The verse and its meaning · Stotras · Stotras — Bhaja Govindam

Loved While Breathing

Bhaja Govindam 6

यावत्पवनो निवसति देहे तावत्पृच्छति कुशलं गेहे । गतवति वायौ देहापाये भार्या बिभ्यति तस्मिन्काये

Meaning · English

While breath dwells in the body, those at home ask how you are. Once it leaves and the body fails, even your wife is afraid of that body.

The word used for breath is the plain word for air or wind. While that air moves in and out, people at home ask after you: have you eaten, how did you sleep. That care follows the breath. When the air goes out and stays out, the same body that was hugged and fed becomes something people step back from. Even the one closest to you, the wife who shared your life, is afraid of it. Nothing about the body changed except that breath.

A house stands on an ordinary street. While someone lives in it, neighbours knock, borrow sugar, stop at the gate to talk. Once it is emptied and locked, the same walls and door become the place children run past after dark. The house is the body; the one living in it is the breath.

अर्थ · हिन्दी

In this book

• Before: When the Earning Stops · Bhaja Govindam 5
• Next: Every Age Has Its Hook · Bhaja Govindam 7
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