When one is alive, his family members enquire kindly about his welfare. But no one at home cares to even have a word with him when his body totters due to old age. So long as a man is fit and able to support his family, see the affection all those around him show. Know that the whole world remains a prey to disease, ego and grief. Uncertain is the life of man as rain drops on a lotus leaf. Do not fail to remember this again and again in your mind.
Be content with what comes through actions already performed in the past.ĭo not get drowned in delusion by going wild with passions and lust by seeing a woman’s navel and chest. Oh fool! Give up your thrist to amass wealth, devote your mind to thoughts to the Real.
Oh fool! Rules of Grammar will not save you at the time of your death. Worship Govinda, Worship Govinda, Worship Govinda. These fourteen verses are together called “Chaturdasa-manjarika-Stotra” (A hymn which is a bunch of fourteen verse-blossoms). The fourteen disciples who were with the Master, then, are believed to have added one verse each. Besides the refrain of the song beginning with the words “Bhaja Govindam”, Shankara is stated to have sung twelve verses, hence the hymn bears the title “Dvadasamanjarika-Stotra” (A hymn which is a bunch of twelve verse-blossoms). The Hymn to Govinda was composed on this occasion. Taking pity on the scholar, he went up to him and advised him not to waste his time on grammar at his age but to turn his mind to God in worship and adoration. He heard the sound of grammatical rules being recited by an old scholar. acharya Shankara, it is said, was walking along a street in Varanasi, one day, accompanied by his disciples. There is a story attached to the composition of the present Hymn. Sri Shankara has packed into the “Bhaja Govindam” song the substance of all the vedantic works that he wrote and he has set the truth of the union of devotion and knowledge to melodius music which delights the ear and our soul. It must be realised that except through devotion to God, there is no other effective way to restrain the senses. Its attachment is to be completely extinguished and if the mind should be released from it, the mind must be turned towards God. How is one to trestrain the native impulsion of the senses? The heart cannot be chastened if desires and attachments are not eschewed. Unless the senses are controlled, knowledge will not obtain a fort-hold in the heart. To hold and to say that Jnana and Bhakti, knowledge and devotion, are as different from each other as gold is from baser metal is to expose one’s ignorance. If it does not get transformed into devotion, such knowledge is useless and tinsel. Knowledge which has become mature is spoken of as devotion. When that wisdom is integrated with life and issues out in action, it becomes devotion. When intelligence matures and lodges securely in the heart, it becomes wisdom. We should not get confused by this and fail to understand the truth. The learned employ this distinction to emphasise a particular theses on which they discourse in different contexts. Some immature critics of Indian Philosophy believe and say that the way of devotion is different from the way of knowledge. Bhaja Govindam is one among His many works and in this short garland of poems in praise of Lord Govinda (Krishna), He dwells upon the ephemeral nature of life upon the greatness of Guru, Bhakti, etc. Shri Shankara composed a number of hymns to foster the sense of devotion in the hearts of men and this is His greatest service. He discussed with many a scholar during His long journeys in the country and was the cause for many philosophical treatises establishing the concept of Advaita, with commentaries on Brahma Sutras, Srimad Bhagavad Gita, Ten Principal Upanishads and a few other works and poems in praise of various Vedic dieties. He restructured all the 72 forms of desultory religious practices into acceptable norms and laid stress on the six ways of worship based on Vedas. He was Shankara, known as Adi Shankara, the world over.ĭuring His short sojourn, He travelled through the entire Bharatha, on foot, preaching His philosophy of Advaita and taking many disciples from the four corners of the country, chief among them being four. About 2500 years ago was born, in a village called Kalady, a boy for a scholarly and vaidik Brahmin couple, Sivaguru and Aryamba, and this boy was to become, in later years, the greatest philosopher the world has ever seen.