Stotra · स्तोत्रStotra

Bhaja Govindam — opening verse

Worship Govinda, you fool — when the hour comes, grammar will not save you.

Bhaja Govindam (Moha Mudgara), attributed to Adi Shankara verse 1edition

Sanskrit · संस्कृत

भज गोविन्दं भज गोविन्दं गोविन्दं भज मूढमते । सम्प्राप्ते सन्निहिते काले नहि नहि रक्षति डुकृञ्करणे ॥

bhaja govindaṃ bhaja govindaṃ govindaṃ bhaja mūḍhamate samprāpte sannihite kāle nahi nahi rakṣati ḍukṛñkaraṇe

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No verified recitation yet. We publish audio only with a named reciter and a recorded licence, rather than files of unknown provenance.

Meaning

Worship Govinda, worship Govinda, worship Govinda, O foolish mind. When the appointed hour arrives and stands close, the rules of grammar will not save you.

This rendering is by a DharmSetu editor, not a quotation from a published translation. Compare with the public-domain translation.

A Hindi meaning has not been written for this mantra yet. Hindi is authored by a named editor rather than machine-translated, so it arrives more slowly.

How to recite

Sung far more often than chanted, and the metre is loose by design. Let the three repetitions of bhaja govindaṃ build; the second line answers them. Ḍukṛñkaraṇe begins with a retroflex ḍ and contains the palatal nasal ñ. Some printed editions have डुकृङ्करणे with a velar ṅ instead; the form with ñ used here follows the Paninian root ḍukṛñ that the verse is quoting.

Repetitions: 1 · 3
Time: sandhya

Pronunciation key — sounds commonly got wrong

ट ठ ड ढ ण · ṭ ṭh ḍ ḍh ṇ: Retroflex — the tongue curls back and touches the roof of the mouth. Distinct from the dental त थ द ध न, where the tongue touches the teeth.
श ष स · ś ṣ s: Three different sounds: ś as in “shy”, ṣ retroflex and further back, s plain. Collapsing them changes words.
ः · ḥ (visarga): A soft outward breath echoing the preceding vowel — not a hard “ha”.
ं · ṃ (anusvara): Nasalises the vowel; the closing sound follows the consonant that comes next.
Long vs short vowels — a / ā, i / ī, u / ū: Vowel length is meaningful in Sanskrit. Hold the macron vowels roughly twice as long.
Aspirated consonants — kh, gh, ch, th, dh, ph, bh: A distinct puff of breath. ph is an aspirated p, never an English “f”.

Word by word

भजbhaja: worship, turn to(2nd sg. imperative)MW1899-CDSL p.743
गोविन्दम्govindam: Govinda, a name of Krishna(acc. sg.)MW1899-CDSL p.366
मूढमतेmūḍhamate: O foolish-minded one(voc. sg.)MW1899-CDSL p.825
सम्प्राप्तेsamprāpte: when it has arrived(loc. absolute)MW1899-CDSL p.1177
सन्निहितेsannihite: when it stands near(loc. absolute)
कालेkāle: the time, the appointed hour(loc. sg.)MW1899-CDSL p.277
नहि नहिnahi nahi: surely not, not at all
रक्षतिrakṣati: protects, saves(3rd sg. pres.)MW1899-CDSL p.859
डुकृञ्करणेḍukṛñkaraṇe: the rule about the root ḍukṛñ — i.e. grammar itself(quoting Panini's dhatupatha)

Glosses are confirmed against a Sanskrit–English dictionary; the reference after each entry names the edition consulted.

Context

The verse is a joke with a serious edge, and the joke is lost if the last word is translated loosely. Ḍukṛñ-karaṇe is not a general word for learning — it is a citation from Panini's list of verbal roots, the kind of thing a grammar student memorises. The line names the very thing its audience was busy with. The traditional account, recorded in the commentarial literature, is that Shankara said this on seeing an elderly scholar drilling grammar in Varanasi. The poem's other title, Moha Mudgara, means "the hammer for delusion". This verse works as the refrain, returning between the others. The composition is usually printed with 31 or 33 verses; the first twelve are traditionally taken as Shankara's, with a further set attributed to his disciples, and the last one or two vary between recensions. Authorship of the core verses is a traditional attribution rather than a documented one.

Shadanga — the six limbs

The traditional analytic frame for a mantra. Blank limbs are simply not recorded for this text.

devata: Govinda (Krishna)

Recited at / traditionally recited for

Knowledge (jnana)Daily sandhya

Classified as Stotra — Devotional hymn literature — praise poetry rather than a Vedic formula. Basis for this classification.

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