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Bhaja Govindam

From the Bhakti List Archives

Srinivas.Sunder • April 9, 1996 


The popular story/myth behind the composition of Bhaja Govindam by
Adi Sankara goes something like this : In Varanasi, while with a group of
disciples, he saw an elderly man, almost on his last legs, busily trying to
learn the rules of grammar. His reaction to that was to tell the old man that
there was a time and place for everything, and that the appropriate action
for a person such as him (the old man, i.e.) was -Bhaja Govindam, ...,-
Therefore, addressing the old man as a fool (-mUDha-), he asks him
to chant the name of Govinda (-Bhaja Govindam, mUDhamate-).

Regards

Srinivas