Bhaja Govindam: Follow Your Heart

Adi Sankara's Bhaja Govindam is a little collection of thirty-one verses in Sanskrit by the saint and scholar Adi Sankaracharya and his disciples. Also known as Moha Mudgara or The End of Illusion, the verses look at the eternal question of man's quest for happiness in a world that is transient and filled with delusions. Sankara in clear and lucid language, (probably the simplest Sanskrit text available) speaks of man's weaknesses - lust, anger, greed and attachment - and the steps needed to overcome them. Our present translation includes stories from the vast repertoire of wisdom literature across a wide spectrum of spiritual traditions. It also contains an exhaustive biography of Adi Sankara himself, his contribution to Hinduism and a chapter on the relevance of Bhaja Govindam today.