Bhaja Govinda Stotram
Day 4, July 20
We have just offered prayers to God and Sadguru. Yesterday we completed the explanation of the last 4 verses of Dwadasa Manjarika, the collection of the initial 12 verses. Today we begin the Chaturdasa Manjarika, a collection of 14 verses. Altogether, the work is called Moha Mudgara, the destroyer of delusion, a very apt name indeed.
Bhajan: Gam gam Ganapati vinayaka (a composition of Sri Ganapathy Sachchidananda Swamiji)
We rushed through the last verses yesterday, without learning the detailed meaning.
Jnate tattve … is the important phrase here. When we hear words of wisdom, it should register in the mind, get experienced in the heart and then we are fulfilled. It means, we then truly grasp the meaning of life, the purpose and source of our existence. Yes, we must study well, work well, protect the family, show the way to the next generation, and then what? What is the spiritual reason for my birth? Worldly knowledge does not give the answer. Only spirituality gives the answer. We have come to prevent future births. It is in our control. Patriotism is desirable. Wishing to be born again in this great country is fine. But there is a yet higher purpose to life. To live well this lifetime, and to ensure that we are not born again. One who sees God everywhere, sees nothing else in this world. Sadguru teaches how to have darshan of God.
A disciple asked Guru for Upadesha. Guru said, my life itself is the message. Follow in my footsteps. You will get fulfilled. The disciple was not satisfied with the answer. Guru then asked whether he helps at home, washing dishes, and so forth, or does he only complain about food and tiffin being served late. Guru said, go home and do all the housework today and come back tomorrow. Disciple returned the next day, after doing some household chores all day. He acknowledged that his dishwashing was not perfect. He found the job difficult to clean the inside of the pot to get the grease and all other stuff out. He only washed the outside well. Cleaning the outside alone is not enough.
Draupadi was proud of her dishwashing skills. She felt that no one else could do as good a job as her. One day, during their exile in the forest, Krishna visited the Pandavas. Durvasa, the sage with 80,000 followers came to visit them upon Duryodhana’s instigation. Duryodhana wanted to insult them. How to get the groceries to feed such a large group? Draupadi was insistent that they should be fed. But there was not even a grain of food grains. She was afraid the sage would curse if they are not shown proper hospitality. Everyone had already eaten and Draupadi had washed all the dishes. The sage and his followers went to bathe before coming for the meal. How to arrange for that kind of hospitality? When Draupadi closed her eyes and thought of Krishna, he would appear at once. That was the level of her devotion. Draupadi found herself in a fix and invoked Krishna. Krishna came and first said he was hungry himself and wanted food at once. No food was left, said Draupadi. Krishna told her to check the pot again. Draupadi found one grain of cooked rice stuck in a crevice in the pot. Krishna asked for it to be served to him. She gave it to Krishna. Krishna ate it. Immediately, Durvasa and all his following belched with filled stomachs and never returned for the meal. Krishna wanted to destroy Draupadi’s pride about dishwashing.
The pot must be cleaned inside thoroughly. That is very important. Learning Tatva, spiritual wisdom, requires a pure mind. All sadhana must be performed, such as contemplation, japa, etc.
An example commonly given is about gold. Many objects are made with gold. But all are nothing but gold, be they bracelets, necklaces, waistband, ankle bells, or something else.
Once, a man lost all his wealth. He became a pauper. He wanted to do something to earn a living. He found some heirloom gold images of God on his altar. He exchanged those for cash because there was not even money to buy food for the family. The goldsmith gave the value of the images and their vehicles. The vehicles were more valuable. The man had always given more value to the images of the gods and never paid attention to the vehicles that went with them. When the goldsmith melted all the gold, there was more gold used for the vehicles. The man looked at the shapes, but the goldsmith looked at the amount of gold in each item and valued them accordingly. Similarly, we are preoccupied with the names and forms found in the world. We get distracted. We do not realize that the substance that constitutes this entire Creation is God. We do not recognize Him and see the oneness pervading everything. That is why jnate tattve, knowing reality is very crucial. It is a wonderful truth to remember.
Maa kuru … This perhaps should have been the 12th verse, Dinayaminyau being the 11th. But tradition has it otherwise. The message is that as the river joins the ocean, gets evaporated by the sun’s rays and comes down as rain and forms a river and joins the ocean again, the same cycle continues endlessly for man also. This must stop. The river must lose its identity as water and must merge with the Almighty. We all must return to our source.
