Bhajagovindam part 12

[Guest guest]

Bhajagovindam of Adi Shankara

part 12 (with comments by Gopi Krishna)...

 

Sloka 7

 

Baalastaavat Kreedaa saktah

Tarunastaavat Taruneesaktah

Vriddhastaavat Chintaasakatah

Parame Brahmani Kopi Na Saktah

 

.... Bhaja Govindam, Bhaja Govindam

 

Meaning:

 

Baalah Taavat - so long as one is in his childhood, Kreedaa - (towrds play)

to play, Aasaktah - (one is) attached, Tarunah Taavat - a youth (so long as

one is in youth), Tarunee - towards young women (towards passion), Saktah -

(one is) attached, Vriddhah Taavat - so long as one is old (an old man),

Chintaa - towards anxiety, Aasaktah - (one is) attached, Parame - to the

Supreme, Brahmani - Brahman, Kah Api - any one (alas), Kopi na - no one is

(seen), Saktah - attached.

 

 

Substance:

 

The childhood is lost in sport and play. Youth flies off in pursuits of

love-making (passion). Old age passes away on thinking over many past things

and in worry about the security and future of one's wife and children

(pang). And there is hardly any time left for contemplation on God, as at no

stage one is lost in the thoughts of Parabrahman.

 

Commentary:

 

At successive stages of life, one is engrossed in inconsequential anxieties

of life. Never does one turn to the quest for true wisdom. Life is wasted in

the quest of what is transient and deluding. Though aware of the delusion,

at no period of one's life, does one seek to know the Real.

 

Life is short and the journey is too long. It is not difficult to traverse

and reach the goal, but unfortunately man is tied down to the passions and

pangs of play, sex and anxieties. Deluded by these passions, one clings on

to the baser things, thinking that they are gold and permanent. One forgets

one's right path due to one's attachment to worldly objectives and

materialistic enjoyments. Searching for happiness in mundane things, one

lacerates oneself, one bleeds and soon feels fatigued and becomes a frequent

traveler in the same path. In the childhood, one's attachment was to games

and toys. In the youth, one's energies are dissipated in one's beloved. As

age progresses and when one becomes old, one submerges oneself in anxieties

and fears. All through the life, one does not get time to remember God and

attach oneself to the Supreme Lord.

 

How to get over this delusion? The only answer to get away from this extreme

sense of attachment to the world is through intelligent discrimination and

detachment. One has to identify the purpose and mission of life. One has to

use one's freedom to rationally judge even one's own inclinations,

temperaments and tendencies, and reject them when they are found to be

foolish and dangerous. This trait in man is special and one should use it to

elevate oneself to the highest perfection.