ADI SANKARA'S BHAJ GOVINDAM AND KASHMIR....

                                    

                                       
                                            ( M S Subalakshmi reciting Bhaja Govindam )

ADI SANKARA'S BHAJ GOVINDAM AND KASHMIR....

Composed by the great saint Sri Adi Sankara, Bhaja Govindam is one of the most lucid yet insightful works of Vedanta. Some of the other brilliant works on Vedanta by Adi Sankara are the Vivekachudamani and Atmabodha. He combined his scientific knowledge of the subject with deep devotion to produce brilliant compositions. Sankara’s works are classified into 3 main categories:

1. Bhashya: Commentaries on the scriptures such as the Upanishads, Bhagavad Gita and the Brahmasutras

2. Stotras: Devotional compositions like the Dakshinamoorthy stotras

3. Prakarana Granthas: Introductory manuals for spiritual studies

Bhaja Govindam is a strotra with 31 verses. It deals with our twin motivations in life: Kanchana, or the acquisition of wealth, and Kamini or the enjoyment of it. First, we accumulate wealth for Dukha Nivrutti or security against sorrow. And by the second motivation, we indulge in Sukha Prapti, the enjoyment of the accumulated wealth. Bhaja Govindam brings the futility of worldly pursuit to our attention and says no matter how much we seek whatever we seek outside, the truth is, it will always be within. There is a Sloka, possibly 21 or 2,2, in Adi Sankara's "Bhaj Govindam ". I quote:-

 

"Punarapi jananam

punarapi maranam

punarapi janani jathare sayanam,

iha samsare bahudusare

krpaya’ pare pahi murare.,"

 

(Again and again we are born,

Again and again, death takes us away,

 Again and again we rest in the mother’s womb!

It is indeed hard to cross this boundless ocean of samsara (cycle of repeated birth and death).

 O Murari! By your causeless mercy,

 Please protect us from this aavagaman or transmigratory process.)

 

"Punarapi Jananam ,punarapi maranam"  or the opening four words of this Sloka define the aavagaman process  in this universe .I have done some research on the influence of "Bhaj Govindam "verses in the Leelas of many  Bhakti poets of Kashmir. Its influence is also clearly visible in "Shastra” verses of many Sufi poets, including Sochha Kraal, Wahab Khar, and Samad Mir. This particular essay with specific references, will appear in my next book.

There is convincing evidence about the popularity of "Bhaj Govindam” among Kashmiri Pandits for many centuries. Kashmiri Pandits would often recite it along with Panchastavi, Saundarya Lahiri ( believed to have been composed by Adi Sankara in Kashmir ) and  Bhavani Sahasranama (which is the Kashmiri equivalent of the Lalita Sahasranama composed by Adi Sankara). Before 1990, I had also seen a Sharada manuscript of Bhaja Govindam with a family that lived near Raghunath Mandir, Habba Kadal, Srinagar. Pandit Pitamber Nath Ji, fondly known as Pita Kak, would sometimes recite Bhaja Govindam before his students in the Pathshala inside the Shiva Temple (Bodd Mandir) in Rainawari. Apart from translating Panchastavi into Kashmiri from Sanskrit, Pandit Jia Lal Dhar Saraf of Batyar, Alikadal, also translated Bhaja Govindam into Kashmiri. The Kashmiri Panchastavi sung in every Kashmiri Pandit household is a gift from Pandit Jia Lal Saraf to the community. His Kashmiri translation of Panchastavi is soulful and full of spiritual flavour that touches the inner chords of every listener. Whenever the Kashmiri translation of Panchastavi was recited in our family, my mother was always in tears. This happened with most of our womenfolk. It was usually sung by Kashmiri Pandits at Shaktipeeths like Kheer Bhawani Shrine, Tulamula and Chakreshwari Shrine at Hari Parbat in Kashmir.

                               

      

                                 

           

                                                        

                  ( Front page and one inside page  of the book by Jia  Lal Dhar Saraf, having a Kashmiri translation of Bhaj Govindam )

 Before 1990, I observed that Bhaj Govindam was recited in very few families in Kashmir. I was told that the Kashmiri translation was recited at Hari Parbat by some ardent devotees. Why did we forget it? I don't know? In Southern parts of the country, especially in Tamil Nadu, it is a household Stuti or prayer which many young boys and girls recite extempore. The beauty of Bhaja Govindam is that it can be sung sweetly with or without accompanying music. One of the greatest singers of our present contemporary age, Padmashri M.S. Subalakshmi, has sung ‘Bhaja Govindam' very beautifully. I am told that Bhaja Govindam has been translated into various Indian languages, including Telugu, Kannada, Tamil, Malayalam, Gujarati, Bengali, Odia, Assamese, Hindi, and Bhojpuri.

These Slokas are philosophical, full of wisdom and compassion for all living creatures. Though sung as Ba hajan, "Bhaja Govindam” contains the essence of Vedanta, imploring man to think:-

 

"Why am I in this world?"

"For whom am I amassing this wealth?”

“What is my family to me?”

"What is the aim of my existence?”

"What is the ultimate truth?”

 

Believed to have been compiled in Kashi, "Bhaja Govindam” invokes a strong mood of vairagya or renunciation, given the transience of the reasons of human pride. Bhaja Govindam was known as Moha Mudgara, the remover or the hammer of delusions.

 

While most assume his birthplace was Kalady, his mother Aryamba’s family home was Veliyanad.  There is strong evidence that Adi Sankara was born and spent many of his early years in Melpazhur, his ancestral maternal home. Kaladi was his paternal home next to the Periyar River, where he went for his Gurukul studies. Leaving home at the age of 8, Adi Sankara travelled from Kerala to Kashmir, spreading knowledge, compassion, wisdom and creating unity. Wherever he went, he debated, discussed, taught, learnt, created and reformed the society, freeing it from some primitive customs. And he did all this in a life span of 32 years. Adi Sankara was an intellectual giant, a genius of linguistics, and above all, a spiritual light and the pride of India. The level of wisdom and knowledge he showed at a very early age made him a shining light for humanity. I conclude this small write with a Sloka from Bhajan Govindam:-

 

"vayasi gate kaḥ kāmavikāraḥ,

śuṣke nīre kaḥ kāsāraḥ |

kṣīṇe vitte kaḥ parivāraḥ

jñāte tattve kaḥ saṃsāraḥ !"

 

(What good is lust when youth has fled?

What use is a lake which has no water?

Where are the relatives when wealth is gone? What is saṁsāra (transmigratory process), when Truth is known?")

 

( Avtar Mota )

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