गुरुचरणाम्बुज निर्भर भक्तः
संसारादचिराद्भव मुक्तः .
सेन्द्रियमानस नियमादेवं
द्रक्ष्यसि निज हृदयस्थं देवम् .. ३१..
भज गोविन्दं भज गोविन्दं…
gurucharaNaambuja nirbhara bhaktah
samsaaraadacharaadbhava muktah
sendriyamaanasa niyamaadevam
draKshyasi nija heidayastham devam
Bhaja Govindam Bhaja Govindam…
O! devotee of the Lotus Feet of the Teacher! May you become liberated soon from the samsara through the discipline of the sense organs and the mind. You will come to experience (behold) the Lord that dwells in your own heart.
(Seek Govinda Seek Govinda…)
Faith and devotion to the Guru are necessary in order to ease the spiritual journey, keep the mind from wavering into wrong channels, and keeping the waves of doubt rising in the mind to disturb it at bay. Just as a child many a times does not understand the significance of why the mother asks it to do a particular thing but at the same time has full faith that the mother will never ask him to do anything which will harm him, and so follows her instructions. In the long run the child automatically realizes that whatever the mother said was for its own good and betterment. Similar is the case of faith in the Guru! Faith is the greatest source of inspiration for the mind. St Augustine defines ‘Faith’ as best as possible; “Faith is to believe what you do not see, and the reward of this faith is to see what you believe.”
Whatever the teacher says we cannot many a times, understand immediately, but the logical reasoning presented by him, and due to a firm belief in the teacher, our mind as if giving him a benefit of doubt, gains time to think about and finally experience for ourselves the truth of what he says, instead of rejecting it outright. Intellectual understanding is followed by assimilation of the teaching into our life, which comes only with time. If faith in the teacher is not there the student like a vagabond does neither have clarity regarding the goal of life nor knowledge about the means of reaching it. He like a marooned boat is tossed about on waves of doubts and uncertainties only to be wrecked and shattered to pieces by some way-side rocks in the form of the different upheavals in life. Acharya Shankara blesses all the seekers of all times who are devoted to the Lotus feet of their Guru, “May you become liberated from Samsara soon” he says. The liberation is not to be gained after death or at some distant point of time or at some distant place; it is here and now! Shankara says, through discipline of the sense organs and the mind (discussed earlier), may you come to experience (behold) the Lord that dwells in your own heart! i.e. may you own up to your true nature soon. It seems that the teacher himself is also prostrating to his own Guru Sri Govindacharya through these verses and hence-Bhaja Govindam… Bhaja Govindam…
Thus concludes this beautiful composition in which each verse is thought provoking and a pearl of wisdom in itself. It is so exhilarating to close our eyes and imagine the journey of Acharya Shankara accompanied by his fourteen disciples on their journey to the holy Kashi singing in their own enchanting rhythm and melody, through undulating hills and green pastures with the birds and rivers to give music! Even the wayside rocks would have been so blessed to witness this divine procession!
In such moments of inspiration the highest truths are given out in such lucid and easy to remember verses. The first verse is repeated after each subsequent verse and that gives it the feel of a ballad. Let us all resolve to memorize these verses and bow down to the Adi Guru Shankaracharya. Hari Om!