In a great Subhashita it is mentioned that ego envelopes us like an evil spirit. It just haunts us and clutches us like a ghost. It comes with wealth, with power, and with youthful beauty and vigor. The last syllable in all the three words Dhana, Jana, and Yauvana: is NA. It means don’t. Don’t be proud of wealth, power or popularity, or youth. We must get our attention away from the above and travel inward. Once we journey inward, leaving the world, we will have darshan of the lord.
Tenali Ramakrishna is familiar to us all. I promise that after I tell the story, you will remember this story whether or not you remember the rest of the Bhaja Govindam discourse. Stories are very interesting and useful. They remain in the memory more than other things. That is why cinemas and TV shows are so popular. People are attracted to stories, young and old alike.
Maya/delusion is very difficult to conquer. Krishna, who is the Creator of Maya, himself declared that it is tough to transcend Maya. Mama maya duratyaya he says in the Bhagavad Gita. He challenges. Swamiji has composed a bhajan Sri hari maya durjaya. Moha is delusion. It is very fearful. My teacher Sri Rani Krishnamurthy Sastry used to give this explanation. I remember him always.
Yaa maa saa Maya. Wherever there is Maa there is Maya, illusion. Maa means Lakshmi, all prosperity and glory. Any glory gives us arrogance. Buddhi/intellect also is Lakshmi and gives us pride. Maa gives Maya.
Tenali Rama, the Vikatakavi was in the court of Sri Krishnadevaraya. He was waiting to prove his mettle to the king. A problem was discussed in the court, and Tenali Rama attended court every day and waited for a chance to speak up.
There were three men who placed a tough problem before the king. When their father died, he left a will that 17 elephants had to be equally divided between the three sons. None of the ministers could offer a proper solution to this problem. All great ministers scratched their heads to find a solution and failed. How to divide? How to chop up an elephant? We cannot solve this. So, the court must seize the material, namely the 17 elephants. Thimmarusu, the clever minister himself failed to give a solution. Tenali Rama spoke up from the audience and offered to give a solution. The king told him to come forward and speak. Tenali Rama said: The king must bring his royal elephant here, before I give the judgement. The elephant was brought. Now they counted the elephants and there were 18. 18 can be easily divided between three men. The first one gets 9, being the eldest. The second son gets 6. The third son gets 2. One is left. The king keeps the 18th elephant. Maya is like the royal elephant.
9 refers to the body with its nine openings. One must surrender the attachment one has for the body, to God. Thus, 9 goes to the eldest son. 6 are the six inner enemies. One is one’s own friend. One is one’s own enemy. Our anger is our enemy. Our peace of mind is our friend. This must be surrendered. The second son gets 6. Now 2 are left, the feeling of duality, the separateness one feels from God. This must go. This means the third son gets the 2 elephants. Now only the royal elephant, 1 is left. It is Paramatma, who alone exists. If you understand this, you have understood spirituality. You have the darshan of God. This is Tenali Rama’s solution.
Remove your ignorance first and then you will have the experience of God. We are under the delusion that we are the ones doing everything. There is no greater misconception than this. When you have fever, you cannot do anything, you cannot even eat. Till then, you were working night and day without rest. Some energy, some power is working from within us. The oxen plough the field, but the farmer takes the credit.
We are ungrateful to God. We do not recognize His role in our successes. The consciousness within us is doing everything. Not realizing this, we claim credit for our actions and successes. In education or work or anything else, we must always remember that the energy is not ours. We must be grateful to the divine power within us that is acting through us. All help received must be remembered and a return favor must be rendered. No one should forget the help received. No one should forget God who is within us who is empowering us to do whatever it is we have done.
Ramayana also teaches this same lesson.
We might have worked for 30 days, but at the end of the month, that you get the paycheck is a reward from God. I agree that you have worked. But what if the company you have worked for closes before pay day. Then you don’t get paid. It is God’s grace. Not everyone receives compensation for their efforts. Palani, the name of a Subrahmanya shrine, is actually Phala nee – you are the reward. You are the giver of the fruit. You should acknowledge God’s grace. We must never forget God.
It was getting dark. A firefly comes up from the bottom of the well slowly. It thinks it is the giver of life to the world since the sun has set and it is dark everywhere. It comes up and sees the stars in the sky. It thinks then that there are so many more great lights and I am not important. The stars then feel proud of their light, until the moon rises. Then their light is shrouded and unnoticed. The moon feels proud of his moonlight that lights the world, until the sun rises in the morning. Then the moon’s pride is crushed, because its light completely fades. He acknowledges the greatness of the sun.
