Significance
| Part of a series on |
| Hindu scriptures |
|---|
|
Vedas
Rigveda · Samaveda Yajurveda · Atharvaveda Divisions Samhita · Brahmana Aranyaka · Upanishads |
|
Vedangas
Shiksha · Chandas Vyakarana · Nirukta Kalpa · Jyotisha |
|
Upanishads
Rig vedic Aitareya Yajur vedic Brihadaranyaka · Isha Taittiriya · Katha Shvetashvatara Sama vedic Chandogya · Kena Atharva vedic Mundaka · Mandukya Prashna |
|
Puranas
Brahma puranas Brahma · Brahmānda Brahmavaivarta Markandeya · Bhavishya Vaishnava puranas Vishnu · Bhagavata Naradeya · Garuda · Padma · Agni Shaiva puranas Shiva · Linga Skanda · Vayu |
|
Itihasa
Ramayana Mahabharata (Bhagavad Gita) |
|
Other scriptures
Manu Smriti Artha Shastra · Agama Tantra · Sūtra · Stotra Dharmashastra Divya Prabandha Tevaram Ramcharitmanas Yoga Vasistha |
| Scripture classification Śruti · Smriti |
| Timeline Hindu texts |
This composition is a reminder that the author, Adi Shankara, who is often regarded as a stalwart advocate of the Jnana Marga (Jnana Yoga) or the "Path of Knowledge" to attain Mukti, yielded to none in appreciating, indeed enjoining the Bhakti Marga (Bhakti Yoga) or the "Path of Faith/Devotion" to the same goal, and as C. Rajagopalachari put in his commentary, "When intelligence matures and lodges securely in the heart, it becomes wisdom. When that wisdom is integrated with life and issues out in action, it becomes devotion. Knowledge which has become mature is spoken of as devotion. If it does not get transformed into devotion, such knowledge is useless tinsel."
In this prayer, Adi Shankara emphasizes the importance of devotion for God as a means to spiritual development and to liberation from the cycle of birth and death. The prayer leaves one in no doubt that the renunciation of our egotistical differences and surrender to God makes for salvation. Many scholars hold that this composition encapsulates with both brevity and simplicity the substance of all Vedantic thought found in whatever other works that Adi Shankara wrote:
The refrain "Bhaja Govindam" which defines the composition and gives it its name invokes the almighty in the aspect of Vishnu; it is therefore very popular not only with Sri Adi Shankaracharya's immediate followers, the Smarthas, but also with Vaishnavas and others.
Read more about this topic: Bhaja Govindam
Famous quotes containing the word significance:
“Politics is not an end, but a means. It is not a product, but a process. It is the art of government. Like other values it has its counterfeits. So much emphasis has been placed upon the false that the significance of the true has been obscured and politics has come to convey the meaning of crafty and cunning selfishness, instead of candid and sincere service.”
—Calvin Coolidge (1872–1933)
“The hypothesis I wish to advance is that ... the language of morality is in ... grave disorder.... What we possess, if this is true, are the fragments of a conceptual scheme, parts of which now lack those contexts from which their significance derived. We possess indeed simulacra of morality, we continue to use many of the key expressions. But we have—very largely if not entirely—lost our comprehension, both theoretical and practical, of morality.”
—Alasdair Chalmers MacIntyre (b. 1929)
“I am not afraid that I shall exaggerate the value and significance of life, but that I shall not be up to the occasion which it is.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)