Bhaj Govindam Verse 8
Bhaj Govindam
In the first 6 verses Guru Shri Shankaracharya has been talking about the disease we are all infested with and the symptoms. In the 7th verse he told us the cause and in this very verse (verse 8) he will start helping us with the remedy or the solution to our illness - Delusion.
No guru leaves us lurking in the dark, if they take away the world from us, or ruthlessly negate the path we are on, they would not leave a hollow spot, a solution, a remedy is always offered. The path to attain the eternal truth is being shown this verse onward.
Verse 8
का ते कान्ता कस्ते पुत्रः
संसारोஉयमतीव विचित्रः ।
कस्य त्वं वा कुत आयातः
तत्वं चिन्तय तदिह भ्रातः ॥
The eight verse said to me - Shruti says🌷
Who is your wife?
Who is your Child?
This world is mysterious/bizzare/wierd.
Who am I?
Where have I come from?
Think on the tatva (elements), think from this perspective alone, ask these questions to yourself, Oh my dear brother.
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Here, the guru has soften his tone, in the first 7 verses he scraped our deep rooted delusion with a knife. Now he is applying ‘Malham - ointment’ and his words are becoming more tender.
‘Remember - Only an empty vessel can be filled.’
How beautifully Guru Shankaracharyaji, has zeroed down and pointed out the two most difficult relations which really hold us down to this mundane existence;
- Our spouse
- Our children
Yes, one can give up the material attachments to possessions and things that one owns. One is also able to let go of other relations, even that of mother, father, brother, sister, friends and so on, based on their utility in our lives.
However, the bond with our own children is very difficult to break and so is the bond with a loving spouse. The attachment towards these is often taken to be a virtue and mistaken for love.
There are two opposites in all of Raag(attachment) and Dwesh (Hatred). Dwesh is repulsive and it has to be eliminated, consciously one works on getting rid of Hatred. However, Raag, is considered to be good, so no one works on eliminating it. As it lives in us disguised as love.
So, in this verse, Guru Shankaracharya is going to teach us how. He tells us, ask yourself these prominent questions
Who is your wife?
Who is your Child?
Who am I?
Where have I come from?
These are very deep questions and if we dwell on these, the bizarre, mysterious, weird nature of this world will dance naked in front of us. King Chitraketu and Guru Shivanandaji will help enlighten us.
King Chiraketu
There once was a king called Chitraketu, he was childless and so miserable, and begged the sage to give him a boon, so that he could have a child. The sage deteared the King, however the king refused to heed.
The child was born, however the joy was short lived, as the other queens out of jealousy poisoned the child. With the child dead the king was broken and went into moarning, he begged the sage to breath life into the dead body of his child. The sage again obliged.
The soul returned to the body of the dead child, sat up and looked around confused. The king rushed and said my child you are back, I am your father.
To this the, child answered, which father, from which birth, from which life. I have travelled to various wombs, I have had various parents from various species. As I travel I forget, I don’t remember you, let me go on with my journey
The child continued, the relation I have shared with you over the births also must have been varied. In some I must have been your father, in others you mother or a friend, brother, wife or enemy. I could have even been a dog at your door or an ant you killed. What I will be to you tomorrow is also no defined. I don’t know you, let me go on with my journey.
The child went aways on his journey, we all and also our children are on their own individual journey, they come through us they are not ours.
What the child said, freed the king from his grief and also delusion, Maya. He let the child go and never mourned again. Why, mourn for something which was never mine, is not mine and will be never mine.
Just like that soul went aways on it’s own journey, we all and also our children are on their own individual journey, they come through us they are not ours.
Our wife today could have been our mother, sister or pet or pest in the house, just like a child could have been anything or anybody.
Saab Maya hai
Swami Shivanandaji
Swamiji puts it very bluntly, children he says are no better than our excreta. When we eat our digestive system throws out urine and stool. Do we hold those so dearly? No we don’t.
In the same way the outcome of the intimate act between a man and woman are children. They are just something the body throws out. Why do we hold them so dearly?
It is a bit harsh and ruthless, yet thought provoking. When we don’t hold on to any other things that are excreted from our body from perspiration to stool, then why is the child so dear.
From the element or Tatva perspective it is nothing but mud - The wife is mud, the child is mud and so are we. This body that we are attached to is nothing mud and mud it will become.
As Jada Bharat said to the king, ‘This body of mud, walk on the mud and carries your palanki which is mud on which you sit and you are mud.’
What differentiates all the other kinds of excretions from this excretion which we call children?
Baki Saab Maya hai
If the above is the truth and empowered with that knowledge ask again Guru Shankracharyaji says;
Who is your wife?
Who is your Child?
Who am I?
Where have I come from?
Where have we come from?
Keep asking, keep asking - This body that I am attached to is not my wife, not my child and not me.
Who are we?
Where have we come from?
Keep musing and ponder and hold on to these questions.
We should not mistake the Guru, he is not asking us to disown our spouse and children or not tend to their needs.
He is just asking us to change our outlook. He wants us to awaken to the truth.
Do not get scared, the truth will not take us aways form our responsibilities. Attachment clouds our mind and blinds us, the truth enlighten us.
Truth will take us away from the attachment to the body and take us towards eternal pure love for our soul.
When this eternal divinity(I) sees that eternal divinity(spouse and children), only divinity prevails.
Only Divinity prevails.
Hari Om🙏
