C. Rajagopalachari's brief introductory comment to Adi Sankara's Bhaja Govindam.

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C. Rajagopalachari's brief introductory comment to Adi Sankara's Bhaja Govindam.

 

'Adi Shankaracharya wrote a number of Vedantic works for imparting knowledge of

the Self and the Universal Spirit. He also composed a number of hymns to foster

Bhakti in the hearts of men. One of these hymns is the famous Bhaja Govindam.

The way of devotion, is not different from the way of knowledge or jnana. When

intelligence matures and lodges securely in the mind, it becomes wisdom. When

wisdom is integrated with life and issues out in action, it becomes bhakti.

Knowledge, when it becomes fully mature is bhakti. If it doesnot get transformed

into bhakthi, such knowledge is useless tinsel. To believe that jnana and

bhakti, knowledge and devotion are different from each other, is ignorance. If

Sri Adi Shankara himself who drank the ocean of jnana as easily as one sip's

water from the palm of one's hand, sang in his later years, hymns to develop

devotion, it is enough to show that jnana and bhakti are one and the same. Sri

Shankara has packed into the Bhaja GovindaM song: the substance of all vedanta,

and set the oneness of jnana and bhakti to melodious music.'