ब्रह्म संहिता

Brahma Saṃhitā

The Govinda Hymn

Fifth Adhyāya, the only surviving chapter

Tradition says the Brahma Saṃhitā had one hundred chapters once. Brahmā himself sang it at the dawn of creation, in praise of the Lord he had just been told to praise. Ninety-nine chapters are gone. The fifth survives, and it is the one we still recite.

Caitanya Mahāprabhu found the manuscript in a temple in the south during his pilgrimage and brought it back to Vrindavan. The Goswāmīs received it from him as a treasure. Five centuries later, every Gauḍīya temple in the world still chants three of its verses every morning before āratī. The whole hymn is a single song of sixty-two verses praising one person, in one rhythm, with one refrain: govindam ādi-puruṣaṃ tam ahaṃ bhajāmi.

Verse 5.1

The Supreme Lord

ईश्वरः परमः कृष्णः सच्चिदानन्दविग्रहः। अनादिरादिर्गोविन्दः सर्वकारणकारणम्॥

īśvaraḥ paramaḥ kṛṣṇaḥ sac-cid-ānanda-vigrahaḥ anādir ādir govindaḥ sarva-kāraṇa-kāraṇam

Krishna is the supreme Lord. His form is being, awareness, bliss. He is without beginning. He is the beginning. Govinda is the cause of all causes.

The first verse of the surviving fifth chapter. The whole hymn unfolds from this single sentence. Krishna is not a creature of God. Krishna is God, in the form that loves and can be loved.

The four words that name him: paramaḥ, supreme; sac-cit-ānanda, being-awareness-bliss; anādiḥ ādiḥ, beginningless beginning; sarva-kāraṇa-kāraṇam, the cause of all causes. The Goswāmīs of Vrindavan would build seventy years of theology on this one verse.

Verse 5.2

The Thousand-Petalled Lotus

सहस्रपत्रकमलं गोकुलाख्यं महत्पदम्। तत्कर्णिकारं तद्धाम तदनन्तांशसम्भवम्॥

sahasra-patra-kamalaṃ gokulākhyaṃ mahat padam tat-karṇikāraṃ tad-dhāma tad-anantāṃśa-sambhavam

There is a great abode shaped like a thousand-petalled lotus, called Gokula. Its central whorl is the dhāma of the Lord, born of his infinite portion.

The verse opens the cosmography of Goloka. The whole supreme realm is shaped like a lotus with a thousand petals, and the place where Krishna stands is the karṇikā, the central whorl. The geometry is not architectural fantasy. It is the Saṃhitā's way of saying that wherever you arrive in that realm, you are already at its center.

anantāṃśa-sambhavam, born of his infinite portion. Even the dhāma of the Lord is itself an expansion. The whole place is made of him. There is no neutral ground in Goloka, no hallway between rooms; every petal is the Lord, every grain of dust is the Lord.

Verse 5.3

The Geometry of the Lotus

कर्णिकारं महद्यन्त्रं षट्कोणं वज्रकीलकम्। षडङ्गषट्पदीस्थानं प्रकृत्या पुरुषेण च॥

karṇikāraṃ mahad yantraṃ ṣaṭ-koṇaṃ vajra-kīlakam ṣaḍ-aṅga-ṣaṭ-padī-sthānaṃ prakṛtyā puruṣeṇa ca

The whorl is a great yantra, a six-cornered figure, with the seed-syllable as its diamond pivot. It is the seat of the six-syllabled, six-membered mantra, manifest by prakṛti and puruṣa.

The verse turns the lotus into a yantra. Six corners, a vajra-kīla at the center, the place where the eighteen-syllabled mantra of Gopāla is held in geometric form. For tantric Vaiṣṇavas this verse is the warrant for their entire sādhanā, the geometry of Krishna's name laid out in space.

What the contemplative ear hears beneath the technicality: the Lord's home is a mantra. The place is a sound. To recite the name is already to be in the place. The verse welds geography and recitation into a single fact.

