2. Moodamate !

Our dharma is Arsha dharma. ‘Rishe idam arsham’ a dharma given by rishis is arsha dharma. Are the rishis wise men ? A wise man is only worldly wise. Rishis are not merely worldly wise. ‘Rishati janati itirishihi - one who knows is a rushi. Can we be termed rishis since we know many things ? No! ‘To know’ here means ‘to know what is to be known.’ So, in addition to the materialistic knowledge one who has acquired the true knowledge of Brahman is said to be a rishi.

Most of the cultures in the world are framed by wise people and are followed by wise people! Whereas our culture is framed by rishis. So it challenges the intellect of wise people and ultimately wins their applause.

A handsome salary, a closely knit family, a large kith and kin, a number of bosom friends are what one should possess in life-is the general opinion of the wiseacres. This is an underlying current of thought in most of the cultures. Our Arsha Sanskriti too believes in that but unfortunately it is not properly understood by both Indians and foreigners. They have a misconception that the Indian culture doesn’t encourage materialistic progress and social status.

Our culture doesn’t criticize such a progress. In fact our sastras give many tit bits to come up in life materialistically. Taittiriyopanishad lays stress on intellect required for growth in the mundane world through the lines ‘Kusalaanna pramaditavyam ! bhutvai na pramaditavyam.’ Vedanta proclaims that you should not idle your time. You should earn money enough and to spare for the needy!

Man is a social animal. He needs a social life, a family life and physical comforts to lead a comfortable life. Our learned rishis too accepted such a life, but they proclaimed that, it is not the be all and end all of our life. Such a mundane life may give us all comfortable life but it cannot drive out the misery of the soul.

Ignorance - knowledge
There may be any number of reasons outwardly for our suffering in life, but the root cause of it is our ignorance. Here, the ignorance is the ignorance of ourselves ‘Know thyself’ says Vedanta. But we do not know what we are. We do use the word ‘I’ but ‘What am I’? We don’t know the exact meaning. We misinterpret it. As long as we do so, however much we are surrounded by riches, we cannot lead a happy life.

The suffering that arises out of our ignorance can be driven only if we drive out our ignorance. How do we drive out our ignorance? - By getting to know things. ‘Ya Vimuktaye Sa Vidya’ - Whatever liberates you is knowledge. The knowledge that doesn’t provide liberation is sheer information but not true knowledge. That way our education centres are mere information centres. The knowledge of the physical world is ignorance. That’s why our education is taxing our brain instead of liberating it.
A desire for liberation - commitment to Moksha

Every human being longs for freedom from sorrow. One may be an atheist with no thought of God or religion but he too longs for a freedom from suffering. We may come across people who proudly boast about ‘I don’t believe in God’ but do we ever come across one who proudly boasts, ‘I don’t want freedom from sorrow ‘? No! Every individual longs for freedom. If this freedom is converted to liberation of soul, a greater amount of suffering can be relieved. Many people treat desire for liberation commitment to Moksha as synonyms, but in fact, there is a vast difference between the two.
We get this desire for liberation at the threshold of forty. By then we would have faced many upheavals in life and we are tired of this rat race. We long for rest. This desire is like the rest of the desires we have had earlier. A commitment for liberation is different. It comes from maturity of mind. We get this maturity when we look at life from an experienced eye.

This Bhaja Govindam provides us such a maturity. It converts our desire for liberation into commitment for liberation It eases our task.

Liberation through Gnana
Our sorrow, our ties are caused due to our ignorance of ourselves. We require knowledge to come out of it to attain moksha. We cannot attain Moksha, liberation - through actions. We can attain something other than ourselves through our actions. Here we are suffering from the ignorance of ourselves. That can be driven out only by the knowledge of ourselves. Nothing but Gnana can save us! ‘Gnanadevathu kaivalyam’ is the saying. Only Gnana provides liberation. So we don’t require anything else! They are for other benefits.

