Bhaja Govindam was told by Jagadguru Adi Shankaracharya when he saw an old man studying sanskrit grammar. Shankara was touched with pity at seeing the plight of the old man spending his last years at a mere intellectual accomplishment while he would be better off praying and spending time to control his mind.
When ādi Śaṅkarāchārya was a young boy of eight wandering near River Narmada, seeking to find his guru, he encountered the seer Govinda Bhagavatpāda who asked him, “Who are you?”. The boy answered with this ātmashatakam.
The Supreme Bhagavan, moved by the devout and reverential homage of his disciples in accord with scriptural prescriptions in countless former births, incarnates out of compassion in the form of a Guru.