Bhaja Govindam - Sloka 8

Hari Aum

Prostrations to my Guru. Prostrations to All.

SLOKA 8:

“Kaathae kaantha kasthae putraha
Samsaaroyamatheeva vichithraha
Kasyathvam kaha kutha aayathaha
Tatvam chinthaya thadheeha Bhraathaha”

Word Meaning:
Kaha: who
Thae: is
Kaantha: wife
Kaha: who
Thae: is
Putraha: son
Samsaaraha ayam: this samsaara
Atheeva: supremely
Vichithraha: wonderful
Kasyathvam: of whom are you?
Kaha (tvam): who are you?
Kutha aayathaha: from where did you come?
Tat: that
Tvam: you
Chinthaya: think
Thadha iha: that here and now
Bhraathaha: O brother

“Who is wife? Who is son? This samsaara is supremely wonderful. Of whom are you? Who are you? From where are you? O brother, that you think here now”

We know it is pretty normal that a person works for the welfare of his family, for his parents, his wife and children. But people consider these attachments with the close relatives to be end or the goal of life. They forget the real goal of life which is realization of ones own nature of Self. They get so much attached to their family members that they think that it will be tough to live without any of the family members. With such attachment on the family members, he goes on performing action. So here Shankara says, enquire who your wife is and who is your son?

Husband and wife are the life partners of each other. They may not have born together and also they may not die together. Death hardly announces who it is going to take first. It is only for temporary period that they are enjoying the company of one another and hence one cannot do anything on the death of the other. Also the wife was, previously before marriage, a daughter to her father and if her husband dies before her then she becomes a widow. Thus we can see that the relation of wife is only temporary. Similar is the case with son also, the child becomes the son only after his birth, but before that he is in the womb of mother as foetus. Whether it is father or the son, the first cause of their birth as child is only earth. Thus we find, we all are born from the earth but the delusion is so powerful that one product of earth gets attached to the other. The relations of husband, wife, son etc are not permanent and exist only temporarily.

Thus Shankara here says to enquire “who we are? From where did we come? Of whom we are?”, so that we understand clearly that relations and bondages are only seemingly existent now and are not permanent. Shankara here tells to enquire it ‘here and now’ which clearly shows how important it is to know it clearly. The delusion is so powerful that once a person is into delusion it will be tough to come out of it. To overcome the delusion, we need the grace of the Guru and hence Shankara says worship Govinda, worship Govinda.

Prostrations to all

Hari Aum

Thanks,
Rajesh