Should we perform yagnas, yagas, yoga samadhis, meditations, prayers and vratas in such a case? Can’t they provide liberation?
Sankaracharya answered this querry well in his ‘Viveka Chudamani’.
Patantu sastrani yajanthu devaan
kurvantu karmani bhajantu devatha
Aatmaikya bodhena vina vimukthihi
Na sidhyati brahma satantarepi

Patantu sastrani - however much you read sastras, you cannot attain moksha. Some people read Upanishads superfluously. They can neither understand its inner meaning nor make an attempt to do so. They use these Upanishads for karma (actions) instead of attaining knowledge. The same way they use the ‘Sri Rudram’ which can provide moksha for Abhishekham.

Yajantu devaan - Yajanthu means yagnam Kurvanthu’ It means doing many yogas to please Indra and other devatas to attain many boons from them.
Kurvantu Karmani - To put into practice the routine karmas faithfully.
Bhajantu devatha - To pray to the deities like Siva, Vishnu and others.
Even if we follow the above mentioned rituals meticulously, we will not attain moksha. why? Aatmaikya bodhena vina vimukhti na sidhyati brahma satantarepi.
Unless we attain the knowledge of Atma embedded in the words ‘Tat-twam-asi’ we cannot get rid of our suffering. The knowledge of Atma should be understood properly. It means the knowledge ‘that art thou’ - you are Brahma.

Does the statement ‘You are Brahma’ sound odd? You can accept Jeevathma joins Paramathma but you cannot appreciate Jeevatma is Brahma Himself! Try to think logically. We accept that God is omnipotent and infinite. In the ‘sahasranama’ of any God we chant ‘Om Anantayanamaha’.

Anantam means one that doesn’t have an end. One which doesn’t have a beginning doesn’t have an end too. One which has neither beginning nor end is omnipresent. When God is all pervading, how do you stand out separate ? If you argue that you are other than God, it disproves the previous statement that God is Omnipresent ! Isn’t it so ?

Let us see this way now. If God is not all pervading, He becomes confined, confined to some boundaries and time period. It means he becomes visible - Drisyam. Drisyam means nasyam. ‘Yadrisyam tannasyam’ According to that even Paramathma will perish one fine morning! How can one who perishes become Paramathma?

Vedas have proclaimed Paramathma as an imperishable personality, as an incarnation of truth. When you realize that God is infinite it goes without saying. you are also God. The knowledge of the soul is nothing but the realization of this truth.

This knowledge liberates our soul. The other yogas help us to attain ‘punya’ but not Gnana. Brahma satantarepi - Even if hundred Brahmas come and go our fate doesn’t change. One ‘Kalpa’ is one day for Brahma. Such Kalpas put together give him hundred years. Even if such Brahman come and go, we remain the same old stupid people.

Our life purpose is to put an end to our ignorance. Leaving aside the main task, if we do quite a number of things, the purpose is defeated. The same way, leaving aside the acquisition of Gnana, even if we do any number of good deeds, our life purpose is defeated.

Man alone is blessed with mind and intelligence. The animals are not lucky that way. That’s why the saying -’Jantoonam narajanma durlabham.’ It is meaningless to limit our life to sensuous pleasures. To lead in the righteous path, we need a goal.

I know your doubts ! You wonder if you have to give up your domestic life and lead a life of sansyasi in your quest for knowledge.

Your ignorance can be driven away only by acquiring knowledge. There is no point in staying in an ashram if you ignore this aspect. Instead you can remain as a married man and still desire for knowledge.

Now, your next question - when gnana provides moksha, why should we do good deeds? The answer is - we should do good deeds keeping in view the attainment of knowledge.

‘Chitthasya suddaye karma natu vastupalabdaye
Vastu siddir, Vicharena na kinchit karma kotibihi.’

