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KAA TE KAANTAA KASTÊ PUTRAH
SAMSAAROYAMATEEVA VICHITRAH
KASYA TWAM KAH KUTHA AAYAATAH
TATWAM CHINTHAYA TADIHA BHRAATAH (verse 8)

Who is your wife? Who is your child? What a mysterious thing is family? To whom do you belong? From where have you come? Dear Brother! Know that all knowledge is contained in the answers to these questions.

Pavitràtma Swarupas, students! You have been listening to the Bhaja Govindam verses given by Shankara and his disciples. These verses contain a description of the essence of all our shastras (scriptures) and all types of Dharmas (righteousness) appropriate to the world. Apart from that, you have been told that all the paths of the world lead to only one objective and that objective is to reach God and become one with Him.

When the sun shines in the sky with thick clouds in front, people on the earth are not able to see the sun. However, this does not mean that the sun is not there. If there is cool wind, the clouds move away and the sun becomes evident. In the same manner the, effulgent sun of our Àtmà is generally covered by the clouds of ignorance. If man can drive away the clouds of ignorance by acquiring knowledge, then the self-ffulgent Àtmà will become evident to him. Man in this world is forgetting what is permanent and what is of value. He is running after the worldly pursuits considering them to be real. He does not see the Àtmà because of the cloud of ignorance. He requires the winds of knowledge and of wisdom to move away the clouds of self-deception so as to enable him to see the effulgent Àtmà. All physical relationships are temporary. In a flowing stream, it is quite common to see branches of trees meeting and separating from each other after moving together for some distance. The joining of these two branches together is like the joining of two people together as husband and wife. They join, move together, live together and separate and struggle in this stream of life. In this context, Shankara wants you to give up the illusion of attachment.

The next question is. Who is your son? This son of yours has come as your son, as a result of something that you have done during his or your past birth. It is only to redeem some debt between you both, that he has come as your son in this life. This situation has been described in the Bhaagavatam in a lighter vein by saying that the son comes to you for the sake of property and not because of any connection with the Àtmà. If you ask the question to any one: who he is and where has he come from, he will not be able to answer. How can he tell you how many births he already had and in which of them he was a son to whom? How can he tell you how many births he will have in future and in which of them he will be a husband to whom? He will not be able to tell you how many births he has already had and how he has landed himself in the present birth.

We do not know where we have come from and where we are going. In this illusory world, we go on increasing our attachments and thereby we are going away from Maadhava and are not getting closer to divinity. We are only increasing our bondages and restlessness by this process. In this context, we should not attach any importance to bodily relationships. The body is made up of the five elements and is certain to fall. There is no indication of the body telling you when it was born and when it will die.

Do not be misled by this illusory world. Realize the permanent Àtmà.

God wants to proclaim to the world, the meaning of all our existence and in this context, the importance of number 10 (Ten). To the right of the integer one, there is a zero in the number ten. Zero represents the world and the integer one stands for God. Without 'ONE', the 'zero' has no value. That is without God, the world is meaningless. The world that is false, transient and impermanent will amount to nothing, if it is not associated with God. The earth on which we live is spherical. The sun that gives us the light and the moon that gives us coolness are spherical too. In fact, most of things we see around us in the world have a spherical shape. In that context, our own life has a spherical shape and is nothing more that a zero. By side of this zero if we put one and the only one: Divine, life will become meaningful. The seed contains the tree in it and the tree carries the essence of the seed in it. This is the truth that has been coming to us from time immemorial. The purpose of this life is to realize the truth that the tree and the seed contain each other. All the rest is just an illusion or MAAYAA. This maayaa has been described and defined by Shankara as that which does not exist. This does not seem reasonable.

Shankara gave a beautiful example in answer to this. The big palaces you see in dream do not exist when you wake up and open your eyes. In the same manner, you see things while you are awake and you experience many things through your senses but when you sleep, these things do not exist. It means that one is a day dream and the other is a night dream. Both are dreams and all the dreams are untrue. The purpose of our life is to search for the truth, if any, in what we see. Therefore, our bodily connections should not worry us and create special beliefs in us. We should only utilize them for doing the duty which we have to do. We should have no special attachment to the world.

There is no mother, there is no father, there are no children, there is no wealth, there are no relations, beware and awake. All that you suffer by birth, growth and death is painful beware and awake. This is what Shankara had said. So long as you are alive you should keep your body healthy, your mind and vision steady. You should enjoy bliss of the Àtmà by this means. You should not weaken and neglect the body so as to fall into the hands of others for help and become dependant on them. Keep your body healthy so that you can use it well. This life is like a boat. One side of the river is the material world. The other side of the river is the spiritual destination. Your life is like a river. With the boat of the body, you should cross the river. You should use that boat and reach the destination before it develops a leak. If it develops a leak and deteriorates in midstream there will be trouble and you cannot reach the destination. There is no danger even if the boat remains in water for any length time. Only if the water enters the boat, there is every danger. You should be in the family and there is no danger. Do not let the family enter you. If you do that, there is every danger. If you can spend your life in this manner, you will yourself be supreme self. With a view to bring you to this path, Shakara has given you this particular verse in Bhaja Govindam by way of asking questions such as Who are you? Who is your wife? Where have you come from? Who are your relations? And so on. By asking such questions, he attempted to make you think and search for the right answers.