Wake Up Fool!

Contemplating Adi Shankaracharya’s Bhaja Govindam, verse 1

By Sadhvi Aparna Amy Lewis

bhaja govindaṃ bhaja govindaṃ

govindaṃ bhaja mūḍhamate .

samprāpte sannihite kāle

nahi nahi rakṣati ḍukṛṅkaraṇe

Once upon a time, a long time ago, or maybe yesterday… A wise teacher is traveling with his students, and he comes across an aged man studying the nitty gritty complexities of Sanskrit grammar.  Seeing this man, in his final twilight years, studiously applying himself to learning minutiae, he calls out “Worship Govinda, worship Govinda, worship Govinda, Oh fool!  Rules of grammar will not save you at the time of your death.”  The first verse of Adi Shankaracharya’s text the Bhaja Govindam (Remember God) begins with this powerful and provocative condemnation, followed with another 30 verses elucidating what WILL save him at the time of death.  This is the context of the Advaita Vedanta text and hymn “Bhaja Govindam”. 

Another name for the Bhaja Govindam is “Moha Mudgara” which translates to the ‘hammer on delusions’. Written well over a millennium ago, this first verse comes in hot - hammering us readers with the same force that it must have landed when first uttered. Immediately it raises questions.  Why are we fools, who is this person scolding us, and why should we listen?  Why is worshipping Govinda (Ishwara, Divine Cosmic Intelligence) more important than learning a specialized language or skill, especially as we come closer to death? What can this mean for us today?

Why would an elderly man be studying sanskrit grammar in the first place?  It's interesting that this verse seems to be scolding the reader for doing something ethical and even desirable. After all, improving one’s knowledge base seems universally approved, and societies usually admire learned scholars. I imagine the ego satisfaction of achieving specialized knowledge, with its concurrent bragging rights, was the same in the 8th century as it is today. I suspect I know why this old man is studying grammar - fear and procrastination disguised as piety and hard work.  He’s told himself that before he can get to the ‘real thing’ (i.e. studying the Vedas, learning about god, and Self realizing), he has to become an expert on the back-end. The delusion that acquiring knowledge alone will grant us enlightenment. The elderly gentleman isn’t engaging in unseemly or unethical pursuits, he’s not hurting anyone else, and he’s not doing anything wrong or bad.  He’s just….wasting a very rare opportunity. 

Here Adi Shankaracharya interjects brutally to the ego, but lovingly to the soul - You’re a fool.  You are deluded.  You aren’t paying attention to what is real.  You are wasting your life on foolish pursuits thinking they’re important, seeking validation from society and the people around you, and hoping that this will give you meaning. Grasping at the tools of the knowledge while losing sight of the whole point of the process. Stop it!  Worship God.  Focus your attention on that cosmic intelligence that imbues every living being with light and life.  Wake Up!  Don’t waste this precious opportunity. 

Can you imagine minding your own business, feeling good about keeping your mind active and preparing, to get ready, to get serious, to start studying the most superb wisdom. You feel like you’re ‘doing it’, and all your neighbors agree, you’re really special!  Then along comes a much younger teacher and his students, all of whom are telling you to ‘snap out of it’!  Would you hear?  Would you listen?  When Truth comes your way, will you be able to receive it?  If the moment of death comes today, what will ‘save you’?  The physical body dies, but do you know that this life that we find so absorbing, is not absolute reality?

As I sit with this verse, I contemplate on the importance of a teacher to help us get past the inner blocks we cannot yet see.  It is said that Vedic spiritual texts first command us, then protect us, and finally enlighten us. This is a reminder that our spiritual Self realization begins with settling down our ego so that we can learn from a wise teacher. How do we get past our habituated thoughts, our small ego defending itself to stick to its narrow focus and limited beliefs, so sure of its own superiority?  We have to be willing to listen when true wisdom comes, and follow the enlightened command.  

The command here is to wake up!  Are you wasting your brief time here on Earth?  A physical lifetime is limited, with every breath we come closer to our final, and every day may be our last.  We have no control over the moment of death, no power to guarantee our last activity and last thought.  We could be studying grammar, or arguing with a bot on the internet, and find ourselves shedding this body and greeting Death.  We only know that we have a choice right now, of where to put our attention.  If our first attention is devotion to the sacred divine consciousness that imbues all of existence, we won’t get distracted by the constantly changing circumstances of our particular small single lifetime. 

How many people in your life will give you the real scoop?  How many people in your life will say the thing you don’t want to hear but need to hear, in order to choose a radically different path to Self?  It's so rare to have a soul kind enough to crack through our projections to see our inner yearning for wholeness, and shake us awake. This is a gift beyond measure. If you find yourself pursuing the same old path, (however ethical and worthy by society’s standards), and still not coming closer to enlightenment, Bhaja Govindam is the loving slap upside the head by the worthy teacher. 

Today itself we can listen to the words of Adi Shankaracharya and focus on a new path. We can stop being fools!  Set aside those distracting pursuits that feed the ego (however benignly), and starve the soul.   Begin with Bhakti, a heartfelt devotion to cosmic intelligence, and then focus on acquiring the knowledge of Self, Jnanam.  Then we can know the absolute reality that is divine cosmic intelligence, Ishwara, Govindam, God, Atman, Self. 

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Acharya Shunya is teaching a series of Satsanga on Adi Shankaracharya’s 31-verse composition, the Bhaja Govindam. View the recordings playlist here, including Community discussions led by Sadhvi Aparna. 

Sadhvi Aparna will begin leading bi-monthly live contemplation circles on these teachings starting in February 2025. 

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