Below is snipped from the following which, for those feeling some connection to the Shankara tradition, may find sweet.
http://www.geocities.com/hg_krishnan/bhaja.html This link also contains the verses and meanings. Jaya Guru Deva Datta About Bhaja Govindam Bhaja Govindam is one of the minor compositions of Jagatguru Adi Sankaracharya, compared to his monumental works called *Bhashyas*, commentaries on Indian Scriptures. Bhaja Govindam, along with Atma Bodha, etc., comes under the category of *Prakarana Granthas*, introductory manuals for spiritual studies. They are like primers, explaining the philosophical terms etc., for the spiritual initiates. The elementary spiritual truths are brought to the fore in these booklets and make man think, " Ah, this is life; I must seek escape from this prison-hole and may God guide and help me". Man is thus drawn out of miry bylanes of life in which he is stuck up and put onto the royal road of spirituality, on the pathway to God ! A popular story describes the circumstances in which this great poem burst forth the lips of Sankara. It is said that once in Banaras when he, together with his fourteen disciples, was going along on his daily rounds, he overheard a very old Pundit cramming Panini's grammer rules. Sankara was touched with pity at the ignorance and folly of the man to be wasting away the most precious 'dusk hours' of his life for a mere intellectual accomplishment instead of spending them in contemplation on the Lord, praying for spiritual enlightenment and for release from the bondage of Samsara. He knew that this was not the state of that particular old man only, but was the general state of most of the men. Men waste and while away their lives in many (or most) futile ways, grovelling in the mire of earthly attachments forgetting God who is the only goal in life. In compassion for man's plight, he burst forth into these stanzas, famous as MOHA MUDGARA, now popularly known by the refrain of the song, which is *BHAJA GOVINDAM*. "Oh, Mudha ! Oh, ignoramus ! Grammer rules (in fact all your secular learning) will not come to your rescue when death knocks to snatch you away. Instead of wasting away the precious span of your life in a futile manner, turn to and seek Govinda, who alone can save you from the jaws of life and death". In thirty-one simple, sweet and lucid Slokas, giving homely analogies and illustrations for our easy understanding, Sankara tells us about the fallacy and futility of our life; and sloka by sloka he removes veil after veil, dispelling our ignorance, illusions and delusions (MOHA) and showing us where the remedy for all our misery lies. The poem is, therefore also called MOHA MUDGARA. He touches all aspects of our life, how these blind and bind us, plunging us deeper and deeper into the abyss of ignorance and misery. He wants each one of us to cultivate a discerning and discriminating eye (VIVEKA) to distinguish the permanent from the transitory, the real from the unreal, to practice dispassion (VAIRAGYA) for worldly attractions and distractions, to cultivate devotion for realising Govinda, the abiding Truth and thus getting released from the misery and bondage of this phenomenal existence. To subscribe, send a message to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Or go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/ and click 'Join This Group!' Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
