Verse 31 of 68
Harināma Kīrtanam · Verse 31
അപ്പാശവും വടിയുമായ്ക്കൊണ്ടജാമിളനെ
മുല്പാടുചെന്നു കയറിട്ടോരു കിങ്കരരെ
പില്പാടുചെന്നഥ തടുത്തോരുനാൽവരെയു-
മപ്പോലെ നൗമി ഹരി നാരായണായ നമഃappāśavuṁ vaṭiyumāykkoṇṭajāmiḷane mulpāṭucennu kayaṟiṭṭōru kiṅkarare pilpāṭucennatha taṭuttōrunālvareyu- mappōle naumi hari nārāyaṇāya namaḥ
“With rope and rod, the messengers ran toward Ajāmila to bind him. The four envoys came after and stopped them. So I too bow before you, Hari. Salutation to Hari Nārāyaṇa.”
The thirty-first verse stages, in four Malayalam lines, the most famous deathbed scene in the Bhāgavata Purāṇa. With rope and rod, the messengers (the kiṅkaras, Yama's servants) ran first to bind Ajāmila. Coming after them, the four envoys (the Viṣṇudūtas) stopped them. Like that, I too bow before you, Hari. The verse compresses Bhāgavata 6.1-2, the Ajāmila episode whose canonical verse was already cited in verse 11. Here, the Malayalam poet does not retell the story so much as bow into it: as Ajāmila was rescued, save me too.
If you have come to this verse afraid that your past will be enough to condemn you at the end, the verse is for you. The Ajāmila story is the Sanskrit canon's most powerful answer to that fear: a Brahmin who had spent his life in degradation was saved at the moment of death by calling his son's name Nārāyaṇa, and the four envoys of Viṣṇu stopped Yama's messengers in their tracks. The verse asks for the same intervention.
The Living Words
Appāśavum vaṭiyumāy koṇḍ Ajāmiḷane mulpāḍu cennu kayar iṭṭōru kiṅkarare. The kiṅkaras (Yama's emissaries) who came first with rope and rod and threw the noose at Ajāmila. Pāśa is rope, noose; vaṭi is rod, staff; kiṅkara is servant, attendant; kayar iṭuka is to throw a noose.
Pilpāḍu cennu atha taḍuttōru nālvareyum. And the four (envoys) who came after and held them back. Pilpāḍu is coming after; taḍutta is held back, blocked; nālvar is the four ones (the Viṣṇudūtas of Bhāgavata 6.1.30).
Appōle naumi Hari Nārāyaṇāya namaḥ. Like that I bow, Hari Nārāyaṇa. Appōle is like that; naumi is the Sanskrit I bow (a rare loan-word into Malayalam in this context). The verse asks the same intervention: Hari, save me as you saved Ajāmila.
Scripture References
The Viṣṇudūtas spoke: 'Even if uttered in jest, in distress, or unconsciously, the Name of Hari has the power to remove all sin.'
साङ्केत्यं पारिहास्यं वा स्तोभं हेलनमेव वा । वैकुण्ठनामग्रहणमशेषाघहरं विदुः ।।
sāṅketyaṁ pārihāsyaṁ vā stobhaṁ helanam eva vā | vaikuṇṭha-nāma-grahaṇam aśeṣāgha-haraṁ viduḥ ||
Whether uttered as an indication, in jest, in stop-gap, or even with contempt, the taking of the Vaikuṇṭha-name is known to remove all sins.
The Viṣṇudūtas' Sanskrit declaration in the Ajāmila episode. The Name's power is independent of the speaker's intention. Verse 31's *naumi*, *I bow*, asks the seeker to be granted the same independence: the bow may be small, the bow may be late, the bow may be made for the wrong reason; the four envoys arrive anyway.
The Heart of It
The verse is shorter than verse 11's commentary on the same story, but more directly personal. Verse 11 stage-managed the entire courtroom; verse 31 names a single scene from the courtroom and asks the Lord to play it again. As you sent the four envoys to stop the kiṅkaras of death from binding Ajāmila, send them for me. The Sanskrit verb naumi (I bow) at the end of the line is unusual for a Malayalam composition; Ezhuthachan reaches into Sanskrit grammar at the moment he is invoking a Sanskrit Purāṇa.
The Bhāgavata Purāṇa's account, in chapter 6.1, is detailed. Ajāmila, on his deathbed, sees the Yama-messengers arriving with their pāśa and daṇḍa, and in fear calls the name of his youngest son, Nārāyaṇa. The four Viṣṇudūtas arrive immediately, stand between the dying Brahmin and Yama's kiṅkaras, and forbid the binding. A long Sanskrit dialogue follows in which the Viṣṇudūtas explain the principle that the verse-31 Malayalam compresses: the Name has its own authority, and even when called accidentally, even when called in pure parental love rather than devotion, the Name interposes the four Viṣṇu-envoys between the soul and its accounting.
Krishna Priya's gloss on verse 11 of this work was the doctrinal explanation: the thoughts at the time of death decide the next birth. Verse 31 is the dramatized version: here is the scene; here are the rope and rod; here are the four envoys; here is the bow. The seeker, in the verse, is asking to be in Ajāmila's place, in the moment the four envoys arrive.
If you have come to this verse afraid of how the file of your life reads, the verse offers the same comfort verse 11 offered. The Name said honestly outlasts the list, because the One named is not in the file. Ajāmila's Name was even less than honest; it was casual, parental, almost accidental. The Name still worked. The verse-31 naumi, I bow, is the seeker's request that the same not-quite-honest, not-quite-deserved bow be enough for him as well.
The verse holds two grammars at once. Appāśavum vaṭiyumāy, with rope and rod, is heavy and material: the cords of karma, the staff of judgment. Naumi, I bow, is small and bodily: a single word, a single bend of the head. The verse stages both and asks the Lord to choose the second over the first. The Bhāgavata's verdict is that the second wins.
Ajāmila's Name was even less than honest; it was casual, parental, almost accidental. The Name still worked.
The Saints Who Walked This Road
Two saints whose practice was the verse-31 bow.
Ajāmila himself (used in verse 11) is the canonical figure of the verse, both as cautionary tale and as recipient of grace. The body image is the dying Brahmin in his hut, the Yamadūtas at the door, the four Viṣṇudūtas arriving in the same instant the syllables Nā-rā-ya-ṇa leave his mouth.
Nāmadeva-Khecara (a different figure from Sant Nāmdev of verse 5; the legend in some Vaiṣṇava traditions records him as a Mahar villager whose own name was Khecara, and who, like Ajāmila, called Nārāyaṇa at the end of his life out of an entirely worldly concern), is the bhakti tradition's repeated teaching that the Name worked even for those who did not intend to invoke it. The body image is the villager at the threshold, the Name on the lips for an unrelated reason, the same four envoys arriving anyway. The legend is myth-form. The pattern, which the entire bhakti tradition has held as central, is not.
The Refrain
ഹരി നാരായണായ നമഃ
Salutation to Hari Nārāyaṇa.