Bhaja Govindam

What follows was in fact intended to be an add-on to the string of scholarly comments received in March 2007 to Dr. Antonio de Nicolas' beautiful article on the musical primacy in the use of Gita as a cultural text

Last night I tried four times to get my comment through. I tried again once a few minutes ago. I do not understand why it did not.

This is a backdoor attempt

to get it read by Nitin Bhai, Karigar, Dwai and Gangp, not necesarily in that order.

Sankara, to whom Truth revealed itself in its advaitic form, composed two famous hymns on saguna deities, a poetically rich Soundarya Lahari where he dances with words in praise of the beauty of God, the Mother and a philosophically rich Bhaja Govindam where he exhorts his disciple to move away from the lures of samsara and offer worship to Sripati. Interms of a method, he suggests,

"geyam gita namasahasram, dhyeyam sripati rupam ajasram"

"Let Gita and Sahasranama be sung (not recited or read, mind you); let the unchangingly glorious form of Sripati be meditated upon!"

The audial nature of Gita's text was not lost upon Sankara, nor was the inevitability of meditating on Hari's ajasrarupa, immediately after 'singing' the Gita.

Regards. Partha.