There’s something about a Hindu temple that makes me wanna sing a bit of Sanskrit. I’ve only gotta enter one of those places and the words “Govinda jaya jaya” or “acintya bheda bheda tattva”, are in my head.
So as I’m in India (the home of Sanskrit), I thought I’d find out what these old Kula Shaker tunes are all about.
Kula Shaker – Govinda (1996)
Govinda Jaya Jaya
Gopala Jaya Jaya
Radha-ramanahari
Govinda Jaya Jaya
Nrsingadeva Jaya Nrsingadeva
Gaura Gaura Gaura Hari
Gaura Hari
Prabhupda
Govindam
The words are taken from a Sanskrit prayer to Krishna (one of the Hindu gods). “Govinda Jaya Jaya Gopala Jaya Jaya” literally means – All glories to Govinda (the Supreme Lord) All glories to Gopala (the Supreme Lord as a boy tending a herd of cows)… Maybe this shit is appropriate.
Kula Shaker – Tattva (1996)
Tattva, acintya bheda bheda tattva
Like the flower and the scent of summer,
Like the sun and the shine,
Well the truth may come in strange disguises
Send the message to your mind.Tattva, acintya bheda bheda tattva
At the moment that you wake from sleeping
And you know it´s all a dream,
Well the truth may come in strange disguises
Never knowing what it means.Tattva, acintya bheda bheda tattva
For you shall be tomorrow,
Like you have been today,
If this was never ending,
What more can you say
The literal translation is something like, “inconceivable difference breaking apart reality” or that you can’t understand the difference, because to understand it would shatter your reality, like the difference between a flower and the scent of summer, etc…
All very deep or meaningless, depending on your point of view.
_____
Source: songmeanings.com
Ben Rook 