Good deeds on their own cannot directly fetch you gnana, but indeed they are helpful in providing you dedication in providing you a clean chart, in providing you good manners. ‘Yastu siddi vicharena’ - To attain purity of soul, a mere thought will do. It is because ‘soul’ is already there within. All that you require is, you need to know it. The ignorance of it automatically leads to confusion. You don’t have to search for it outside. You keep saying ‘I am here’ ‘I see’ ‘I hear’ ‘I read’. If I list out such ‘I’s it is endless. What does it convey? It means you are acquainted with this, ‘I’. You are acquainted with it means it is here only.

Should we search for something which is very much before us? If it is in proximity with us, but still we don’t know about it, indicates that we do not know its identity. If we probe into the matter why we are ignorant when it is very much before us, we will get a clear cut answer to it.
‘Na kinchit karma kotibihi’ - Even if you do one crore of actions without inquisitiveness, you may be blessed, but you will not acquire gnana. This is Indian philosophy!

Advaitham
The teaching which helps you to know thyself which leads you to moksha can be defined ‘Advaitham’ . Many misinterpret it as philosophy. Advaitham is not one man’s thought or feeling or opinion. It helps us visualise the infinity of God by laying before us the base facts. The modern science sometimes behaves like Advaitam.

The famous scientist Einstein’s philosophy of ‘Quantum Field’ and Isenburg’s ‘Law of Uncertainty’ can be quoted as examples to the above statements. Our ignorance can be driven out only by Advaitam.
Sri Sankaracharya is a blessed soul. He propagated this Advaita philosophy throughout the world. He dealt with the toughest philosophy of Advaithm through his various other books. By doing thus, he enriched our philosophy and also made it simpler. Whoever wants to be committed to the cause of his life is blessed with his poesy! In Sri Sankaracharya’s realm of poetry, ‘Bhaja Govindam’ touches, inspires and blesses the heart of even a common man.

Some Pandits feel that ‘Bhaja Govindam’ is not written by Adi Sankaracharya. But whoever writes this, they will definitely belong to the class of Sri Sankaracharya. So nothing is wrong if we deem it as the spontaneous work of Sri Sankaracharya.
The origin of Bhajagovindam

Once when Sri Sankaracharya was returning from his holy bath in the Ganges, he came across a ripe old man trying to learn by rote grammatical rules. That scene gave rise to varied emotions in the saint. He pitied the ageing man who was still lost in the mundane world; he smiled to himself at his foolish act. A wave of sympathy to save this old man from sinking in ‘samsara dukha sagara’ gave rise to fresh waves of slokas, embedded with gems of knowledge.

The spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings of guruji sankaracharya inspired his disciples to contribute some more to his classic work. The total came up to 31 slokas. This compilation is called ‘Moha Mudgaram’!
‘Moha Mudgaram’ means one which roots out ‘Moha’. Moha means Hypnosis. A hypnotist hypnotizes the other person.

Hypnosis means to be carried away by the outward appearance of things. The unreal appears to be real, the truth appears to be falsehood and falsehood appears to be the truth. Vedanta calls it ‘Sobhanadhyaa.’

To root out ‘Moha’ means to root out the assumption or the ignorance of things. We cannot drive out darkness by fighting with it. We have to enkindle a light to drive it out. The same way, we should drive out the darkness of our agnana, through the light of knowledge. So Moha Mudgaram means the light of knowledge.

This ‘Moha Mudgara’ is popularly known as ‘Bhaja Govindam’ since it begins with that word - ‘Bhaja Govindam, Bhaja Govindam’ This is customary with most of our classics. For instance the Upanishad starting with ‘Eesavasyam idam sarvam’ is entitled ‘Eesavasyopanishad’ and the upanishad, starting with ‘Keneshitam patati’ is entitled ‘kenopanishad’.

Every word of ‘Bhaja Govindam’ leads to the path of gnana. This is the greatness of Sri Sankaracharya. I am quite often faced with the question, ‘What’s the difference between a gnani and an agnani?’ There are many differences but I normally I give this simple but lucid difference.
There is no purpose in the conversation of agnani. Even in the words of and, but of a gnani you will find some special importance given to them. Gnanis believe in ‘Silence is Gold’. They don’t waste their time in idle gossip. Every word of theirs drives out the darkness in us from one angle or the other and leads us in the right direction.

