Bhaja Govindam is a work called Moha Mūḍhākāra—a text meant to remove our moha (delusion) with regard to the means and ends of life. A deluded person commits the mistake of treating the finite objects of the world as goals. This creates problems because finite objects cannot give lasting peace, happiness, and security. Only the Infinite can give that.

The first correction, therefore, is with regard to the goal: instead of treating the world as the goal, treat the Infinite as the goal. The Infinite is referred to by different names—śreyas, mokṣa, brahman, Īśvara. Choose mokṣa or Bhagavān as your goal. Whoever has done so is a mumukṣu—a spiritual person.

Are we to reject the world totally? No. Instead of seeing the finite things as the destination, use the world as a means to attain the end. Use every object to help in one’s spiritual journey. Use the finite world as a means and the Infinite God as the end.

Currently, we use the Infinite God to gain the finite world—this is a reversal of values. The message of Bhaja Govindam is to reverse that reversal: converting a materialistic person into a spiritual person. This is the very project of Bhaja Govindam.

Even after becoming a mumukṣu, one should refine further so that the Vedāntic message becomes clearer. A mumukṣu can be of three types—manda mumukṣu, madhyama mumukṣu, and tīvra mumukṣu.

How do we differentiate these three?

• Manda mumukṣu: accepts God as the goal, but mokṣa is the last item in his list of desires. He has not yet discerned the full value of mokṣa. Perhaps after several years, decades, or even janmas, mokṣa will become the top priority.
• Madhyama mumukṣu: when mokṣa becomes top priority, it begins to overshadow other desires. The mokṣa-icchā (desire for liberation) becomes stronger and eventually turns into an obsession. In the end, there is only one priority—mokṣa.
• Tīvra mumukṣu: when a person has such intensity, he becomes a tīvra mumukṣu.

All three types of seekers will benefit from Vedānta, but the level of benefit will depend on the intensity of their mumukṣutvam.

Śaṅkarācārya wrote this work after meeting a very old pundit in Kāśī. This person was studying Sanskrit grammar, analyzing the original verbal roots (dhātus). When Śaṅkarācārya met him, he was repeatedly chanting the grammatical forms: kṛ is the verbal root from which many verbs originate. There are nine forms—one each for singular, dual, and plural; and for first person, second person, and third person. Each of these also changes according to tense—past, present, and future.

Using that old pundit as the background, Śaṅkarācārya composed this text.

Śaṅkarācārya addresses the Kāśī pundit as mūḍhamate—a person confused about the purpose of life. Mūḍhamate means a deluded human being. He instructs him: “Choose Lord Govinda as your permanent support, like an anchor.” There is nothing in this world that is stationary. If you wish to enjoy life in this world, you must hold on to something that does not move. Only then can you enjoy life. That stable anchor is Govinda, the Lord.

One meaning of the word go is “cow.” Go also means “earth.” Go also means “sense organs.” In short, Govinda means Paramātmā. All other relationships will come and go, but the relationship with the Lord—Govinda—is permanent. Strike that relationship first.

Every object in creation is constantly attacked by kāla or Yama-rāja. When Yama-rāja approaches, only the Lord can give true security. The conqueror of time is the Lord alone. If you wish to hold on to the Lord at that time, you must start practicing now. Pray: “O Lord, come into my mind along with Pārvatī and occupy my heart.” At the time of death, nothing else can rescue us.

Faculty of choice or free will is one of the features of human beings. Animals do not have any goals in life; they eat, propagate, live for a few years, and die. But there are many human beings who question free will and argue that we do not have the choice of free will and that we are governed by destiny alone. Even if that is the view, then we have to divide humans into those who accept free will and exercise free will, and the other group who do not accept free will. According to the scriptures, those who do not accept free will are not much different from animals. Scriptures address those human beings who accept free will.

Once we accept free will, we have many goals to achieve and must work toward the fulfillment of those goals. In the Kaṭhopaniṣad, two mantras address this topic. The entire Bhaja Govindam text is based on these two mantras. All human goals can be classified into two varieties:

• The limitless, eternal, immortal, and complete one. This can be only one, because only one infinite is possible. One name for this infinite goal is Bhagavān,or Īśvara, or Brahman, or mokṣa. In the Kaṭhopaniṣad, this is called śreyas. All four words are synonymous.
• Finite goal. All other goals are finite—money, status, name, fame, political victory, relationships, position, possessions, etc. All these are limited by time and space. They are called dharma, artha, and kāma. These are called preyas.

Finite I is “world”; infinite I is “God.” Scriptures point out that those who choose mokṣa as the ultimate goal are intelligent and call them vivekī. Those who do not choose mokṣa as the goal are called avivekī. Scriptures want to educate people from avivekī to vivekī. Whoever chooses mokṣa as the ultimate goal, scriptures call them mumukṣu.

There are three sets of people—religious, spiritual, and atheistic.
We should differentiate spiritual people from religious people. Both accept God. The spiritual person accepts God and chooses Him as his destination. The religious person accepts God but does not accept God as the destination—rather as a means to an end. A third set of people do not accept God either as a means or as a goal; these are atheists. The scriptures say that non-spiritual people will remain in saṃsāra. This is described by Śaṅkarācārya in Bhaja Govindam.

This work consists of thirty verses, describing various problems faced by human beings in making wrong choices. The aim is to change the direction of our life—converting an atheist and a merely religious person into a mumukṣu. Vedānta śāstras are relevant only for a mumukṣu.