Verse 5.32

Every Limb Has the Function of Every Sense

अङ्गानि यस्य सकलेन्द्रियवृत्तिमन्ति पश्यन्ति पान्ति कलयन्ति चिरं जगन्ति। आनन्दचिन्मयसदुज्ज्वलविग्रहस्य गोविन्दमादिपुरुषं तमहं भजामि॥

aṅgāni yasya sakalendriya-vṛtti-manti paśyanti pānti kalayanti ciraṃ jaganti ānanda-cin-maya-sad-ujjvala-vigrahasya govindam ādi-puruṣaṃ tam ahaṃ bhajāmi

Whose every limb has the function of every sense; who sees, sustains, animates the worlds for ever. Whose form is bliss-consciousness, ever-shining and real. Govinda, the original person, him I worship.

Each limb sees, each limb listens, each limb tastes. The body of Govinda does not partition its functions the way ours does. The hand can hear, the foot can see, the eye can hold. The verse breaks the categories of the senses inside Sanskrit grammar.

Why this matters for Vraja-bhakti: in the kuñja, when Rādhā touches Krishna's foot, the foot does not just receive the touch. It listens to her, watches her, tastes her. The verse is a metaphysical foundation for what the rāsa-līlā poets describe. The gopi who holds his hand is being seen by his hand.

Verse 5.33

Without a Second, Ever New

अद्वैतमच्युतमनादिमनन्तरूप- माद्यं पुराणपुरुषं नवयौवनं च। वेदेषु दुर्लभमदुर्लभमात्मभक्तौ गोविन्दमादिपुरुषं तमहं भजामि॥

advaitam acyutam anādim ananta-rūpam ādyaṃ purāṇa-puruṣaṃ nava-yauvanaṃ ca vedeṣu durlabham adurlabham ātma-bhaktau govindam ādi-puruṣaṃ tam ahaṃ bhajāmi

Without a second, infallible, beginningless, having infinite forms; the original, the ancient one, ever in fresh youth; hard to find in the Vedas, easy to find for the soul-devotee. Govinda, the original person, him I worship.

advaitam, without a second. The Vedanta of the formless absolute is here, in the same breath as the boy with the flute. The Brahma Saṃhitā does not choose between non-dual Brahman and the personal Krishna. It says they are the same one, seen by two kinds of seer.

vedeṣu durlabham adurlabham ātma-bhaktau. Hard to find in the Vedas, easy to find by devotion. The Vedas search for him as Brahman; the heart finds him as Govinda. The seeker who has been long with jñāna will recognize this verse as a bridge across to a country that was never separate.

Verse 5.29

The Goloka

चिन्तामणिप्रकरसद्मसु कल्पवृक्ष- लक्षावृतेषु सुरभीरभिपालयन्तम्। लक्ष्मीसहस्रशतसम्भ्रमसेव्यमानं गोविन्दमादिपुरुषं तमहं भजामि॥

cintāmaṇi-prakara-sadmasu kalpa-vṛkṣa- lakṣāvṛteṣu surabhīr abhipālayantam lakṣmī-sahasra-śata-sambhrama-sevyamānaṃ govindam ādi-puruṣaṃ tam ahaṃ bhajāmi

In palaces of touchstone, surrounded by hundreds of thousands of wish-trees, tending the surabhi cows; served in awe and joy by hundreds of thousands of Lakṣmīs. Govinda, the original person, him I worship.

Touchstone for the stone of the palace. Wish-trees for the trees of the forest. Cows of every wish for the cows of the herd. Goloka is not a place reached by traveling upward. It is the place from which all places fall away.

And there, at the center, Govinda is tending cows. The supreme Lord, the cause of all causes, has chosen the form of a cowherd boy. The surrounding crores of Lakṣmīs serve him in awe; he plays his flute and tends the cows as if none of them were there. This is the heart of Vraja-bhakti's audacity. The Lord of Vaikuntha has come down to be a country boy, and finds it more pleasing than any throne.

