Hari
OM
Application - that is what 'Workings-days' are about!
The text under study is BHAJA GOVINDAM, song of despair of time-wasting, by Sri Adi Shankaraachaarya.
Having
remonstrated about the seeker about following the world of desires, a question
is now posed;
ka
te kaNta xngticNta
Vaatul
ik< tv naiSt inyNta,
iÇjgit
sJjns<gitreka
_avit
_ava[Rvtr[e naEka.13.
Kaa
te kaantaa dhanagatachintaa
Vaatula
kim tava naasti niyantaa;
Trijagati
sajjanasangatireekaa
Bhavati
bhavaarnavatarane naukaa ||13||
O distracted one! Why worry about wife, wealth, etc?
Is there not for you the One who ordains?
In the three worlds it is the association with good
people alone
That can serve as a boat across the sea of change.
To
worry over anything is a fruitless activity. It dissipates our mental energy,
and often our physical power also. In short, worry exhausts. Man fails not
because the world is strong, but because Man becomes weaker relative to the
world.
Our
spouses are more than a mere sensuous
convenience (or ought to be!); to consider them there as only for
sense-gratification is to pull down the institution of home and sanctity of
marriage, parenthood and family. Lasciviousness is definitely being frowned
upon in this stanza! The listener is challenged - 'are you not on a spiritual
path? If so, are you not to be commanded by The Higher?'
The
remedy to raise oneself out of such poor and demeaning habits is to sit in
satsanga; find groups of folk who are on the path and sticking to it. Listen to
them, learn from them, apply what you learn to your own life… in this way it is
possible to break the bindings of the worldly life. This satsanga is not only
helpful in the elementary stages of spiritual seeking, but also for subsequent
stages… there will always be someone who is further along the path than we are and
we can always follow them. Constant association with the wise becomes, then, a
protective armour of the inner-equipment.
At this point in the song, we have heard only from
the one voice as Guru, Adi Shankara; the following verses are thought to have
been added by several of his devotees and take a different, less direct format,
offering examples to ponder and meditate upon.
