Bhaja Govindam - Concluding Post - 34

Dear Readers,

We will conclude Bhaja Govindam verse with where we started, the first verse.

भज गोविन्दं भज गोविन्दं गोविन्दं भज मूढमते ।

सम्प्राप्ते सन्निहिते काले नहि नहि रक्षति डुकृङ्करणे ॥

Bhaja Govindam Bhaja Govindam

Govindam Bhaja Moodhamate;

Samprapte Sannihite Kaale

Nahi Nahi Rakshati Dukrin Karane.

[O deluded man! Surrender yourself to the Lord, sing the name of the Lord, take shelter in the Lord! Seek Govinda. When the inevitable death overtakes you, never, never will the grammar rule ‘dukrin karane’ take care of you. ]

This introductory admonition explains: "When death comes, this knowledge is not going to save you. Therefore, adore the Lord who will liberate you from the cycle of birth and death once and for all, and take you to the realm of His (which is) beyond darkness. [Having gone thither they return not; that is My Supreme Abode — Gita, 15.6]. Try to attain That, O man!

Adi Sankara says , 

“DURLABHAM TRAYAM EVAITAT DEVANUGRAHA HETUKAM

MANUSHYATVAM MUMUKSHUTVAM MAHAPURUSHA 
SAMSHRAYAH”

(Manhood, burning desire for liberation (Mumukshatvam), the capacity to completely surrender to a man of wisdom - These three things are rare indeed, and wherever they are found, they are due to the Lord’s own Grace)

"What a wonderful chance this man is missing just for the sake of earning his livelihood and maintenance! Instead of using discrimination between the Eternal and perishable, he is using his God-given intellect and putting his heart and mind in this mere repetition for remembering by heart a grammar rule! What a great pity!" Shankaracharya is moved; and he says: "Look here! This is all right. But worship the Lord. Direct your mind to God. In that alone is your highest welfare."

This particular teaching has an appealing naturalness and spontaneity. It has got a universal appeal, because evidently this student whose repetition attracted Shankaracharya’s ears must have been a young man preparing to enter life, not yet having entered into life. 

And it is at this particular stage of an individual that he should be given the right direction. That is the crucial importance of the Bhaja Govindam composition. It was given to a young man at the entry point of his life. Shankaracharya thought: "This is the right time that one should be made aware of the higher purpose of human life, the deeper significance, the great objective and Goal for which one has been sent here."

If he enters into life with a proper understanding about life: "Why have I come here? What is the objective for which God has sent me here?" — Then all will be well. 

He will take care of his secular side without neglecting his spiritual side. He would have died in ignorance, if that right understanding is not given at this entry point of life when one is young, when one needs to be awakened and made aware that life is more than mere eating-drinking-sleeping, earning, putting aside little bit of money, having a family, and getting caught and entangled in the cobweb of samsara, in the net of maya’. 

(Swami Chidananda)

Love.