Verse 5.30

The Flute-Playing Form

वेणुं क्वणन्तमरविन्ददलायताक्षं बर्हावतंसमसिताम्बुदसुन्दराङ्गम्। कन्दर्पकोटिकमनीयविशेषशोभं गोविन्दमादिपुरुषं तमहं भजामि॥

veṇuṃ kvaṇantam aravinda-dalāyatākṣaṃ barhāvataṃsam asitāmbuda-sundarāṅgam kandarpa-koṭi-kamanīya-viśeṣa-śobhaṃ govindam ādi-puruṣaṃ tam ahaṃ bhajāmi

Playing his flute, his eyes long like lotus petals, the peacock feather as his crown, his limbs beautiful as a dark fresh cloud, his special radiance lovelier than millions of Kāmadevas. Govinda, the original person, him I worship.

The famous portrait. The flute, the lotus eyes, the peacock feather, the dark-cloud body. Every devotional image of Krishna in the past five hundred years has come back to this verse. It is the Vraja-rasika's icon held in Sanskrit syllables.

kandarpa-koṭi: a million Kāmadevas, the gods of beauty, lined up beside him would not match a single feature. The hyperbole is not flattery. It is the bhakta's accurate report of what the heart sees.

Verse 5.39

The Source of Rāma and All Avatāras

रामादिमूर्तिषु कलानियमेन तिष्ठ- न्नानावतारमकरोद्भुवनेषु किन्तु। कृष्णः स्वयं समभवत्परमः पुमान् यो गोविन्दमादिपुरुषं तमहं भजामि॥

rāmādi-mūrtiṣu kalā-niyamena tiṣṭhan nānāvatāram akarod bhuvaneṣu kintu kṛṣṇaḥ svayaṃ samabhavat paramaḥ pumān yo govindam ādi-puruṣaṃ tam ahaṃ bhajāmi

Establishing himself in the forms of Rāma and the others by the rule of his expansions, he made many avatāras in the worlds. But Krishna himself appeared as the supreme person. Govinda, the original person, him I worship.

The verse names the home tradition of this very channel. Rāma is one of his forms; Krishna is himself. The Goswāmīs read this verse as the resolution of every tension between Vaiṣṇava lineages: every avatāra is real, every avatāra is loved, but they are all expansions of one source.

The reader who came to satsang through the Mānasa, who has bowed to Rāma all their life, will recognize that the Lord of Ayodhya and the Lord of Vraja are not two. The same heart bows in both. The bowing is the same bowing.

Verse 5.40

The Brahman of the Vedas

यस्य प्रभा प्रभवतो जगदण्डकोटि- कोटिष्वशेषवसुधादिविभूतिभिन्नम्। तद्ब्रह्म निष्कलमनन्तमशेषभूतं गोविन्दमादिपुरुषं तमहं भजामि॥

yasya prabhā prabhavato jagad-aṇḍa-koṭi- koṭiṣv aśeṣa-vasudhādi-vibhūti-bhinnam tad brahma niṣkalam anantam aśeṣa-bhūtaṃ govindam ādi-puruṣaṃ tam ahaṃ bhajāmi

His radiance is the source of millions and millions of universes, divided into innumerable earths and powers. That formless infinite all-being Brahman: him, the supreme Govinda, the original person, I worship.

And here is the Advaita door, opening from the same hymn. The formless Brahman that the Upaniṣads chant about is not a different reality than Govinda. It is his prabhā, his radiance. Govinda is the source; Brahman is his light spilling outward.

The bhakta and the jñānī, looking up at the same sky, see the same thing. The bhakta sees the sun. The jñānī sees the light. Neither is wrong. Eventually each will see the other side of what they have always been seeing.

Verse 5.34

Even the Mystic's Highest Path Stops at the Threshold

पन्थास्तु कोटिशतवत्सरसम्प्रगम्यो वायोरथापि मनसो मुनिपुङ्गवानाम्। सोऽप्यस्ति यत्प्रपदसीम्न्यविचिन्त्यतत्त्वे गोविन्दमादिपुरुषं तमहं भजामि॥

panthās tu koṭi-śata-vatsara-saṃpragamyo vāyor athāpi manaso muni-puṅgavānām so 'py asti yat-prapada-sīmni avicintya-tattve govindam ādi-puruṣaṃ tam ahaṃ bhajāmi

The path the foremost of sages can travel by air or by mind, even for hundreds of millions of years, halts at the threshold of the inconceivable reality of his foot. Govinda, the original person, him I worship.

