Harināma Kīrtanam · Verse 27

The twenty-seventh verse holds a quiet universalism. For every body, in its own measure, this same principle reaches. The principle in question is the verse-26 mevunna nātha, the Lord who resides in every tattva. Verse 27 takes that recognition and declares it without exception: no distinction comes for anyone on earth. Whatever the body, whatever the social location, whatever the religious history, the same principle reaches. And then the verse names the practical condition: if the mortal abandons the sins of his birth-state, liberation arrives.

The verse repeats verse 20's universalism (no caste-gender prohibition) in a different register. Verse 20 said the Name is open to anyone. Verse 27 says the truth is already in anyone. The seeker does not have to be admitted; the seeker has to recognize what is already there.

If you have come to this verse with a sense that the truth is for some other kind of person, that you are excluded by your body, your past, or your circumstance, the verse refuses the exclusion. The principle reaches everyone. The body is, in this telling, only the house in which the principle has been residing all along.

The Living Words

Onninu tatvam itu dehattin-otta-vidham. For each one, this principle, in the body's own measure. Onninu is for each one; tatvam is the principle; itu is this; dehattin-otta-vidham is in the manner suited to the body. The phrase says: the truth applies to every body, but in a way fitted to that body's own scale.

Ettunnu ārkkum oru-bhedam varāte bhuvi. Reaches anyone, with no distinction whatsoever, on earth. Ettunnu is reaches; ārkkum is to anyone; oru-bhedam varāte is without any distinction coming; bhuvi is on earth. The verse explicitly names the universalism.

Martyante janma-nila pāpam veṭiññukil. If the mortal abandons the sins of his birth-state. Martyan is mortal; janma-nila is birth-state, the condition into which one was born; pāpam is sin, harmful action; veṭiññukil is if (one) abandons. The verse names the condition: not the changing of the birth-state, but the abandoning of its associated sins.

Ettunna mokṣam atil Nārāyaṇāya namaḥ. Liberation arrives at that moment; salutation to Nārāyaṇa. Ettunna mokṣam is the arriving liberation; atil is at that. The verse promises that the abandonment of the birth-state's wrongs is what releases the seeker into the truth that is already present.

Scripture References

The Heart of It

The verse opens with one of the most theologically satisfying lines in the work. The same principle reaches everyone, in the measure that suits each body, with no distinction. Verse 26 said: the Lord resides in ninety-six tattvas of the embodied human. Verse 27 says: this is true of every embodied human, without distinction. The verse does not pause to argue. It states the universal as plain fact.

The Bhagavad Gītā gave the canonical Sanskrit form. Samo'haṁ sarva-bhūteṣu na me dveṣyo'sti na priyaḥ. I am the same in all beings; none is hateful to me, none is dear. Krishna, in his ninth chapter, places the universalism in his own mouth. The Lord does not have favorites. The principle that resides in one body resides in every body, in equal measure adjusted for that body's scale.

The verse's social register is the same one verses 19 and 20 carried. The orthodox Smṛti tradition was built on the janma-nila, the birth-state, as the determining factor for spiritual access. You can study Veda only if you are born here. You can perform yajña only if you are born there. Verse 27 refuses the framework. The janma-nila is not the qualifier; the abandonment of the sins associated with that birth-state is the qualifier. The seeker can be born anywhere; the seeker has only to leave behind the wrongs the birth taught.

Krishna Priya's gloss on the surrounding verses gives the practical reading. No one has the power to say this person is not allowed to recite Lord's name. Verse 27 extends this: not only is everyone allowed to recite, but the principle of liberation is, by virtue of the body's structure, already operating in everyone. The body is, on this reading, designed for the Lord's residence; the only obstacle is the pāpa (the sin, the wrong, the harmful tendency) that the birth-conditions taught the seeker.

The verse does not name what these pāpas are. The seeker is left to recognize them in his own life. The Bhagavad Gītā 16.21 gave a brief Sanskrit list (lust, anger, greed are the threefold gate of hell), but the verse-27 generosity is to leave the diagnosis to the seeker. Whatever the inherited harmful tendencies are, the abandoning of them opens the body to the principle that has been residing in it all along.

If you have come to this verse from a community whose religious tradition has named your birth as a barrier, the verse refuses the barrier. The body, every body, is the Lord's house. The seeker only has to clear the harmful tenants and the Lord's residence will be visible.

The verse closes with one of the work's most assured promises. Ettunna mokṣam. The arriving liberation. Not the achieved liberation; not the earned liberation; the arriving liberation. The verb is in the present-continuous. Liberation comes as a guest the moment the seeker has cleared the room.

The Saints Who Walked This Road

Two saints whose lives demonstrated the verse-27 universalism.

Bhakta Cokhāmeḷā (used in verse 17), the Mahar Vārkari saint of Pandharpur, lived the verse-27 claim against the orthodox social barrier. His birth-state was the lowest in the orthodox order. He did not change his birth-state; he abandoned the pāpa of internalized self-rejection that the birth-state had taught. The Vitthal he sang to did not check his caste; the Vitthal arrived in the same measure he had been arriving in for the saints with full Brahmin pedigree.

Nandaṉār (used in verse 19), the Pulayan Tamil Nāyaṉār, walked the same verse-27 path. The janma-nila (the orthodox prohibition that kept him outside the temple) was real; the pāpa he abandoned was the acceptance of the prohibition as the final word. He stood at the temple door, sang the names, walked through the fire as the legend records, and arrived. The body image is the leather-worker at the door, the door dissolving as the pāpa of the orthodox arrangement was set aside by the saint's own act of refusal.