one cannot extract even a bit of happiness from it. For the rich, there is fear even from one’s own son. This is the established way with wealth everywhere.

गुरु चरणाम्भुज निर्भरभक्तः
संसाराद्-अचिराद्-भव मुक्तः |
सेन्दिय मानस नियमादेवं
द्रक्ष्यसि निज हृदयस्थं देवम् ‖ 32 ‖

guru caraṇāmbhuja nirbharabhaktaḥ
saṃsārād-acirād-bhava muktaḥ |
sendiya mānasa niyamādevaṃ
drakṣyasi nija hṛdayasthaṃ devam ‖ 32 ‖

Oh devotee sincerely dedicated to the lotus feet of the Guru! May thou be soon free from Saṁsārā, the circle of birth and death. Through disciplined senses and controlled mind, thou shalt come to see (experience) the in-dwelling Lord of your heart.

Bhaja Govindam MS Description

Bhaja Govindam (Praise Govinda/Repeat the name of Govinda), is one of the most popular hymns penned by Adi Shankaracharya, that is still sung and recited by millions of Hindus every day. It consists of seventeen stanzas in rhyme. The hymn is steeped in the emotion of bhakti, urging the need for devotion to the Lord as against mechanical acquisition of conventional knowledge. The legend is that Shankara spontaneously composed this hymn in Varanasi on being irritated by the sound of a student loudly trying to learn the rules of grammar by rote. Its basic refrain is that surrender yourself to Govinda, the Lord, for the rules of grammar will not profit you once the hour of death draws near.

This composition, like many others, written by Shankara, wherein he underlines the importance of devotion and surrender, and pours his heart out in obeisance to a deity in the Hindu pantheon, may surprise those who associate him only with the jnana marga or the path of knowledge to salvation. The jnana marga was, indeed, the path that Shankara believed to be the most efficacious in the search for knowledge of Brahman, and consequently of moksha. However—and this is the important point – he never forbid prayer and worship animated by the spirit of self-surrender and bhakti. The conventional modes of religious practice, if sufficiently suffused by the yearning for spiritual grace, had his sanction. Under the rubric of apara vidya, or practical knowledge Shankara endorsed such outpourings of devotion as a preparatory step to the para knowledge of Brahman.

The Bhaja Govindam invokes a strong mood of vairagya or renunciation given the transience of the reasons of human pride. We surround ourselves with coordinates of assurance—family, children, wealth, fame, youth, and considering them permanent, spend a lifetime seeking to preserve the inherently ephemeral and momentary, while shutting our eyes to the inevitability of death. It is only when death approaches do we understand the mirage we treasured, and by then, very often, it is too late to pursue the path of jnana that alone can give us lasting happiness and contentment.

For Shankara then, the learning of grammar, as an end in itself, without realising the nature of our finite lives, is a metaphor to highlight the imperative need to acquire that wisdom in the light of which alone we can achieve lasting happiness. Surrender to a personal God-in this case Govinda or Krishna is the first step in moving towards that wisdom.