The verse is the answer to the yogi who hopes to reach Krishna by power. By air, by mind, by ten million years of practice, the highest mystic still arrives only at the prapada-sīmni, the threshold of his front foot. The reality itself is acintya, beyond thought.

And yet the gopi reaches him by love alone, by being kept on his head as ornament. The verse is humbling and exhilarating in the same syllables. The yogi's path is far. The bhakta's path is near. The same Lord is both unreachable and already here.

Verse 5.35

One in Every Atom of Every Universe

एकोऽप्यसौ रचयितुं जगदण्डकोटिं यच्छक्तिरस्ति जगदण्डचया यदन्तः। अण्डान्तरस्थपरमाणुचयान्तरस्थं गोविन्दमादिपुरुषं तमहं भजामि॥

eko 'py asau racayituṃ jagad-aṇḍa-koṭiṃ yac-chaktir asti jagad-aṇḍa-cayā yad-antaḥ aṇḍāntara-stha-paramāṇu-cayāntara-sthaṃ govindam ādi-puruṣaṃ tam ahaṃ bhajāmi

Though he is one, he has the power to make ten million universe-eggs. He stands inside the sum of those eggs, and inside every atom inside every egg. Govinda, the original person, him I worship.

The cosmology is staggering. He is one, and yet inside every atom of every universe of every egg of the cosmic hierarchy. The Brahma Saṃhitā gives this in three Sanskrit compounds. Modern physics has spent four hundred years catching up to the implication.

What this means for the bhakta: the breath in your chest is his presence. The atom in your fingertip is his body inside it. There is no place where he is not. The Vraja-bhakta turns inward not because he is hidden far away but because the inwardness is one of his addresses.

Verse 5.37

The Bliss-Energies in Goloka

आनन्दचिन्मयरसप्रतिभाविताभि- स्ताभिर्य एव निजरूपतया कलाभिः। गोलोक एव निवसत्यखिलात्मभूतो गोविन्दमादिपुरुषं तमहं भजामि॥

ānanda-cinmaya-rasa-pratibhāvitābhis tābhir ya eva nija-rūpatayā kalābhiḥ goloka eva nivasaty akhilātma-bhūto govindam ādi-puruṣaṃ tam ahaṃ bhajāmi

He dwells in Goloka with those who are his very own form, the kalās expanded from his bliss-consciousness essence; while at the same time he is the soul of all. Govinda, the original person, him I worship.

kalābhiḥ, his expansions. Jīva Goswāmī and Viśvanātha Cakravartī read this single word as the whole of Radha and the gopis. The bliss-energies who are his own form, who are not other than him, who dwell with him in Goloka because they are him in feminine relation to himself.

The Vedānta-language of the verse, akhilātma-bhūtaḥ, soul of all, sits beside the Vraja-language of kalābhiḥ, his expansions, in one breath. The Brahma Saṃhitā holds Brahman and the gopis in the same hand. This is the verse on which Caitanya's whole theology will rest.

Verse 5.38

Eyes Anointed with Love

प्रेमाञ्जनच्छुरितभक्तिविलोचनेन सन्तः सदैव हृदयेषु विलोकयन्ति। यं श्यामसुन्दरमचिन्त्यगुणस्वरूपं गोविन्दमादिपुरुषं तमहं भजामि॥

premāñjana-cchurita-bhakti-vilocanena santaḥ sadaiva hṛdayeṣu vilokayanti yaṃ śyāmasundaram acintya-guṇa-svarūpaṃ govindam ādi-puruṣaṃ tam ahaṃ bhajāmi

With eyes anointed by the salve of love, with the sight of devotion, the saints behold him always in their hearts: him, dark and beautiful, his form of inconceivable qualities. Govinda, the original person, him I worship.

The verse gives the secret of seeing him. premāñjana, the salve of love. Without the salve, the eye sees only what the senses report. With it, the same eye sees Krishna in the heart, always, sadaiva.

