"Full many a ray of purest ray serene the dark unfathomed caves of ocean bear:
Full many a flower is born to blush unseen, and waste its sweetness to the desert air."
from "Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard" by Thomas Gray

Monday, November 21, 2011

Bhaja Govindam - 23

कस्त्वं कोऽहं कुत आयातः का मे जननी को मे तातः ।
इति परिभावय सर्वमसारं विश्वं त्यक्त्वा स्वप्नविचारम् ॥२३॥
(भज-गोविन्दं भज-गोविन्दं…)

kastvam koham kuta āyātah kā me jananī ko me tātah |
iti paribhāvaya sarvamasāram viśvam tyaktvā svapnavicāram ||23||
(bhaja-govindam bhaja-govindam…)

क: = who, त्वं = you, अहं = I, कुत = from where, आयातः = did I come, का = who is, मे = my, जननी = mother, तातः = father, इति = thus,  परिभावय = enquire, सर्वं = all, असारं = essenceless, विश्वं = the entire world of experience, त्यक्त्वा = leaving aside, स्वप्नविचारम् = dreamland (born of imagination)  

Literal Translation:
Who are you? Who am I? from where did I come? Who is my mother? Who is my father? Enquire thus, leaving aside the entire world of experience, lacking in essence and born of imagination.


Interpretation:
This stanza is attributed to Yogananda, a disciple of Shankara.

Our minds stay pre-occupied with the relationships and the enchantments in the world-of-objects outside. Only when the mid is relieved from these dissipating preoccupations, it will have the necessary freedom to apply itself totally within.

The Sankrit work vishvam means the world with all its experiences – physical, emotional and intellectual. Yogananda asks us to realize that this entire world of experiences is essenceless and born of imagination. Only when we dismiss the sense-passions from the mind and turn it towards a close observation of our own subjective personality, we will realize the hollowness of the world of name and form and the empty vanity of the life we live.

Enquire – who are you, who am I , where have I come from, who are my parents? This line of enquiry will help us end our misconceptions and reach the true apprehension of the Real.

Refer Tripura Mahiman stotram (1-43).
नाना योनि सहस्त्र वशाज्जाता जनन्यः कति
प्रख्याता जनकाः कियन्त इति मे सेत्स्यन्ति चाग्रे कति ।
एतेषां गणनैव नास्...

Durvasa said in multiple births, he has had multiple mothers in whose womb he has taken birth, and there are multiple births ahead, and he does not know the count of parents he is yet to have. As he contemplated on the finite nature of these relationships, he sought refuge with the Mother for she alone can take him across the ocean of samsara. (The Mother here referes to the formless genderless Brahman. In the gross form, a name and form can be given for worship. )

Reference text: Bhaja Govindam by Adi Shankara, commentary by Swami Chinmayananda 

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