About 2500 years ago was born, in a village called Kalady, a boy for a scholarly and vaidik Brahmin couple, Sivaguru and Aryamba, and this boy was to become, in later years, the greatest philosopher the word has ever seen. he was Shankara, known as Adi Shankara, the world over and was the first Shankaracharya of the Kamakothi Peetham, at Kancheepuram.
He lived for barely 32 years, and attained Siddhi at Kanchi. During His short sojourn, He travelled through the entire Bharatha, on foot, preaching His philosophy of Advaita and taking many disciples from the four corners of the country, chief among them being four.
He restructured all the 72 forms of desultory religious practices into acceptable norms and laid stress on the six ways of worship based on Vedas. He discussed with many a scholar during His long journeys in the country and was the cause for many philosophical treatises establishing the concept of Advaita, with commentaries on Brahma Sutras, Srimad Bhagavad Gita, Ten Principal Upanishads and a few other works and poems in praise of various dieties of Hindu mythology.
Shri Shankara composed a number of hymns to foster the sense of devotion in the hearts of men and this is His greatest service. Bhaja Govindam is one among His many works and in this short garland of poens in praise of Lord (Krishna) Govinda, He dwells upon the ephemeral nature oflife upon the greatness of Guru, Bhakti, etc. Some immature critics of Indian Philosophy believe and say that the way of devotion is different fromt he way of knowledge. The learned employ this distinction to emphasise a particular theses on which they discourse in different contexts. We should not get confused by this and fail to understand the truth. 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 and tinsel. To hold and to say that Jnaana and Bhakti knowledge and devotion, are as different from each other as gold is from baser metal is to expose one's ignorance. Unless the senses are controlled, knowledge will not obtain a fort-hold in the heart. Wisdom will not come into being. How is one to trestrain the native impulsion of the senses? The heart cannot be chastened if desires and attachments are not eschewed. Its attachment is to be completely extinguished and if the mind should be released from it, the mind must be turned towards God. It must be realised that except through devotion to God, there is no other effective way to restrain the senses. Sri Shankara has packed into the "Bhaja Govindam" song the substance of all the vedantic works that he wrote and he has set the truth of the union of devotion and knowledge to melodius music which delights the ear and our soul.
There is a story attached to the composition of the present Hymn. Acharya Shankara, it is said, was walking along a street in Varanasi, one day, accompanied by his disciples. He heard the sound of grammatical rules being recited by an old scholar. Taking pity on the scholar, he went up to him and advised him not to waste his time on grammar at his age but to turn his mind to God in worship and adoration. The Hymn to Govinda was composed on this occasion. Besides the refrain of the song beinning with the words "Bhaja Govindam" , Shankara is stated to have sung twelve verses, hence the hymn bears the title "Dvadasamanjarika-Stotra" (A hymn which is a bunch of twelve verse-blossoms). The fourteen disciples who were with the Master, then, are believed to have added one verse each. These fourteen verses are together called "Chaturdasa-manjarika-Stotra" (A hymn which is a bunch of fourteen verse-blossoms).
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