The verse does not promise that the eye will travel anywhere new. It says the saints behold him in their hearts, where he was already. Bhakti is not the journey to a different place. It is the lifting of a film from the eye that has been here the whole time.

Verse 5.46

One Lamp Lighting Another

दीपार्चिरेव हि दशान्तरमभ्युपेत्य दीपायते विवृतहेतुसमानधर्मा। यस्तादृगेव हि च विष्णुतया विभाति गोविन्दमादिपुरुषं तमहं भजामि॥

dīpārcir eva hi daśāntaram abhyupetya dīpāyate vivṛta-hetu-samāna-dharmā yas tādṛg eva hi ca viṣṇutayā vibhāti govindam ādi-puruṣaṃ tam ahaṃ bhajāmi

The flame of one lamp, when it kindles another, becomes a lamp itself, with the very same nature as its source. Just so, he shines forth as Viṣṇu in his expansions. Govinda, the original person, him I worship.

The lamp simile is the standard image of the Brahma Saṃhitā for the relationship between Krishna and his expansions. Viṣṇu is not a lesser flame. The whole brilliance has passed across without remainder. There is no first lamp jealous of the second; the second is the first in another room.

Theology of avatāras in one image. Rāma, Narasiṃha, Vāmana, the Mahā-Viṣṇu of the Causal Ocean: all are the one flame, lit elsewhere. The verse refuses any hierarchy of which form is more real. They are equally bright. They are the same fire.

Verse 5.48

Brahmā's Whole Life is a Breath of Mahā-Viṣṇu

यस्यैकनिश्वसितकालमथावलम्ब्य जीवन्ति लोमविलजा जगदण्डनाथाः। विष्णुर्महान् स इह यस्य कलाविशेषो गोविन्दमादिपुरुषं तमहं भजामि॥

yasyaika-niśvasita-kālam athāvalambya jīvanti loma-vila-jā jagad-aṇḍa-nāthāḥ viṣṇur mahān sa iha yasya kalā-viśeṣo govindam ādi-puruṣaṃ tam ahaṃ bhajāmi

The lords of the universes, born from the pores of his skin, live for the duration of just one of his exhalations. That great Viṣṇu is here only a particular portion of him. Govinda, the original person, him I worship.

The most vertiginous of the cosmological verses. The lifespan of Brahmā, which our scriptures put at trillions of human years, is the duration of a single breath of Mahā-Viṣṇu. And that Mahā-Viṣṇu is only a kalā-viśeṣa, a particular portion, of Govinda. The scale of the verse keeps doubling and the doubling keeps refusing to stop.

What such verses do for the bhakta is the opposite of what they look like they are doing. They are not meant to overwhelm the heart but to free it. If Brahmā lives for one breath, then the worry of an afternoon is very small, and the love of the boy with the flute is very large. The cosmic scale empties the noise so the song can be heard.

Verse 5.47

Mahā-Viṣṇu Asleep on the Causal Ocean

यः कारणार्णवजले भजति स्म योगनिद्रा- मनन्तजगदण्डसरोमकूपः। आधारशक्तिमवलम्ब्य परां स्वमूर्तिं गोविन्दमादिपुरुषं तमहं भजामि॥

yaḥ kāraṇārṇava-jale bhajati sma yoga-nidrām ananta-jagad-aṇḍa-saroma-kūpaḥ ādhāra-śaktim avalambya parāṃ sva-mūrtiṃ govindam ādi-puruṣaṃ tam ahaṃ bhajāmi

He sleeps the yoga-sleep on the waters of the Causal Ocean. From the pores of his skin endless universes float forth. He rests on his own supreme form, holding the supporting power. Govinda, the original person, him I worship.

The Mahā-Viṣṇu form. The Vraja Krishna, the boy with the flute, lies elsewhere as the cosmic Viṣṇu on the milk ocean, and from each pore of his skin a whole universe is breathing in and out. The poetic image is centuries older than the verse and is found in many Purāṇic loci, but the Brahma Saṃhitā situates this Viṣṇu as a portion of Govinda.

