In plain words
Then: ‘Govindaṃ govindaṃ bhaja govindaṃ govindaṃ’. Many elders have taught many kinds of meaning for the word Govinda. Its real meaning is this: He is the one who tends the cows, the one who sustains the cows. That is, Govinda is the very one who governs even the animal nature. Since a residue of animal nature remains in man, Govinda takes on this form and this name in order to transform the character of that animal nature and have it offered to the Paramātma in a state of purity. To the animal nature, the human is out of reach. To the human, the divine is within reach. But a little of the animal nature remains as a residue in the human. We must look for a moment at the character of this animal. Show it green grass, and it comes close and happily swishes its tail. Take a stout stick and beat that same cow hard, and it runs far away. Today too, show a man ten coins and he comes right up close. Scold him sharply and he goes far away. Is this the mark of humanity, and not of animal nature! So we must not be afraid, and we must not frighten. We are not cattle, to be afraid. We are not wild beasts, to frighten. But when some wrong or right has been done, to teach the truth of it in one way or another and give the correction it deserves is Viveka within the human; it has nothing at all to do with lack of Viveka. So Govinda simply means this: it is the nature of this Govinda to set right men's wrongs and rights, give the punishment a wrong deserves and the fruit a right deserves, and make them experience the presence of the Paramātma as their treasure. So we must remember Govinda without ceasing. We must sing His praise. We must have faith in Him. This word Govinda has another meaning too. One meaning of it is sound. In the words a man speaks, in the cries an animal makes, in the mantras the Veda utters, sound alone is the chief thing.