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The Pandit's Pride: Intellectual Ego in Spiritual Life
Bhaja Govindam's Opening Sloka and Kabir's Fierce Critique of Hollow Scholarship
January 31, 2026
•Shikshak Content Board
•8 minute read
Section 4 of 8
Bhaja Govindam Expands the Critique
Shankara does not stop with grammar.
Throughout Bhaja Govindam, he repeatedly attacks false security.
Verse: Wealth and Pride Are Temporary
मा कुरु धनजनयौवनगर्वं
हरति निमेषात्कालः सर्वम् ।
Do not be proud of wealth, people, or youth—
Time destroys everything in an instant.
Connection to Intellectual Pride
Pandit pride is another form of the same arrogance.
Instead of wealth-pride, it is knowledge-pride.
But time destroys that too.
At death, what remains of scholarship?
Nothing.
Verse: Life Passes While One Remains Deluded
दिनयामिन्यौ सायं प्रातः
शिशिरवसन्तौ पुनरायातः ।
Day and night pass, morning and evening pass,
seasons return again and again…
Yet the fool does not awaken.
Commentary
The scholar may spend decades studying…
But does awakening happen?
Or only accumulation?
Time passes.
Death comes.
And the mind remains unchanged.
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