What the verse adds: ādhāra-śaktim avalambya parāṃ sva-mūrtim. He rests on his own supreme form. The Causal Ocean does not support him. He supports himself. He needs no ground but his own being. This is the bhakti version of the Upaniṣadic statement that the absolute self-supports.

Verse 5.56

The Lakṣmīs, the Lord, Loving Conduct

श्रियः कान्ताः कान्तः परमपुरुषः कल्पतरवो द्रुमा भूमिश्चिन्तामणिगणमयी तोयममृतम्। कथा गानं नाट्यं गमनमपि वंशी प्रियसखी चिदानन्दं ज्योतिः परमपि तदास्वाद्यमपि च॥

śriyaḥ kāntāḥ kāntaḥ paramapuruṣaḥ kalpa-taravo drumā bhūmiś cintāmaṇi-gaṇa-mayī toyam amṛtam kathā gānaṃ nāṭyaṃ gamanam api vaṃśī priya-sakhī cid-ānandaṃ jyotiḥ param api tad āsvādyam api ca

There the goddesses of fortune are the beloveds; the supreme person is the lover. The trees are wish-yielding; the earth is made of touchstone. Water is nectar. Speech is song. Walking is dance. The flute is the dearest companion. The light is consciousness-bliss, and the supreme itself is what is being tasted.

The verse is the most quoted single description of Goloka in all of Vaiṣṇava literature. Every faculty has been transposed. Speech does not become song; speech is song. Walking is not graceful; walking is the dance. The earth is not just beautiful; it is touchstone. There is no neutral category left.

And the last line dissolves the description into its source: the light there is cit-ānanda, consciousness-bliss, and the supreme itself is what is being tasted. The eye and the object of seeing are made of the same substance. The verse is the Upaniṣadic 'all this is Brahman' rewritten in the dialect of Vraja, where the all-this is the kuñja and the Brahman is the boy with the flute.

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Sūrdās's Bhramar Gīt

सूर भ्रमर गीत

The Vernacular Bee-Song

Gopāla-tāpanī Upaniṣad

गोपाल तापिनी उपनिषद्

The Vedic Anchor of Radha-Bhakti

All Eleven Texts

Veṇu-Gītā·Gopi-Gītā·Bhramara-Gītā·Sūrdās's Bhramar Gīt·Brahma Saṃhitā·Gopāla-tāpanī Upaniṣad·Rādhopaniṣad·Nārada Pañcarātra·Skanda Purāṇa·Hāla's Gāhā Sattasaī·Daśaślokī·Śikṣāṣṭakam·Caitanya Caritāmṛta·Gīta Govinda·Hit Caurāsī·Rādhā-Rasa-Sudhā-Nidhi·Premavāṭikā and Sujān Rasakhān·Padma Purāṇa·Govinda-Līlāmṛta·Yugala-Śataka·Kelimāla·Narottama Dāsa's Prārthanā·Radha in the Sources·Brahmavaivarta Purāṇa·Garga Saṃhitā·Devī Bhāgavata Purāṇa·Rādhā-Sahasranāma·Krishna-Karṇāmṛta·Stava-Mālā·The Rādhāṣṭakams·Vidagdha-Mādhava and Lalita-Mādhava·Vilāpa-Kusumāñjali·Bṛhad-Bhāgavatāmṛta·The Five Sampradāyas·The Aṣṭa-Sakhīs·The Eight Watches·Mañjarī-Bhāva·Bhakti-Rasāmṛta-Sindhu·Ujjvala-Nīlamaṇi·Sat-Sandarbhas·Hari-Bhakti-Vilāsa·Bhaiji·Theological Threads·Vidyāpati and Caṇḍīdāsa

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The remaining verses we have not quoted here continue this song. They describe creation, the demigods, the cosmic egg, the inner-witness Paramātmā, and they always, always return to govindam ādi-puruṣaṃ tam ahaṃ bhajāmi. The refrain is the river that the chapter is.

गोविन्दमादिपुरुषं तमहं भजामि

govindam ādi-puruṣaṃ tam ahaṃ bhajāmi