HariH Aum Gurubhyo NamaH |
Bhaja Govindam Verse – 1
भज गोविन्दं भज गोविन्दं, गोविन्दं भज मूढ़मते।
संप्राप्ते सन्निहिते काले, न हि न हि रक्षति डुकृञ् करणे ॥१॥
bhaja govindam bhaja govindam, govindam bhaja mudhamate
samprapte sannihite kale nahi nahi rakshati dukrnkarne – 1
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Explaination of Pujya Swami Viditatmananda Ji
Dukrnakarane – In Sanskrit, the verbal root kr, in the sense of karane, means to do. It is symbolic of all the aphorisms of grammar in the pursuit of the knowledge of grammar. Here, the knowledge of grammar stands for any intellectual pursuit. Thus, “Dukrnakarane” represents the various intellectual pursuits in life.
nahi nahi rakshati – does not protect. The accomplishments in various intellectual fields do not serve to protect you. When?
samprapte sannihite kale – samprapte means very well obtained. kala means time or death. Samprapte sannihite kale is when the appointed time draws near, or when death arrives. At that time, none of these intellectual accomplishments will protect you or save you.
What kind of protection is being talked about here? It is protection from death itself. Everyone wants to be saved or protected from the very idea of death. No one likes death; death represents all my grief, all my sorrow, all my sufferings, isolation, and fear. Therefore, what one is seeking is freedom from death. If we analyze our pursuits in life we will appreciate that we are all seeking freedom from death. Nobody ever wants to die. Because I have a natural love for life, a natural love for existence, a desire for immortality.
We are all seeking freedom from bondage, dependence, and smallness. Seeking freedom from death is one way of expressing that freedom. It appears as though everyone is going in different directions, seeking different things. One wants to be wealthy, another wants to be powerful. What one is looking forward to, somebody else wants to get rid of; one wants to be famous, another wants to renounce fame, and while one wants power and position, yet another is seeking to be free from them. Everything that gives me freedom also creates some bondage. I build a house thinking that I will be free, but then I find that the very house binds me! The very thing that I pursued in order to gain freedom, does give me some freedom, but also gives me a certain other kind of bondage. Are they capable of providing what we are looking for?
Every means of happiness is accompanied by some unhappiness, burden, or responsibilities and every gain is associated with some loss or price. That is the reason why we do not seem to get what we want. We are pursuing freedom from death, ignorance, and unhappiness. That is why Sri Sankaracarya says nahi rakshati.
He asks us to think about what we are seeking to accomplish, and then inquire into whether what we are doing can truly enable us to accomplish our goal. What is the solution?
It is, “bhaja govindam bhaja govindam, govindam bhaja mudhamate”.
A mudhamate is one whose mati or perception is deluded, one who does not know what one is seeking and, therefore, is not aware of the real purpose of life. moha or delusion is aviveka. viveka is discrimination, seeing a thing for what it is. The opposite of discrimination is aviveka or moha. It is also called adhyasa, superimposition, which results in seeing one thing where it is not. In Vedanta, moha is seeing that which is not there, or seeing something to be different from what it is in reality, e.g., taking the rope for a snake, or seeing happiness where it is not. Seeing the impermanent as permanent is delusion, just as taking the permanent to be impermanent is also delusion. In the same way, seeing the non-self as the self is delusion, as surely as seeing the self as non-self is delusion. Therefore, the true purpose of life is gaining freedom from moha.
Who am I? That which I call ‘I’ is a complex entity consisting of two aspects, a person and a personality. My mind and intellect form the personality. This body is part of the personality. Associated with the personality is the person, who is a simple, conscious being, the I. However, I do not discriminate between the person and the personality, and therefore, these two are lumped together.
We do not have that viveka or discrimination and, therefore, take ourselves to be this personality. Each one of us takes ourselves to be a limited individual. Having taken myself to be a limited being, just this body or this limited personality, I am constantly struggling to become free from this limitation, this smallness. We do not even have to make an effort to be deluded; we are born deluded. In the Gita [7-27] Lord Krishna says, “Hey Arjuna, all beings, at the time of birth itself, are deluded about their true nature”. I find that the body is mortal, and, therefore, I take myself also to be mortal.
What should I do? bhaja govindam bhaja govindam govindam bhaja mudhamate. bhaja means worship. bhaja govindam means worship Govinda. What is Govinda? Govinda is that freedom, the wholeness, the immortality, and the totality that I am seeking. In common usage, Govinda means Lord Krishna. The word go means cow. The one who protects the go is Govinda, the Lord was a cowherd, so he was called Govinda. But the word go has several other meanings as well. When we analyze the meanings of the word Govinda, we understand that, in this context, Govinda means the limitless Self.
i. Another meaning of the word go is prtvi or earth. Lord Krshna is called Govinda, the protector of the earth.
ii. go can also be taken to mean the sense organs. Govinda, then, is the one who impels the sense organs, the one who enlivens the sense organs, or the one who directs the sense organs to perform their appointed functions.
iii. The word go also means speech. In this sense, it means the one who is behind all speech. Govinda is the one because of whom all speech occurs, and because of whom words have the ability to reveal their meanings.
iv. Thus, the name Govinda is not necessarily limited to Lord Krshna. In a broad sense, it means the Self, the truth or the Consciousness. It is the happiness that is behind every name and form and, indeed, that which is behind everything in the creation. That Self is Govinda.
What is the purpose of life?
bhaja govindam bhaja govindam. Seeking or knowing Govinda is the purpose of life. samprapte sannihite kale. Why is death mentioned here? The one to whom this is addressed, the old person who is close to death, does not understand the importance of time or of priorities. Everybody wants all the happiness that one can get. Everybody wants happiness all the time and in all the places, without any limitation of time and space. Moreover, we do not want any strings attached to our happiness; we want unconditional happiness. It is what we call ananda, happiness without any limitation. The happiness that lasts all the time is called sat. I want to feel happy and also know that I am happy. That means I want happiness with knowledge. Awareful happiness is called cit. Therefore, what every man is really seeking in life is this sat cit ananda.
I work hard for something, I get the result, and I examine it to see whether what I seek is there. It is not there, and I am not satisfied. I work hard for another achievement. Again, I am not satisfied. I go for yet another. Thus, there is no end to what one is seeking. When the death comes at the appointed time, all of your accomplishments are there in front of you, but you find that they are insignificant. These secular accomplishments will not protect you, meaning they will not give you a sense of fulfillment. The worship of Govinda should be the priority of our life.
Does this mean that I should stop all my pursuits? Should I become a renunciate? Should I give up my job and start repeating the name, Govinda? What is the meaning of worshipping Govinda? Worshipping Govinda is not doing any particular thing, but realizing that whatever I do should become a means for the attainment of the ultimate goal.
All the accomplishments in life have a purpose, alright, but they are a means and not the end. Let all your accomplishments become a means for the attainment of Govinda, the ultimate goal. This is what the scriptures teach us.
Whatever action you perform, do it with a particular attitude, as an offering to the Lord. Your whole life, then, becomes a means for attaining Govinda. A river is totally devoted to reaching the ocean. Whatever the river does is towards that purpose. If an obstacle comes in its way the river may change course, but eventually, it will go back to the pursuit of reaching the ocean. In the same manner, let all your activities be focused like those of the river.
HariH Aum __/\__
Courtesy : Sri Subramaniyam Balaji
Credit : Swami Viditatmananda Saraswathi Ji.
|| अहम् ब्रह्मास्मि || 