Bhaja Govindam

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

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.

Do not get drowned in delusion, infatuated with passion and lusty desires, by seeing a woman's raised breasts and navel. These are nothing but a modification of flesh and fat, and the like. Do not fail to remember this again and again in your mind.

As water drops on a lotus leaf are unsteady and trembling, in the same way life in this world is exceedingly unsteady and restless. Know that the whole world is full of miseries, afflicted by unhappiness and grief.

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.

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.

The childhood is lost in attachment to games. The youth is lost in attachment to woman. Old age passes with worry and anxiety, thinking over many things. But there is hardly anyone who wants to be lost (attached) in para-braman, the Supreme Spirit.

Being in the company of good people (saints) gives rise to non-attachment, from non-attachment comes freedom from delusion, which leads to awareness of reality, understanding of reality gives rise to emancipation leading to the liberation of the soul (jīvan-mukti), while still alive.

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? What is saṁsāra (transmigratory process), when Truth is known?

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.

Day and night, evening and morning, winter and summer come and go again and again. Eternal time plays and life ebbs away, yet one does not let go of the storm of desire.

The bouquet of twelve verses was imparted to a grammarian by the all-knowing Śaṅkara, adored as bhagavat-pāda.

O, mad man! Why this engrossment in thoughts of wealth and beloved? Is there no one to guide you? In these thee worlds, only the association with saintly people (satsaṅga) can serve as the boat that can steer cross the ocean of repeated birth and death. (Stanza attributed to Padmapāda.)

There are many (ascetics) with matted hair, many with clean shaven heads, many whose hair have been plucked out, some are clothed in orange, yet others parading in various colors - Indeed, these different disguises or apparels are only for their belly’s sake. Seeing the truth revealed before them, still the foolish ones can not see through these many disguises. (Stanza attributed to Totakācārya.)

Strength has left the old man's body, his head has become bald, his gums toothless and leaning on crutches. Even then he can not let go of his attachment, clinging firmly to fruitless hopes and desires. (Stanza attributed to Hastamalaka.)

The ascetic warms his body with fire in front and the sun at the back. At night he dwells under a tree with face huddled between the knees to keep out of the cold. In his hands he holds the beggar's alms and yet he does not let go of the noose of attachment to desire and passion. (Stanza attributed to Subhodha.)

One may travel (on a pilgrimage) to the confluence where the Gaṅgā river meets the ocean (gaṅgā-sāgara), undertake vows and give away in charity, however without true knowledge (jñāna) one will not achieve liberation (mukti) even in a hundred lifetimes, according to all [schools of] thought. (Stanza attributed to Vārtikakāra.)

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.)

One may take delight in yoga (union with god) or bhoga (worldly enjoyment), may be delighted by company or solitude, but he whose mind delights in brahman (the spiritual truth), only he enjoys real bliss and is satisfied, no one else. (Stanza attributed to ānandagiriḥ)

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.)

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.)

The one whose patched garment is made from tattered rags cast on the road, whose path is free from sins having abandoned virtue and vices, whose mind is fixed on yoga (in union with god), that yogi indeed rejoices (in divine bliss) like a crazed wild child overwhelmed by happiness. (Stanza attributed to Nityanātha.)

Having abandoned this world, knowing it to be without essence, comparable to the reflection of a dream, consider well and reflect: Who am I? Who are you? Where have I come from? Who is my mother, and who is my father? (Stanza attributed to Surendra.)

Do not waste your efforts to win the love of or to fight against friend and foe, children and relatives. See the true self in everyone and give up all feelings of duality completely. (Stanza attributed to Medhātithira.)

Give up lust, anger, greed and infatuation, try to know the true self and consider: who am I? Those fools covered by ignorance, who lack self-knowledge (ātma-jñāna) are tormented in hells. (Stanza attributed to Bhārativaṁśa.)

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.)

Very readily one indulges in carnal pleasures but later on, alas, come diseases of the body. Even though in the world the ultimate end is death (maraṇaṁ), even then one does not relinquish his sinful behaviours.

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.

Practice control of breath (prāṇā-yāma) and withdrawal of the senses from their respective sense objects (pratyāhāra), deliberate on the distinction between the permanent and the transitory, perform meditation along with chanting the holy names of god, perform these with great attention and extreme care!

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!

Thus a foolish grammarian lost in grammatical rules, was cleansed of his narrow vision and shown the light by the students of the illustrious Śrīmad Śaṅkarācārya.

Worship Govinda, worship Govinda, worship Govinda, O fool! Other than chanting the Lord's names, there is no other way to cross the ocean of existence.