We are like the fireflies and yet, we are so proud. Our light is not small. It depends on how well we use the light that is within us.
During yagas, they create sacred fire rubbing two sacred sticks together. A small spark is created and that is fueled carefully and that tiny spark grows into a huge fire to perform the great Yajna. The divine spark within us inspires us to do everything. But that spark produces good results only when pride is absent.
One must think deeply about the power of Time. It destroys all wealth, power, and youth in an instant. Time flies consuming everything.
Verse 12:
dinayaminyau saayam praatah
sisiravasantau punaraayaatah
kaalah kreedati gachchhatyaayuh
tadapi na munchatyaasaavaayuh
This verse is always ringing in my ears, like a mantra. Especially while traveling, these words ring in my ears. At the beginning of my learning Sanskrit, this verse was taught to me and it just got stuck in my memory. The style of composition, the rhythm, and the literary style of this verse are very impressive. Problem is, it made it difficult for me to memorize other verses. Whatever children are taught at an early age, they tend to remember very well.
Day and night, and the seasons, keep rotating cyclically. Nothing to fear about this. This knowledge must awaken us to the truth that time never stops. We must keep this in mind that Time plays relentlessly, and as it plays, life gets spent. Even when life is at its end, we are still stuck in our desires. We must exert caution in how our time is spent. We must free ourselves from desires.
A Subhashita gives a nice message. This is a true incident. Not fiction. We must keep remembering this.
It keeps happening always. A bee once saw a lotus and was greedy for the honey. It wanted to consume it all. It was full. It had already drunk a lot of honey. Still, it wanted to consume more. Lunch, snack, and dinner were all finished. There was still more honey in the flower to be consumed, since it was a large lotus. The bee’s parents had cautioned the bee not to linger inside a lotus past sunset. It drank so much honey, and was so full, and became sleepy. It could not fly away. It remained right there inside the lotus. The lotus closes its petals at night. The bee could not get out. It hoped that sun will rise soon, and the lotus will open again and it can get out then.
Beautiful poetry in this verse. The lotus smiles at the thought of sunrise and waits to open again. But an elephant came to drink water from the lake before dawn. It saw the lotus. Just as our hands are never still, the elephant’s trunk also is never still. The elephant uprooted the lotus stalk and threw it aside. The lotus died and never opened at sunrise. The bee died inside.
We keep forgetting our duty to rise spiritually. We allow time to pass by us. We forget that we only have this valuable life to make good use of. We propose, God disposes. We think that our future is in our control. We must keep remembering the bee and its greed for honey, which led to its untimely death.
There is no happiness that is higher than peace. There is no disease that is worse than greed. There is no greater virtue than compassion.
A garland-maker was told to ask for a boon by Krishna. The person wished for never-ending compassion toward all living beings. Merely repeating memorized verses is not enough. We must apply the meaning in our lives and practice the virtues.
Now for today’s verses:
Verse 13:
kaa te kaantaa dhanagatachintaa
vaatula kim tava naasti niyantaa
trijagati sajjanasangatirekaa
bhawati bhavaarnavatarane naukaa
Padmapadacharya’s composition, inspired by the compositions of his Guru. By then, the tradition of singing Bhajans had not commenced. Sri Bhagavatpada has initiated this custom. Padmapadacharya is a great Jnani. His words are very powerful and easy to understand. All the other disciples were jealous of his talent for compositions. He once gave a wonderful commentary on some Sutras. Guru was pleased and permitted its publication. The other pupils were jealous. Our Sadguru Swamiji also says jealousy exists amongst followers. Guru knows how to fix the problem.
A sanyasi kept rescuing a scorpion, which kept stinging him. The scorpion’s nature is to sting. Yogi’s nature is to keep rescuing. Finally, the scorpion exhausted all the poison. Guru also gives lessons until the envy completely leaves a disciple.
We must only be concerned about our improvement. God knows each one’s talent and all talents are God-given. Those who are envious keep going downhill themselves. They are concerned more about another’s progress and wish to bring them down. They criticize others, rather than improve themselves.
The disciples, out of envy, burned the palm leaf work composed by Padmapadacharya. This really happened 2000 years ago. Sri Bhagavatpada recited the whole work, having heard it once before, and told them to write it down again. Even the writer forgot what he wrote, but Guru remembered every word, having heard only once.
There are wonderful libraries that preserve great works. Many great works we have lost. So many medicines for diseases are mentioned in old works. We must scan and preserve old and out of print books. Otherwise we lose valuable information forever.