We are at the threshold of a beautiful garden filled with saintly words of powers to derive the nectar of their sayings. Unless we are blessed by the Lord Siva, we cannot even dream of such a garden. Hence we are lucky enough to wander freely in the garden of nectar.
In theory I am your teacher and you are my students. But let’s sing together, ‘Bhaja Gvindam’ and derive together the nector of gnana. Let’s prostrate together before the sacred feet of Sri Sankara charya.

Bhaja govindam Bhaja govindam
Govindam bhaja moodamathe !
Samprapte sannihite kale
Nahi Nahi rakshati dukrunkarane ! Bhaja Govindam

‘Oh fool ! pray to Govinda ! serve Govinda ! When you reach your death bed, the grammatical rules like ‘dukrun karane’ cannot save you.’
This is the key sloka. It is repeated after every sloka.
Sri Sankaracharya addressed the old man as a fool. He added the lines dukrunkarene’ – the rules you are reciting cannot save you. Your time is coming to a fag end.
We should understand one aspect very clearly here. Once a student raised this question to me- ‘Sankaracharya may be a great man. He may be the prophet of the great Advaita philosophy! But is it not unmannerly on his part to call somebody ‘you fool’! The other man is more than double his age and he is well vsersed in Sanskrit Grammar. Doesn’t he have common sense?’
This is a very sensible question. It’s true! Our culture teaches us to respect an elderly man however great we may be! When this is our custom, why then
didn’t our preacher, our guru follow it? I know that this is not the doubt of just one student who asked me, but is the doubt of one and all.

We should in the first place dissect the word ‘mudamathe’. Otherwise there is every possibility of our misunderstanding the great sage! So follow me carefully! Try to understand the logical thinking behind it. For instance if somebody lets out his anger against you this way - ‘Something is wrong with your eyesight. Something is blocking your vision (perception)’ you get very angry. In the same place if an ophthalmologist examines your eyes and says ‘something is wrong with your eyesight. You have cataract!’ Do you fight with him? Do you say, ‘I don’t have cataract, you have cataract!’ Definitely not!
If an ignorant man calls you names out of his anger or ignorance that is ‘abuse’. But if a saint, realizing the sorry state of affairs in which you are in, calls you names to raise you out of that situation, it is not abuse but it is a word of blessing to you.
You answer me this question! If a doctor tells you, ‘you have this disease’ you call it a blessing or a curse? If you call it a curse he will never tell you, your problem. Then you can never get it cured. Then you have to suffer a lot sometimes. You may have to give up your very life. So it is definitely a blessing whether you accept it or not!

Now, with this understanding let’s come back to the present situation again. Sri Sankaracharya and the learned man had no past differences between them. Nor were they neighbours! In fact, Sankaracharya was looking at the old man for the first time. Like love at first sight Sankaracharya understood at first sight the problem of the pandit and analyzed his situation.

To be acquainted with Sanskrit is a blessing. To be able to understand the scriptures through the knowledge of Sanskrit is a greater blessing. To be acquainted with Sanskrit grammar is the greatest blessing. But the old man who was ‘ready to end this eventful drama’ of life, was not yet ready to put his knowledge of Sanskrit to its rightful use. The knowledge of life purpose is to be acquired through the knowledge of Sanskrit. Being dissatisfied with the ignorance of the old man’s foolishness, Sankaracharya addressed him ‘oh fool! ‘It is only an eye opener but not a word of curse!

Ignorance - Foolishness
Ignorance is different from Foolishness. According to dictionary, there is not much of a difference between the two but we should not understand sastras with the dictionary meaning. Dictionary meaning is different from that of sastra. So we should approach a guru to understand sastras properly. Unless the guru explains them analytically, we cannot understand them.
Ignorant man is one who doesn’t know anything. A fool is one who has half knowledge. He appears to know something outwardly, but inwardly he is empty. A fool is the opposite of Wiseman. A fool is referred to as ‘Moodadihi’. Between the two - an ignorant man and a foolish man, the ignorant man is a lesser evil. Since he doesn’t know anything, and since he accepts that he doesn’t know anything, atleast he remains humble, whereas a fool is a nuisance. That’s why the maxim ‘Half knowledge is dangerous!’

