Bhaja Govindham 5
Verse 12
dinayaminyau
sayam pratah sisiravasantau punarayatah |
kalah kridati gacchatyayuh
tadapi na muncatyasavayuh || 12 ||
Day and night, dawn and
dusk, spring and winter, come and go again and again; Time plays and life goes
in vain; Yet the fire of desire doesn’t quench.
Day and night, dawn and
dusk, winter and spring come and depart again and again. The wheel of Time thus keeps rotating and
one’s lifetime also flies. In spite of
advancing in age, one does not make an effort to get out of the clutches of
samsara. The mind makes one believe
that all objects of the world that glitter with an illusory beauty can give happiness, but
time proves otherwise. Life steadily ebbs away, but the desires do not abate, they only grow fuelled
by sense gratifications. As age advances
one becomes infirm with a disease-ridden body but still desires and thirst for
sense-enjoyments still haunt one and he fails to see that when the worldly
objects give one a pinch of pleasure, it is also accompanied by a pound of pain.
One does not abandon the desire for the things of the world even at that age
and stage and turn spiritual looking inward, laments Sri Sankara in this verse. One’s thirst for worldly pleasure even in the
face of odds and hazards is typified in a story. A man is chased by
a tiger in the forest. He falls into a well. As he falls he grasps a protruding
creeper midway down the well. As he looks down he sees snakes in the water. As
he looks up he sees the tiger peering at him threateningly. At that time he
hears a rat gnawing at the creeper. When
he is thus perilously balanced honey drips on his face from a honeycomb on the
tree overhanging the well. The man
forgetting all his perils sticks out his tongue to catch the honey and lick it.
One’s future in worldly life is unpredictable, uncontrollable and hence
unstable. Looking for permanent security
from an unstable setup is delusion. Giving up this delusion, one should seek
security from Lord’s Grace turning one’s attention away from sensual pleasures.
Verse 13
kate kanta
dhana gatacinta vatula kim tava nasti niyanta |
trijagati
sajjanasangatiraika bhavati bhavarnavatarane nauka || 13 ||
Oh fool! Who is your
wife ? Why are you so worried about wealth ? Do you think you have nobody above
to guide you ? In all the three worlds, satsang is the only thing which acts
as the boat to cross the samsara (the worldly life of birth and death).
Sri
Sankara addresses in this verse the deep-seated need felt in the human psyche
for some form of support. Chiefly one looks for this support in the outer
world, in spouse or in wealth. He
forgets that there is a higher Power that is taking care of everything in
creation and one should just surrender all one’s concerns and anxieties to Him.
One should turn to the divine source of
all creation for strength and support letting go the dependence on wife and
wealth as Lord knows one’s needs even more than one does and would make the
best support that will meet all one’s needs. The second line of this
verse provides a mundane alternative to “wife and wealth” as a support for
one’s life. It is Sajjana sangatii i.e.satsangh, the company of good and holy
people, who are traveling along the spiritual path to God. Even in the three worlds of Bhuloka,
Bhuvarloka, Suvarloka there is no other better way declares Sri Sankara. Swami Vivekananda says “The only remedy for
bad habits is counter habits; all the bad habits that have left their
impressions are to be controlled by good habits” Through satsangh one imbibes
good values and good habits. Sri Sankara compares
satsangh to the boat that helps one to cross the ocean of samsara as good
company has the strong rudder of sound values that can take one safely across
the waters of life with its whirlpools of worldly desires to the other shore of
Liberation unlike bad company which is like a rudderless boat that drifts and
drowns.
Verse
14
jatilo
mundi lunchitakesah kasayambarabahukrtavesah |
pasyannapi
cana pasyati mudho udaranimittam bahukrtavesah || 14 II
One is with knotted
hair, another with shaven head; there are others with plucked hair and wearing
saffron cloth; The fools variously disguised in this manner “see”, but in reality, don’t
“see”; All this is just a pretension for easy livelihood.
With the previous verse the Dwadasa
Manjarika stotram, the first twelve verses composed by Sri Sankara comes to
an end. From this verse starts Chaturdasa
Manjarika Stotram, the next fourteen verses composed by his sishyas. Each verse is composed by a different
sishya. We do not know all their names
but for the few where names are known an attempt is made to give them. For instance this verse is the composition of
Sri Padmapadacharya, whom and other disciples I shall refer by the generic name
of acharya.
In the previous sloka, Sri
Sankara stated that ‘Satsang’, the company of the good and holy alone will help
us out of the worldly bondage. And now acharya continuing with that theme
strikes a note of warning. Beware! There
are phoney ones in the holy garb who had taken up this dress for the respect it
commands among people and the free food for which it serves as a good passport.
Their claims to spirituality is spurious.
An important point this verse makes is regarding the insincerity and hypocrisy
of these fake sadhus who make use of all external symbols like saffron dress,
shaved head, knotted hair etc., to con gullible people and this verse is not an
attack on the symbols themselves. The ploy to use an ascetic’s guise to dupe
the innocent people was there even at Ramayana time, we can see from the act of
Ravana using the guise of an ascetic to kidnap the unsuspecting Sita devi. Acharya calls these false sadhus, fools for
they pretend to see the Truth but in reality they do not and they try not as
well. When one seeks satsang for
spiritual upliftment they must be wary of such people who have really not shed
their egoism and attachments and are still in the grip of thoughts of ‘I, me
and myself’.
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