For the last 2 years the Parents of the Balavihar Children and Junior CHYK children have been attending Bhaja Govindam Adult Lecture Class/Study Group of Br Gopal Chaitanya on Sunday mornings. Inspired by the Text "Bhaja Govindam" authored by Bhagavan Adi Shankaracharya, commentary by Swami Chinmayananda and lectures by Br. Gopalji, students of the class have started practising what they are learning. The difference has been seen already in the way the students have been interacting and dealing with situations that are arising around them and in them. One such student, highly inspired has written a poem summarising the Bhaja Govindam from what he has heard in class, read in the commentary and works of Shankaracharyaji.

Br Gopalji keeps on hammering the idea that one must Seek Govinda (Serve the one Guru), Seek Govinda (Worship the one Lord - Ishtadevata), Seek Govinda (Seek the Self - there is only one). The way to gain the above is thru "Regular Satsang". Keep the mind on higher and greater values and inspirations.

Bhaja Govindam Poem - Seek Govinda

Seek Govind, seek Govind
Dispel your ignorance and search within
For neither possessions nor profile
Can save you from the leveler’s smile (1)

Thirst not for possessions and wealth
But quench forth your mind’s health
For the present is your reward of the past
Cleanse your mind pure for time runs fast (2)
(Seek Govind, seek Govind)

Upon young buxom bosoms and naked navel
Fall not a prey to the flesh and marvel
For temptations such are an illusion
Think again and again why this delusion? (3)
(Seek Govind, seek Govind)

Just as water drops on a lotus leaf play
So is life unstable in its mortal stay
This world is consumed by disease and deceit
To survive within is no mean feat (4)
(Seek Govind, seek Govind)

As long as you are able for some wealth earn
You’re the ship with dependents from port to stern
But with age withering your once robust frame
Your folks abandon as you’re not the same (5)
(Seek Govind, seek Govind)

As long as breath dwells in us
There is family and ties and all that fuss
But whence you die and the body in decay
Even the spouse abandons sans delay (6)
(Seek Govind, seek Govind)

Play bound in those boyhood days
And to passions of the flesh while in youths’ sways
Pangs of anxiety now tugs at old age
While none attached to Brahman at any stage (7)
(Seek Govind, seek Govind)

Who is your wife, who is your son?
Whence did you come and what have you done?
Glorious is life, but think about the Truth here
Through such questions you must now your life steer (8)
(Seek Govind, seek Govind)

From non-attachment via the company of the good
Freedom from delusion becomes your food
Through immutable Reality and free from internal strife
Blossoms forth the state of liberated-in-life (9)
(Seek Govind, seek Govind)

When youthfulness departs, so does lust’s playful try
When waters evaporate, a lake is barren and dry
When wealth is reduced, where is the retinue?
When Truth is realized there aren’t familial ties to continue! (10)
(Seek Govind, seek Govind)

For what place is there for pride and possession
Command and control and objects of obsession
As ephemeral is this nature of time and ego
Realise the state of Brahman for that’s where to go (11)
(Seek Govind, seek Govind)

Day and night, dawn and dusk
Winter and spring and the smell of musk
Time sports and life ebbs away
Yet we leave not from desires’ sway (12)
(Seek Govind, seek Govind)

Why get distracted by wife and wealth
Realise there is the ordainer of your world’s health
In the contact and company of good people alone
You’d find the boat to navigate this sea of change to atone (13)
(Seek Govind, seek Govind)

With matted locks or a shaven head
Ochre robes and disguises spread
Fools with unseeing eyes parade as a fake
All to deceive and satisfy their belly’s sake (14)
(Seek Govind, seek Govind)

Time sculpts the youthful body to old age
And grey hairs appear at some stage
Soon toothless and a staff in hand
Desires bind him in his every stand (15)
(Seek Govind, seek Govind)

In front the fire and at the back the sun
Late at night it’s cold in the wide and open
With a scooped palm for alms under a tree
Desires’ noose around him will not set him free (16)
(Seek Govind, seek Govind)

For what purpose are pilgrimages and Ganges dips
Holy vows, gifts of charity and blessed sips
Devoid of Truth experienced first hand
Over a hundred lives we are rooted to where we stand (17)
(Seek Govind, seek Govind)

Sheltering in temples, under some tree
Sleeping on mother nature’s lap he is now free
Wearing a deer skin and renouncing all
Happiness cloaks him given his dispassionate call (18)
(Seek Govind, seek Govind)

Let one revel in Yoga or let him revel in his Bhoga of senses
Be it enjoyment in solitude or within crowded fences
He whose mind in Brahman alone is in tune
He alone enjoys and verily enjoy he does soon (19)
(Seek Govind, seek Govind)

To one who has studied the Bhagavad Gita even if just a verse
Who has sipped the Ganges water though just a drop
And who has worshipped Lord Murari even for just one breath
To him there is no quarrel with the Lord of Death (20)
(Seek Govind, seek Govind)

From cycles of birth and death that seem eternal
Relieve me from those wombs maternal
I beseech you to save me from this slippery slope
Oh Lord Murari, you are now my only hope (21)
(Seek Govind, seek Govind)

A patchwork shawl wraps his frame
As this Yogin strides forth beyond merit or fame
Steadfast in his goal and freed of his senses
He has risen above all with no pretenses (22)
(Seek Govind, seek Govind)

Who are you? Who am I? From where did I come?
Who is my mother? Who is my father?
Thus enquire and cast aside this world of experience
Essenceless dreams and figments of our imagination (23)
(Seek Govind, seek Govind)

In you, in me, and in all other places too
There is but one All-pervading Reality
For impatience breeds anger in you
Be equal-minded in all situations (24)
(Seek Govind, seek Govind)

Strive not, waste not your energy in fights to be won
Or to make friends with your enemy, relative or son
Seeking the Self everywhere, lift the sense-of-difference
For these are limitations born out of ignorance (25)
(Seek Govind, seek Govind)

Casting aside desire, anger, delusion and greed
The seeker sees in the Self, ‘He am I’ and is thereby freed
For devoid of Self-knowledge there are fools
Captive and tortured in hell-like schools (26)
(Seek Govind, seek Govind)

Read the Bhagavad Gita and chant His names
Meditate upon the form of the Lord of Lakshmi
Steer your mind towards the company of the good
And distributing your wealth must be well understood (27)
(Seek Govind, seek Govind)

Very readily one takes refuge in carnal pleasure
Later on, alas, your body diseases treasure
Though ultimately death does one apart
To abandon sinful behaviour there must be a start (28)
(Seek Govind, seek Govind)

Reflect constantly that calamitous indeed is wealth
As kith and kin can usurp this by design and stealth
In truth from it there is happiness for none
Yet pursuit of wealth seems the way for everyone! (29)
(Seek Govind, seek Govind)

Focus on your inner exercise with firm determination
Practise sense-withdrawal and subtle discrimination
Let prayers and inner tranquility be your daily fare
Perform these with commitment and utmost care (30)
(Seek Govind, seek Govind)

Oh Devotee of the lotus-feet of the teacher
May you become liberated soon
Through discipline of your sense organs and mind
The experience of the Lord within your own heart to find (31)
(Seek Govind, seek Govind)