Guru commanded Padmapadacharya to come walking on the water of the river towards him. The disciple walked without a second thought, stepping on the lotuses that rose out of the water to support his footsteps. That is why he got the name.
The verse says, have you no one to counsel you? Are you never going to change? Why are you so preoccupied with thoughts of women and wealth? Why do you not seek the guidance of the wise? Only the pious saints can uplift people who are obsessed with money and pleasure.
All creatures are important. They all have value. Even other creatures get liberated. Yesterday a bird died which was raised by Swamiji. It used to speak many words: It taught other parrots also. Swamiji wept when it died. It would ask: have you eaten? It would say Namassivaya. Oota aayathaa? It would ask.
When one dies others must weep, and not be glad. Then life has had some worth. One must develop good character and spread happiness to others.
What is the use of never improving your thoughts? The association with saints is the boat that ferries one across the ocean of Samsara, the cycle of birth and death.
In Sri Kalahasti – the name itself is significant. It is a great pilgrimage center. Please visit. Here we learn about the greatness of different creatures. Sri is spider. Kala is serpent. Hasti is elephant.
The three creatures teach us a great lesson. A spider devoutly wove a web as a cloth to offer to God. It is only from its saliva. But God was pleased. A snake came and thought this lord has no shelter over His head. It opened its hood to provide a shelter. It brought Bilva leaves and flowers for God. It left its sheath also for the lord to wear. The elephant brought water from the river Swarnamukhi to perform abhishekam to the lord who was in the form of the Siva Lingam. The creatures did all of this knowingly, with devotion. That is why God was pleased. God blessed them with Liberation. Now as humans, should we not make serious efforts to gain Liberation?
Birds fly and land on earth. Cow gives milk. It should not be construed that other creatures are inferior to humans. They all also get liberation. All beings have their own value. But the human birth is very special. It must be properly used.
At Rama’s feet one must surrender, says Tulasidas. One must pray for true devotion. Until one surrender with devotion to God, one cannot get liberation. One will be stuck in delusion.
Verse 14:
jatilo mundee lunchhitakesah
kaashaayaambara bahukritaveshah
pasyannapi cha na pasyati moodho
hyudaranimittam bahukritaveshah
This is composed by Trotakacharya. He had no name given by Guru. There is a rhythmic pattern, a poetic meter named after him. He told his Guru that the lessons were very tough to understand. One sentence runs for six pages in Tarka Shastra, Logic. He requested for some other service to perform for Guru rather than learn the very tough lessons. Guru told him to choose his own service. Trotakacharya took upon himself to wash the clothes of Guru, since Guru had been washing his own clothes. His clothes don’t get that dirty anyway. He doesn’t play any sports. Trotakacharya also washed the clothes of some other disciples. This story is a legend that is passed on verbally. It is not written anywhere.
Some people are always concerned about others. They taunted that this dull student was not attending classes. He felt that he must be stupid that he is not able to understand the lessons. He was holding the wet, washed clothes on his head reverentially while taking them to hang to dry. One day, he felt, maybe he should also listen to the lessons. Although he squeezed the clothes by hand, the clothes dripped drops of water on his nose. That sound made a rhythm and spontaneously he composed poetry in that meter. As he washed clothes, he would listen from a distance to the lessons taught by Sri Bhagavatpada. All those lessons registered in his memory by Guru’s grace. He could recite all the lessons effortlessly thereafter.
You will see some ascetics who never bathe, and wear their hair in matted locks. Some ascetics shave their head and wear lots of beads. Some are dressed in different strange outfits and drink Bhang. Siva drank poison. They do not drink that, but drink other intoxicating drinks, claiming that Siva consumed those. Trotakacharya was pained to see all these practices of so-called ascetics.
These days, in Hyderabad, drug use has become rampant. Elders at home must give counseling to the youngsters. Give them time and talk to them. Otherwise the children will become addicts and their lives will be destroyed. Not college students alone, even school students are becoming addicted to drug use. So many outsiders come and corrupt our children. It is frightening. We must be watchful and cautious. The drug users are in their own world, gaping mindlessly into air.
Just wearing saffron robes attracts reverence in our country by tradition. Trotakacharya warns us not to get misled. Many wear all those garbs only to earn a livelihood and are not genuine holy people.
Verse: Angam galitam
Hastamalakacharya has composed this. We will continue tomorrow.
Om shantisshantisshantihi.
Jaya Guru Datta
Sri Guru Datta