ભજ ગોવિન્દમ્ (મોહ મુદ્ગરમ્)

Worship Govinda, worship Govinda, worship Govinda, O foolish mind! When the appointed time of death draws near, the rules of grammar will surely not save you.

O deluded one, abandon your thirst for the acquisition of wealth. Cultivate right understanding in a mind free from craving. With whatever wealth you obtain through your own actions, gladden your heart with that alone.

Seeing a woman's ample bosom and navel, do not fall prey to bewilderment. This is but a transformation of flesh and fat; reflect on this in your mind again and again.

Worship Govinda, worship Govinda, worship Govinda, O foolish mind. Life is as unsteady as a drop of water on a lotus leaf, and more fickle still. Know that the whole world is seized by disease and conceit, and stricken through with grief.

As long as one is able to earn wealth, so long is one's own family devoted and attached. But afterward, when one lives on in a frail, decrepit body, no one in the house even asks after one's welfare.

As long as the breath of life dwells within the body, so long do those in the household inquire after one's welfare. But once the breath has departed and the body has perished, even one's own wife shrinks in fear from that very corpse.

Worship Govinda, worship Govinda, worship Govinda, O foolish mind. The boy is bent on play, the youth upon a young woman, the old man upon his cares — and no one at all is bent upon the supreme Brahman.

Who is your wife? Who is your son? Exceedingly strange is this cycle of worldly existence. Whose are you? From where have you come? O brother, reflect here upon that truth.

Through the company of the good comes non-attachment; through non-attachment comes freedom from delusion; through freedom from delusion comes the unwavering Reality; and in the unwavering Reality comes liberation while yet living.

When youth has passed, what use is the passion of desire? When the water has dried up, where is the lake? When wealth has dwindled, where is the retinue of dependents? When the Truth is known, where is the cycle of worldly existence?

Worship Govinda, worship Govinda, worship Govinda, O foolish mind. Take no pride in wealth or kin or youth: in the blink of an eye Time carries all of it away. Leave behind this whole realm of illusion, and knowing that, enter the state of Brahman.

Day and night, dusk and dawn, winter and spring come again and again. Time plays on, and life slips away — yet even so, the gust of desire does not release its hold.

Who is your wife? Why this anxiety over wealth? O deluded one, is there not for you a Ruler who governs all? In these three worlds, the company of the good and wise alone becomes the boat for crossing the fearsome ocean of worldly existence.

This complete teaching, arranged in twelve flower-clusters of verse, has been imparted for the sake of the grammarian. This instruction was given by the venerable Śaṅkara Bhagavatpāda, that master of knowledge who is the refuge of all.

Worship Govinda, worship Govinda, worship Govinda, O foolish mind. One wears matted locks, another a shaven head, another has his hair plucked out; one parades in ochre robes and many a costume. The fool sees and does not see: all this dressing-up is for the sake of the belly.

The body has grown feeble, the head has turned gray, the mouth has become toothless. The old man walks about leaning on a staff, yet even so the lump of desire does not let go of him.

A fire before him, the sun blazing at his back; at night he crouches with his knees drawn up to his chin; his food is but alms held in the palm of his hand, his dwelling the foot of a tree — and yet, even so, the noose of desire does not release him.

Worship Govinda, worship Govinda, worship Govinda, O foolish mind. One makes the pilgrimage to where Gaṅgā meets the sea, or keeps vows, or gives in charity — but lacking knowledge, by every school’s reckoning, he does not win release in a hundred births.

Worship Govinda, worship Govinda, worship Govinda, O foolish mind. A dwelling at the foot of a tree by a temple, the bare ground for a bed, a deerskin for clothing, the renunciation of all possession and enjoyment — whom would such dispassion not make happy?

Whether one is devoted to yoga or devoted to enjoyment, whether one delights in company or is free of all attachment — he whose mind delights in Brahman, he alone rejoices, truly he rejoices, he rejoices indeed.

By whom the Bhagavad Gita has been studied even a little, by whom even a single drop of the Ganga's water has been sipped, by whom Murari (Vishnu, the slayer of Mura) has been worshipped even once — with him Yama, the lord of death, holds no dispute.

Birth again and again, death again and again, and again the lying within a mother's womb — in this world of transmigration, so hard to cross over, protect me, O Murāri (slayer of the demon Mura), through your boundless compassion.

Wearing a patched garment stitched together from rags picked up in the streets, walking a path free from the notions of merit and demerit, the yogi whose mind is absorbed in union with the Supreme delights like a child, or like one intoxicated with bliss.

Worship Govinda, worship Govinda, worship Govinda, O foolish mind. Who are you? Who am I? Whence have I come? Who is my mother, who my father? Reflect on this: the whole world is without substance. Leave it behind as one leaves the reckoning of a dream.

Worship Govinda, worship Govinda, worship Govinda, O foolish mind. In you and in me and everywhere there is but one Viṣṇu. Impatient, you are angry with me for nothing. Be even-minded toward all, if you would soon have the nature of Viṣṇu.

Toward enemy, friend, son, or kinsman, make no effort at strife or alliance. See the Self in all beings alike, and everywhere cast off the ignorance of separateness.

Having abandoned desire, anger, greed, and delusion, one beholds the Self and realizes 'I am That.' But the fools who are devoid of Self-knowledge — they are cooked, hidden away in hell.

Worship Govinda, worship Govinda, worship Govinda, O foolish mind. The Gītā and the Thousand Names are to be sung; the form of Śrī’s lord is to be meditated on without ceasing; the mind is to be led into the company of the good; and wealth is to be given to the poor.

Worship Govinda, worship Govinda, worship Govinda, O foolish mind. Pleasure is taken in the enjoyment of desire — and afterwards, alas, disease in the body. Though death be the world’s one refuge, still a man does not let go of sinful conduct.

Reflect constantly that wealth is worthless; truly, not the slightest happiness comes from it. Those who possess wealth live in fear even of their own sons — this is the way of things everywhere.

Worship Govinda, worship Govinda, worship Govinda, O foolish mind. Restraint of breath, withdrawal of the senses, the discernment of the eternal from the transient, the practice of absorption joined with recitation — do these with care, with great care.

Worship Govinda, worship Govinda, worship Govinda, O foolish mind. Devoted wholly to the lotus feet of the teacher, be soon freed from the round of becoming. Thus, by the restraint of senses and mind, you will see the God who dwells in your own heart.

Worship Govinda, worship Govinda, worship Govinda, O foolish mind. A certain foolish grammarian, sunk deep in the study of rules like ḍukṛñ-karaṇe, was awakened by the disciples of the blessed Śaṅkara, and his faculties were made clean.

Worship Govinda, worship Govinda, worship Govinda, O foolish mind. Worship Govinda, worship Govinda, worship Govinda, O foolish mind. For crossing the ocean of becoming we see no way at all other than the remembrance of the Name.

Worship Govinda, worship Govinda, worship Govinda, O foolish mind. — the refrain from which the hymn takes its name, sung after every verse.