Osho has spoken many times of Adi Shankaracharya, the enlightened mystic of eighth-century India, as someone who traveled across India arguing, debating and defeating all the renowned scholars, theologians and so-called religious leaders who were turning the inner search into a mental exercise, an academic discussion. But here we are introduced to a different Adi Shankaracharya - one who can sing in his song of ecstasy and dance his joy in life. His popular song, written in Sanskrit, is sung throughout India and is known as Bhaj Govindam.
As he comments on these verses and answers related questions Osho shows us yet again, his vision of the New Man, the whole man - joyous, silent, ecstatic; repressing nothing, watching everything.

Chapter Titles
 Chapter 1: Always Sing the Song of the Divine
 Chapter 2: Sowing the Seed
 Chapter 3: The Search for Nirvana
 Chapter 4: Every Step Is the Destination
 Chapter 5: The Bondage of Hope
 Chapter 6: The Great Transcendence
 Chapter 7: A Song of Life
 Chapter 8: This World Is a School
 Chapter 9: The Essence in Life
 Chapter 10: Just One Moment...

Shankara is an unique person. And it is very easy to misunderstand the unique person because he is beyond your common understanding. It seemed to people that he was also a logician, a great logician. But can a great logician say, "Sing! dance! Sing the song of the divine"? It is just not possible for the logician to say so. Such words can be spoken only by a lover of the divine from the depths of his heart.

How can you express your gratitude in words? Words are too small and gratitude is too vast, it cannot be contained in words. It can be expressed only by dancing. If there is nothing to be said then it is better to remain quiet so that the divine may speak and you may listen.

Bhajan, devotional singing, kirtan, divine songs and dance - these are the means of expressing the feelings. Shankara is hinting that without saying anything, you yourself should become a song, a divine song. These verses are very simple, these sutras are direct, and they are written by a genius like Shankara. In the whole of Shankara's literature there is nothing more precious than Bhaj Govindam. Shankara is basically a philosopher; whatever he has written is very complex; it is all words, scriptures, logic, analysis and thinking. But Shankara knows that godliness cannot be attained through logic, analysis and thinking. The way to attain is to dance and sing - through feeling and not through thinking.

The path of Shankara's realization is through the heart and not through the head. That is why, although Shankara has written commentaries on the Brahmasutra, the Upanishads and the Gita, you will find his innermost feelings expressed in these small verses; here he has opened his heart. Here Shankara does not speak like a scholar or a thinker, here he expresses himself like a devotee.

‘Shankaracharya has written many books but none of them is so beautiful as this song: BHAJ GOVINDAM MOODH MATE. I have spoken much on these three or four words, almost three hundred pages. But you know how I love to sing songs; if I have the opportunity I will go on endlessly. But here I wanted to at least mention the book.’  From: Books I have Loved

Prayer is the seed; bhajan, singing the song of the divine, is the tree. Prayer is hidden, not expressed; bhajan is the expression. Bhajan is the dancing prayer, the singing prayer. Bhajan is the expression of prayer. If you want to see prayer, you will have to look at it in Mahavira and Buddha. If you want to see bhajan, then you had better look at Meera and Chaitanya. Bhajan is the prayer expressed. What remains within Mahavira and Buddha flows out of Meera and Chaitanya. What is static within Buddha and Mahavira has started dancing in Meera and Chaitanya. Bhajan is the expression of prayer.

You can understand it like this. Supposing you are in love with someone. You can just keep it to yourself; there is no need to say anything about it. It doesn't matter even if you don't say, "I love you." You can keep your love within you. Usually women don't tell about their love to anyone, they keep it to themselves. There is no need to say that love is, because the very experience of love is sufficient in itself. But love gets expressed - sometimes in a song, sometimes in the touch of the hand, sometimes in the expression of the eye, and sometimes in silence also. But whenever love is expressed flowers blossom, the seed doesn't remain a seed. Both are beautiful.

There are two types of people in the world. For some prayer is enough - for those who will attain godliness in their emptiness, in their silence, there is no need to say anything. But this is not enough for the other type of people. Unless it is more than enough, it is not enough for them - they have to overflow. They have to go on flowing, expressing their inner ecstasy. So Meera dances. Buddha did not express himself in this way, but Meera did; and both are beautiful, both ways are good. You must know your own nature. If you want to keep it to yourself it doesn't matter, and if you want to distribute, even then it doesn't matter. And I don't compare the two. The seed is beautiful because the flowers bloom out of it, and the flower is beautiful because it becomes the seed. They are interconnected. The expressed and the unexpressed, the manifest and the unmanifest, both are connected. You must find out your nature, your temperament and choose whatever appeals to you. But remember that bhajan is an expression and prayer is silent.

The question is: "Like prayer, is singing the song of the divine also an expression of thanks?"
No, prayer is thanks and bhajan is gratitude with ecstasy. Prayer says: "Whatever is given to me is enough; I am fully satisfied and contented with what is given to me." But bhajan says: "Whatever is given to me is more than necessary, it cannot be contained within, it has to be distributed." Bhajan expresses itself by dancing; it is not silent, it speaks. It has its own beauty.

Prayer is an unsung song - the picture hidden in the mind of a painter which has not taken the form on the canvas. It is the statue hidden in the stone which has not been carved out with the chisel. Bhajan is the visible statue. The stone has been cut, the chisel has done the work. Bhajan is the song which is being sung.

The Upanishads comment on Ancient Indian Scriptures