Bhaja Govindam
by Sri Shankara
tr. by Balakrishna Kumthekar
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1:
Seek Govinda! Seek Govinda! Seek Govinda! Oh ignoramus, at the time
of death the rules of grammer, which you are trying to cram and
master, will not be able to rescue you at all.
2:
Oh, Fool! give up your insatiable desire for earthly possessions;
be sensible and develop serenity and contentment. Be satisfied
and happy with whatever you may earn by the sweat of your brow
and whatever has destiny marked for your lot.
3:
Enticed by the physical glamour of a woman, do not lose your senses;
the body is nothing but a conglomeration of flesh, do not forget
this any time.
4:
The water droplet on the lotus leaf is tremulous and unsteady.
So too is life which is as uncertain. Know the body to be in
the claws of disease, which may swallow it at any moment.
Life is ultimately nothing but worry, misery and grief.
5:
As long as you are fit to make an earning, so long will your
kith and kin be solicitous about you, but no sooner your
limbs become infirm and your earnings cease, none will care for
you, not even your own home-folk.
6:
As long as there is life in your body, your people may have
concern for you, but once the life-breath ebbs out of your
body, even your own wife will run away from you.
7:
Childhood skips off on sport and play. Youth flies off in
pursuits of love-making. As one grows older he is drowned
in worry about the security and future of his wife and
children. One's whole life gets spent in some kind of
worry or other. And at no stage does man find time to
lift his thoughts to God.
8:
Who indeed is your beloved and who indeed is your son? Strange
indeed are these family bonds; who belongs to you and to whom you
belong? whence did you come, Oh brother! Reflect on the truth
of it all.
9:
The company of the good weans one away from false atttachments;
when attachment is lost, delusion ends; when delusion ends, the mind
becomes unwavering and steady. An unwavering and steady mind is merited
for Jeevan Mukti ( liberation even in this life).
10:
When youth is gone, where is lust and its play? Where is the lake
when its waters have dried up? Where are the kinsfolk when riches
are gone ? When Truth is realised, where is the snare of Samsara?
11:
The pleasures and riches of worldly life are deceptive appearances.
Understanding that they are all but a passing-show, be detached and
dispassionate, cultivate renunciation and seek Brahman.
12:
Day and night, dawn and dusk, winter and spring, all these are flitting
across the stage of the world. While time thus is frolicking and
befooling us, our life span is also running out; yet we do not , even
a little, give up the clinging to our desires, nor do we let the
desires loosen their grip on us.
13:
Crazy man ! Why do you worry so much about your wife and property?
why don't you seek out the Truth ? Know that in these three worlds
it is only the association with the good and holy that can help you
in crossing safely the ocean of life.
14:
The ascetic with matted locks, the man with the shaven head or
one with hair pulled out, or the man parading in the ochre robes
-- they all have eyes but yet do not see. All these are but deceptions
for cheating the world, for filling their bellies. ( Renunciation
does not lie in external appearance, but in inward thought, attitude
and feeling).
15:
The body has become decrepit, the hair on the head has turned
completely gray; the mouth has become totally toothless; the
back is bent down and the old man cannot take even a step witout
the aid of his stick; yet he does not loosen even a bit, his hold
on the bundle of desires.
16:
Homeless he is; his back is bent down with age. His body has lost its
heat and he has to warm himself before a fire or in the sun. Tree
is his only shelter; he lives by begging and by the crumbs thrown
into his palms by others; in the night he sleeps by holding his chin
on his knee ( because the back is bent and he cannot stretch himself
and lie down). Yet, he does not let and allow the grip of desires on
him loosen even a bit.
17:
One may have bathed in the holy Ganges or even in the Ganga Sagar;
he may have performed many charities and observed many vows; yet
unless one has glimpsed the Truth ( God), he will not gain
release even after a hundred lives. (note: this is the warning of
all the religions)
18:
Who can disturb the peace and happiness of a man if he has the true
spirit of renunciation and has controlled his desires, even if he be
the poorest, sleeping only in the temple halls and choultries or under
trees or on the bare ground and just with a deer skin to cover.
19:
Whether one is immersed in yoga or is revelling in bhoga ( i.e, outward
enjoyment), whether he is enjoying himself in social company or has
retired into solitude, true happiness certainly cannot be his; but who
alone is revelling inwardly in Brahman, (wherever he be), he alone
will be truly happy and will verily enjoy.
20:
Even a little study and understanding of the Bhagawad Gita, or
sipping of even a tiny drop of the waters of the holy Ganges or
even a little worship of Murari -- these will surely save one
from confrontation with death !
21:
Undergoing the pangs of birth again and again, passing through the
throes of death again and again, lying in the mother's womb over
and over again, this process of samsara is hard to cross over.
Save me from it, Oh merciful Lord !
22:
Clad in stray rags, treading the path beyond good and evil, caring for
neither earning merit by taking to good deeds nor stooping to do any
evil, and lost in meditation the yogi revels in the Supreme always,
lost to all outward norms and decorum -- his behaviour may look
prankish like that of a child or may be even queer like that of a
lunatic.
23:
Who are you ? Who am I ? From Where did I come ? Who is my mother, who is
my father ? -- enquire thus and you will, then realise that the entire
world of experience, all the worries and problems are but a dream, a
mere hallucination, born of imagination and delusion. With such a
realisation, you will be freed from the delusions of the world.
24:
In you, in me and everywhere, there is but the one Vishnu, Mistakenly
viewing me with a sense of difference, you are ill-disposed towards me.
Try to see in all beings only the Vishnu who is your own self. Give up
your false and egoistic sense of separateness from other beings.
Cultivate a sense of kinship, unity and oneness with all.
25:
Do not look at anybody in terms of friend or foe, brother or cousin; do
not fritter away your mental energies in thoughts of friendship or
enemity. Seeking the Self everywhere, be amiable and equal-minded
towards all, treating all alike.
26:
Free yourself from lust, anger, greed and delusion. Contemplate on 'who
you are'. Enquire within yourself, who am I ? The fools who fail to
apprehend the Self are caught in hell-fire even here and now itself and
suffer torture.
27:
Recite the Gita; chant the thousand Names of the lord (Vishnu
Sahasranama), meditate ceaselessly on the Consort and Lord of Lakshmi,
lead the mind towards association with the good. Give away your wealth
in charity to those in need and who are poor.
28:
As readily as one takes to indulging in carnal pleasures, with the same
readiness alas! he is taken over by disease too. Even seeing death as
the inevitable and only end of all, man does not refrain from sinful ways.
29:
It is wealth only that causes all harm and brings about one's ruin.
Bear this truth in mind always. Know that the pursuit of wealth does
not lead one to happiness at all. The rich fear and are even afraid of their
own sons. This is the outcome of riches anywhere and ever.
30:
Regulated breathing and sense control, discrimination between the
Enduring and the fleeting, the eternal and the transient, Japa and
meditation, and submerging of the bodily and mental consciousness in
the Consciousness of the Spirit, merging oneself into the total Inner
Silence -- one must practice these with unrelenting fervour.
31:
Surrender yourself to the Lotus Feet of the Teacher; with your senses
and mind disciplined, and freed from the shackles of Samsara you will
behold the Lord who is seated in your heart.