Seek Govinda. Seek Govinda. Seek Govinda. Sri Adi Sankaracharya repeats this refrain three times in his wonderful poetry called Moha Mudgara—popularly known as Bhaja Govindam.
Moha means delusion and Mudgara means hammer. Every verse is a sharp strike with a hammer upon all our wrong ideas and imaginations.
The second verse begins with one reason after another on why we should serve Govinda—the master to whom the mind that follows the sense organs into the grazing pastures of the world returns. The reasons are numerous and so obvious yet unknown to us that the Acharya reminds again and again.
Birth keeps coming again and again. Death too keeps coming after every birth. Following death, we come back to lie down in some maternal womb, human, animal or reptile. This is called samsara or change. One event after another, one object after another, one thought after another, one situation after another, one feeling after another, one pain after another, one suffering after another, one joy after another, one loss after another… The change is so tiresome like the waves of the ocean.
It is very difficult to cross. O enemy of the Rakshasa called Mura, please shower your grace and blessings on me and lead me across the other shore of change.
Whenever a deity is being invoked, the prayer is to the complete state of mind called existence which knows no restlessness, movement and change. Whenever we refer to something as God or bhagavan, we are actually reaching out to that quality within us which is pure, unadulterated by desires and changeless goodness that alone can withstand the tides of change.
Why should I chant the name of Govinda? Why should I serve Govinda? Why should I remember Govinda, the eternal consciousness which is the very substratum of my existence? This life is so fragile and the span is short like a drop. This is indeed an amazing truth. We may live for 100 years, but what is 100 in a timeline of infinity? So, in these precious moments when I experience life, with the help of life, let me serve that life, which lives in me.
When there is life, make the most of it by striving to know the only truth to be known.
That knowing happens by praising. What is the connection between praising something and knowing it?
When I praise something, my mind is lifted to that object or quality I praise.
It covers it completely and elevates itself in the process. So adoration, eulogy and praise have a great role to play in our effort to uplift ourselves.
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