The real name of Bhaja Govindam is Moha Mudha-karaṇa (commonly referred to as Moha-mūḍha-kara or Moha-mukha). Moha means delusion. The majority of humans are governed by moha—similar to moths attracted by the brightness of fire, or a fish attracted by bait at the end of a hook. Humans, despite intelligence, do not realize that a finite and perishable thing cannot give lasting security. Our intelligence is covered by illusion. A simple translation of Bhaja Govindam is “Choose the Infinite and discover lasting happiness.”

Taking decisions is an important exercise which a human being should do all the time.  Our very future depends on the types of decisions we make in our early years.  Even fatalists should make a decision because the fate does not indicate the future before it happens.  After the event, we can attribute it to free will or fate, but before that we have to make a decision.  This makes us wonder whether this faculty of making decisions is good or bad. 

Decision making is not easy because there are many obstacles:

1. Wavering mind: Wavering mind makes serious decisions difficult.  It also makes one change the decisions often.  Lord Krishna criticizes people with wavering mind.  Such people will have difficulty in making great achievements.
2. Doubts:  When there are so many options, we are not sure which one to choose.  All options have advantages and disadvantages.  Doubting person avoids impulsive decisions, but he is also indecisive.  Even wrong decisions are often better than indefinite indecision.  Doubting people also will have difficulty in making great achievements.
3. Fear:  Fear to make a decision, because the mind always sees one risk or another.  Risk-free decisions do not exist.  Our choices are between wild risk and calculated risk.  There are people who discourage the decisions we make.  If our decisions happen to fail, they are prompt to point out the failure. 

In Bagawad Gita, Lord Krishna gives some important guidance to Arjuna, and by extension, to humanity.  Lord Krishna gave these guidelines for moksha or liberation, however, these guidelines are also useful to us, here and now, whatever our goals in life are.  Four important factors given by Lord Krishna are:

1. Self-confidence:  Never look down upon yourself; never have low self-image.  Never have an inferiority complex.  Lord has given us the powers to make decisions on time:
   1. Jñāna sakthi:  Power to know the goals and the means to achieve that),
   1. Icha sakthi: Choosing power, which culminates in making a decision) and

   1. kriya sakthi Power to do things.

Our scriptures have given various meditation processes to cultivate and use these powers.  Build up self-confidence every day.  When you have self-confidence, you become your own friend. 

• Self-integration: We have many layers of personality – physical personality, sensory personality, emotional personality, intellectual personality.  All these personalities must be healthy and perform in a coordinated form.  Katha upanishad provides the example of a horse drawn chariot:
  • The body is compared to a chariot,
  • The horses are compared to the sense organs.
  • The mind is compared to the reins directing the sense organs.  The mind must be calm and equanimous all the time – when I am doing an action and when I am getting the result.   

  • Intellect is compared to the charioteer or the driver.  The driver must know the destination and the route.

Every organ must be healthy, and they must work in coordination with each other.  When you are working on a goal, first fix the goal then fix the means.  After this focus on the means and not on the goals.  Because our attention is required for the means and not for the goal.  Goal should be in the subconscious mind, but not at the forefront of our mind and action.

The result may be a success or failure because of many other factors including our karma from previous jenma.  Don’t lose equanimity either in success or failure.  Don’t react to the results, because a reacting mind can’t learn from success and failure.  Spiritual success is nourished by all experiences including unpleasant experiences.  Non reacting mind is learning mind.  Look upon failure as a brief pause for more refinement and the continuation of effort until the goal is reached.  Failure of current jenma will become prodigy of next jenma – we will get back our remembrance in next life.  Success is definite in one jenma or another.

• Self-surrender: Faith in God, devotion to go and surrender to God.  Surrender to God is required for humility.  It is difficult to differentiate between arrogance and confidence.  One of the best methods to handle arrogance is to surrender to God.  You don’t even need to go to the temple, because the lord is in our heart.  Close your eyes and surrender to the power within you and charge your mind.  The most powerful obstacle to success is fear of failure.  Surrendering to God will remove the fear and give courage to start the journey. 
• Self-effort: The first three factors are launching pad; self-effort completes the task.  Many stories of purana illustrate the importance of self-effort. 

Please click on the link below to listen to Swamiji’s Talk for 2020 Sivaratri:

Relationship between bakti and jananam

Please listen to Swamiji’s Special talk for 2020 at this link: Hinduism and Family Life

On July 16, 2019, Swami Paramarthananda gave a Gurupurnima talk regarding jivan mukthi. You can listen to this talk (approximately 50 minutes long) at this link:

Gurupurnima Talk 2019

On the occasion of Sivaratri, Swamiji gave a specal talk on March 3, 2019. The topic of the talk is Purpose of Meditation. You can listen to this talk at the following link:

Swamiji gave a special talk on the occasion of Guru Purnima on July 27, 2018.  The subject of the talk was A Gyani’s Relationship with God.  Please click on the link below to listen to the talk;

2018 Guru Purnima Talk

Swami Paramarthananda gave a special talk on February 13, 2018 for Shivarathri.  The topic of the message was two types of bakthi.  Please listen to Swamiji’s message at this link:

2018 Shivarathri Message

Namathe:

Swamiji has given a special talk for the New Year and the subject of the talk is Glory of Sanatana Dharma.  Please listen to this talk by clicking below:

New Year 2018 Special Talk