If we don’t use our life for the acquaintance of knowledge, it is a sheer waste. We are indeed fools! Many of us repeat ‘Brahma Satyam. Jagan midya!’ Do we know the meaning of these words? Do we follow them? ‘Don’t ask that question! It is the fashion of the day! Who cares for its true meaning?’ Pat comes the reply! This is nothing but foolishness and we are all fools.
A fool’s knowledge is akin to Karna’s knowledge of archery. It couldn’t help him in the battlefield, in the right field. Which ever knowledge cannot prove itself in the right opportune, which ever knowledge cannot stand to our support, it is null and void.

Artificial gold may shine better than pure gold but how long? As long as it doesn’t have to face a test! Once the goldsmith examines it, its true colours come out! The same way, our knowledge is helpful on unnecessary matters! When others are facing any trouble in life we rise to the occasion and give them valuable suggestions! We rise to the level of Sankaracharya, Dakshinamurthy or Vivekananda, but when we are faced with any misery, all our knowledge or wisdom vanishes into thin air. We sit and brood over it. The knowledge which is not helpful to us is called useless knowledge.
There is a false notion that the real cause of man’s misery is his agnana. In fact those who entertain such misconceptions are agnanis. Who said man is agnani? Man is definitely aware of many things ! Then what is the cause?

Man is aware of many things no doubt, but they are not useful to him in any way. So he is suffering from not lack of knowledge, but from not having proper knowledge in the right field. Did you ever see the ignorant animals crying over anything? Do they go around for movies, picnics and parties? They are happy in their own way. I wonder if we are ever happy like them.

We have some sort of happiness in our ignorance. As long as we are ignorant we may be bound by things or we may feel misery. Even if we are ignorant, as long as we are not aware of it, we remain happy. Try to understand this point through this example. A man who is ignorant of T.V. mechanism is happy by watching T.V. Once he tries to repair it, his troubles shoot up.

As long as ignorance is hidden inside, there is no misery. The moment it comes to the surface level, we face many problems. The ignorance remains deep inside an animal, but it shoots out in man due to his intelligent brain. The awareness that he is ignorant causes suffering, misery and confusion. We may appear to be well versed in things, but we are in fact ignorant.

Useless knowledge means the unnecessary information. ‘Men who know most are most gloomy!’ is the saying. We should add- ‘Men who know most unnecessary things are most gloomy.’ We have filled our brain with so much of such waste knowledge, that our poor brain has no space left for the actual, useful information.

Once upon a time, a king had three sons. The king was ageing. So he decided to crown one of his sons. Not every Tom, Dick and Harry could be a king. A king needs many talents. In addition to archery, sword fight he also needs a subtle knowledge to differentiate between good and bad. Given any situation he should rise up to the occasion. So the king decided to test his sons regarding the subtleties of their mind.

He sent for all the three sons, gave them 1000 gold coins and said, ‘Look my dear sons! With the 1000 gold coins I have given you, you fill your palace. Don’t add a single coin of your own. I don’t insist on what you buy or where you buy! I will come and check your palaces respectively after four days.
Any son in his middle age thinks that his father is a fool. These princes were no exception to the rule. They wondered how we can even fill a big palatial house, with a purchase of mere 1000 gold coins. He must be mad due to his old age. But all the same they fulfilled his condition in their own way since they had a feeling that their father must be having some hidden purpose behind the foolish act.

The king proceeded on his visit on the fourth day. He went first to his eldest son. My God! What a foul smell! He couldn’t bear it even as he approached the building. You know what he did? He said ‘Respected father! I ransacked my brain to buy something solid for my entire building. Then I hit upon a wonderful plan. Meticulously I went round 15 neighbouring villages, bought the waste from municipalities and filled my palace! How is the idea?’

