Bhaja Govindam - Sloka 4

4.

Nalinidala gata jalam - the droplet of water on the leaf of the Lotus

Ati taralam - is very unstable

Tadvat - in the same way

Jivitam - this life

Atisayacapalam - is very fickle

Viddhi - understand this

Vyadhi Abhimana grastam - to be in the hold of disease and ego

Lokam - whole world

Sokahatam ca - and also in the grasp of sorrow

Samastam - is everything.

The water droplet on the lotus leaf is very unstable so is the life of a being is very unstable. Know this entire world to be in the strong grasp of disease, ego and sorrow.

If one thinks that for some period of his life after enjoying the worldly things one can devote his life to the knowledge of self, then, he has to think twice. And again, just giving-up the desire for the woman’s body is in itself not all. There is something which requires our immediate attention. Because the life is so fickle, we don't know when it will come to an end. But people only associate the death with others and not as something which may happen to themselves.

As we saw in the first stanza the death is around the corner, and it can happen to anyone any time. This fickle life is equated with the state of the droplet of water which cannot hold onto a single place in the lotus leaf. As it keeps moving around from one area to the other, so too, this Jiva travels from one body to the other. And the strangest thing is everyone thinks that this life is eternal, or just that his life is eternal.

As from the direct experience itself one can understand that this life is not eternal. And not just that, there are so many other problems which one faces in the life, like disease, ego and the different types of sorrows.

These are the very reason which gave Siddhartha, Gautama the Buddha, the dispassion. And this became the basis for his teaching the four cannons of Buddhism - sarvam kshanikam kshanikam (everything is a momentous / ephemeral), sarvam dukham dukham (everything is sorrowful), sarvam svalakshanam svalakshanam (everything is in its own nature) and sarvam shunyam shunyam (everything is void). Which became the basis for the four schools of Buddhism, namely, sautrantika, vaibhashika, yogachara and madhyamika.