Bhaja Govindam - 3. Sri Swami Chidananda

 

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Wednesday, October 07, 2020. 7:25. AM.

Post - 3.

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1.

Spontaneous Poetry: The origin of all the wisdom teachings was spontaneous, unrehearsed; there was no pre-meditation. Sri Shankaracharya had composed this great scripture, Bhaja Govindam, on the spur of the moment without any intention of composing something, not being aware that such a thing will come out of him.

2.

The sage Valmiki, before whom Sanskrit poetry did not exist, is known as the adi-kavi, the first poet. By a chance incident, when he was going to take a bath in the river, he saw a hunter aiming at two lovemaking birds. He was so struck, ‘Oh, this man is going to kill this loving pair!’ And spontaneously the words came out: "Ma nishad ... Don’t, O hunter! . . ." So out of that heinous incident, out of the urgency to do something to prevent that dire occurrence, poetry came out spontaneously from the heart of sage Valmiki. Even so, poetry flowed spontaneously from Shankaracharya when he saw one student very diligently trying to learn by heart some grammar rule: "Dukrin karane, Dukrin karane, Dukrin karane."

3.

In those days, schools, which were called pathshalas, were held in open. Shankaracharya was coming back after a bath in the holy Ganga in Varanasi. He heard this, and turned around. There was a scholar completely absorbed in getting by heart this grammar rule. Something struck Sankaracharya. He thought : 

"What is the sense if this man will stretch his brain for the whole life to remember the grammar rules? Will this help him? 

One day death will come and say, Come on!": Jatasya hi dhruvo mrityuh [Certain is death for the born. Gita 2.27] 

One day all of us have to go, we are only passers by here, we are merely travellers; this is not our ultimate abode.

4.

Just as from the Adi-Kavi (the first poet) Valmiki spontaneous poetry had come out suddenly, unexpectedly, due to sudden self-expression, and it became the first poetic work in Sanskrit literature; 

even so, passing by the streets of Kashi, seeing a student intently trying to get by heart some grammar sutras, this wonderful poem Bhaja Govindam came out from the mouth of Sankaracharya spontaneously.

5.

Sankaracharya must have been moving about the streets of Varanasi, going to the gnat and taking bath, and going to Sri Vishvanath Mandir, Annapurna Mandir and all that so many times. Varanasi is full of little Sanskrit schools, pathshalas and toles. So, he might have noticed futile exercise in grammatical things so many times. But on this particular day, to our good fortune and to the good fortune of the world, somehow his attention was directed to this absurdity. Spontaneously, on the spur of the moment, the Bhaja Govindam Stotram flowed from his mouth. Perhaps he might have thought, ‘What this man is going to get after all? May be, he will become a pundit or a scholar. May be, he will set up a little school like this and it may become his source of income and profession. He may become a karmakandi and a purohit and may perform marriage ceremonies, yajnopavit samskaras, after death samskaras and all such religious rites.

To be continued ...

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