A Comprehensive Commentary
In Contemporary English
with verse in English, word meaning, sentence meaning, verse meaning, commentary and quotes from great saints.
Welcome to the readers!
This is a comprehensive commentary to the great poem popularly called 'Bhaja Govindam' composed by Shri Adi Sankaracharya about 1000 years ago. The original text is in Sanskrit. It is in the form of verses which is easily set to music. The author attempts here to give a simple and precise explanation, stanza by stanza. I hope this will encourage readers to study the work in greater detail and also to attempt to study other works of the great Master Shri Sankara.
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Sri Sankaracharya
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(1906 -1985) who lived in the Sri Ramakrishna Niranjan Ashrama at Ottappalam, was another living example of pure spiritual life. Click on the image to go to my Site on his Life and Teachings
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The Holy Trinity
The example set by the Holy lives of Sri Ramakrishna, Sri Sarada Devi and Swami Vivekananda is a glorious commentary on the lofty and everlasting principles that are enshrined in the Bhaja Govindam. For this reason, I have used ample number of quotes from these great personalities in my Commentary to explain the true meaning of the slokas further.
Swami Vivekananda
(1863 - 1902)
Sri Ramakrishna
(1836 - 1886)
Holy Mother Sri Sarada Devi
(1853 - 1920)
Queen of Karnatic music!
It was the voice of the legendary
M S Subbulakshmi that popularized the Bhaja Govindam. The 1960's Long Play (LP) records of MS which contained this song also was a success beyond compare. Her devotional songs conquered the hearts of myriads of devotees when it reached their ears through temple loud speakers.
Let us listen to what the great scholar Rajaji said about the Bhaja Govindam.....
C. Rajagopalachari (Rajaji) with Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru (Left side) and Sardar Vallabh bhai Patel (Right side)
RAJAJI’S INTRODUCTION
"Adi Sankaracharya wrote a number of Vedantic works for imparting knowledge of the Self and the Universal Spirit. He also composed a number of hymns to foster Bhakti in the hearts of men. One of these hymns is the famous Bhajagovindam. The way of devotion is not different from the way of knowledge or Jnana. When intelligence matures and lodges securely in the mind, it becomes wisdom. When wisdom is integrated with life, and issues out in action, it becomes Bhakti. Knowledge, when it becomes fully mature, is Bhakti. If it does not get transformed into Bhakti, such knowledge is useless tinsel. To believe that Jnana and Bhakti, knowledge and devotion, are different from each other, is ignorance.
If Shri Adi Sankara himself who drank the ocean of Jnana as easily as one picks water from the palm of one’s hand, sang in his later years hymns to develop devotion, it is enough to show that Jnana and Bhakti are one and the same. Sri Sankara has packed into the Bhajagovindam song the substance of all Vedanta, and set the oneness of Jnana and Bhakti to melodious music."
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The author Suresh Shenoy thanks Wix.com who have kindly provided this site free of cost.
Revision Notes: The original site was created in 2002. Due to the closing of Geocities in 2009, the site was lost. More than 900 visitors were there and the Guest Book is also lost. This is a renewed attempt to popularize the great work of Sri Sankara.