Father silently proceeded to second son’s house. There was a different sorrowful picture there. Hundred of flies were seen enjoying all over the palace! Some of them greeted the king by sitting all over his body! If the eldest son bought waste, did he buy flies by any chance? Of course not, but what he bought became a brooding place for them. He went round the entire kingdom and purchased flowers in the market. Within a day, they withered giving a stinking smell which attracted the flies and mosquitoes.

When the king entered the third son’s house, the king was surprised at the scene there. His palace was brilliantly illuminated. The father asked, ‘When your brothers filled their palaces with something, useful or not useful, why haven’t you filled it up with anything?’

The son smiled and answered! ‘Yes father, I have tried to fill it up with something, but I felt that something should be useful. So I bought oil, lamps, wicks and match box with the money you have given. I illuminated my palace with these. The king realized that his son filled his palace with lights. His action was symbolic of the light of knowledge he had. The father was delighted at his action and made him his successor.

God blessed us with thousand rupees in the form of our life span and directed us to fulfill our life purpose. Some people are filling their life with material comforts like palatial house, gold car etc. This life style pollutes this life with Kama, Krodha, Lobha etc the six evils. They cannot be happy and they cannot make others happy.

The second category of people uses their brain only to a little extent. They maintain good inter personal relationships with their kith and kin. The flowers give a fragrant smell as long as they shine, but the minute they wither away, their fragrance is gone. These relationships are no better. The minute some misunderstanding crops up, they too wither away and their warmth is gone. Only a handful of people use their intelligence to acquire knowledge and to fill their lives with the light of knowledge. Such people drive out the darkness of ignorance in others.

The house that is filled with waste and dirt is not empty whereas the house that is filled with light is also empty! As long as you think only material comforts or social obligations are prime matters, you don’t have any comfort or any scope for proper relationships. Anyone can develop relationship with a gnani. Since a person gets freedom with a gnani, every one is keen on maintaining relationship with him. Just as people are attracted, so are material comforts allured to them!

The fulfillment of our life purpose is directly proportionate to the way we fill it. Filling part is undoubtedly fulfilled by anyone, but how is the question. You can fill it with waste and spoil your life. You can convert it into gnana jyothi with your intelligence and can become enlightened. Instead of lighting up gnana jyothi, throwing away thousand rupees on waste is sheer foolishness. Whoever does it is a big fool! No doubt about it.

Once I invited somebody to satsang. He duly replied, ‘No, thanks I am very happy with my wife and children. I find no need for such satsangs’. You mean to say all those who participate in satsangs are unhappy with their family and are brooding souls!

The family, the society, each one of these have their own priorities but they also have their own limitations. They are not the be all and end all of everything. It means we are ignorant of something and we are only vaguely aware of some other things. O.K. We are not well versed in material life but are we clear in our spiritual life? No (The knowledge of the soul alone can liberate our soul but there is no clarity there also). We go round temples, go on pilgrimages, attend many satsangs but we have no clear picture.

Somebody said, ‘Going to Vaikhuntam is mukti.’ If you ask my sincere opinion, I tell you It is better to sit here instead going to Vaikhuntam.’ If you are here atleast you have bhakti on God, but if you go there you lose even that. Do I sound odd? Don’t get angry, try to understand me. Listen to me totally!
The strangest thing in life is the mood of our mind. What appears to be of great interest to us loses its value after sometime. We all go to Tirumala to have Lord Venkateswara’s Darsan. The volunteers there drive us out and we curse them for their ruthlessness, but that only prompts us to have His darshan once again. Imagine we are allowed to stand in the presence of God for a longer time. We see Him at the most for half an hour and then start looking around us. We lose the interest of going again to Tirumala. This is the limitation of our mind and thought!

Now let’s imagine we went to Vaikhuntam being blessed by our prayer or meditation. Oh! From the earth we are transported to Heaven. There our Lord is in his ‘Yoganidra’ on Adiseshu. The attenders of Swami advise us to have His Darshan to our heart’s content. Yes such a sight is a feast to our eyes. We stare at him being thrilled, but how long? An hour, two hours, at the most one whole day. After that? We get bored. We start looking around. It is because we are still in our physical body. We are still different from Paramathma. So we still differentiate that I am Jeevathma, He is Paramathma. Since we are in our physical body, we continue to retain our foolish thoughts which rose out of our ignorance.

We get a series of thoughts like, ‘We saw God from the front! How does he look behind? When does he open his eyes?’ We feel like seeing him from back or we feel like doing pradakshinas but let us imagine God’s attenders didn’t allow us to do so. We get disappointed. Disappointment, sorrow, jealousy, all these are still accompanying us.

Since we don’t feel hungry or thirsty we don’t have anything else to do there. Bore..bore.. bore... finally, one fine morning, Lord Vishnu opens his eyes and showering His blessings on us, asks us lovingly, ‘Oh my son ! What do you want? Then we ask ‘Swami! I am terribly bored here. Why don’t you provide me some old newspapers, weeklies etc for time pass?’ Then God answers ‘My dear, you should have read those papers there on earth itself. In fact you should have studied and digested Geetha and Upanishads there itself!’

Did you understand the farce of our liberation - closeness to God with our physical body and its earthly feelings? Please don’t misunderstand my intentions. What benefits do I get by criticizing you? It is neither my nature nor my job to criticize people. You try to analyze the situation.
Why are we facing this sorrow? Is it not because we are different from and away from God? Even if we reach Vaikhuntam how do we get rid of our sorrow if we are different from Him? It cannot be a unified Mukti. You know why I told you all this? When you enter the path of spirituality but you are still entangled in such practices, it is not a useful gnana. Its purpose is not fulfilled. Of course it is one step better than being lost in earthly pleasures.

Chanting the prayer develops concentration. It is good no doubt to pray, but to assume that you will attain liberation through prayer alone, is foolishness. A bridge is provided across a river to enable you to cross it, but not to build houses there and to live in them! The same way through prayer, meditation, bhajans, songs, we should ultimately, attain the purposeful gnana- ‘Sarvam Vishnumayam Jagath!’ This purposeful gnana liberates our soul.

‘Sarvam Vishnumayam’ means even we are a part of the total entity ! Our ignorance makes us seek our single entity, but God is Omnipotent. ‘Sarvam Vishnumayam’-This teaching liberates us from our limited knowledge.

Some people proclaim we attend satsang, we do many rituals and sadhanas, so we are not fools. But whatever they do, if it doesn’t give them a clear perception or knowledge of moksha., it is foolishness. However great he may be, he is a fool.

Guru Sankaracharya is clarifying this point. He is indirectly aiming at a knowledge which helps in fulfilling his life purpose. Hence his word ‘Moodamathe’ is not at all a word of abuse. He is highlighting a point.

‘Samprapte Sinnihite kale’ your time is approaching. Instead of acquiring useful gnana, you are wasting your time on unnecessary aspects. You have become ignorant. Better late than never. Atleast now, come on, wake up, lead your life properly, said Sankaracharya.
What should we do to attain good benefit?

Bhajagovindam, Bhaja Govindam
Govindam, Bhaja Moodhamate’
Pray to Govinda, pray to Govinda oh fool! Pray to Govinda.

If the Hare Krishna society uses the word Bhaja Govindam, Bhaja Govindam, they definitely mean take the drums and do Bhajans. They neither tell you beyond that nor do they allow you to use your brain! But if a gnani like Sankaracharya used the word Bhaja Govindam definitely the word has a deeper meaning than its surface value. So we should analyse the message ‘Bhaja Govindam, Bhaja Govindam,’ properly.

Who is Govinda? What does he mean by pray to Govinda? We should think in these terms, we will try to probe into these words of the first sloka in the ensuing chapters.
Bhaja Govindam, Bhaja Govindam, Govindam Bhaja Moodamathe.