Harināma Kīrtanam · Verse 33

The thirty-third verse continues the seeker's bhakti-with-questions. For king Khaṭvāṅga, in a single muhūrta (a short hour), you arranged the way to liberation. What design is this? Your plays are not few, and they often contradict each other. The verse names the king Khaṭvāṅga (a Sanskrit Purāṇic figure) who, granted by Indra a single muhūrta of time before his death after a victory in the deva-asura war, used that hour to find liberation through inward reflection. The contrast with Indradyumna of verse 32 (a thousand years as an elephant before liberation) is sharp, and the verse names it: the Lord's līlā gives different durations to different souls, and the seeker, watching, says I cannot reconcile these.

If you have come to this verse with a sense that life has not been fair, the verse is for you. The verse does not explain the unfairness. It names the unfairness directly to the Lord, and bows.

The Living Words

Khaṭvāṅgan-enna dharaṇī-īśannu kāṇkoru muhūrtena nī gati koṭuppān-um entu vidhi. For King Khaṭvāṅga, lord of the earth, see what arrangement you made: in a single muhūrta, you gave him the way. Khaṭvāṅgan is the Sanskrit Purāṇic king; dharaṇī-īśa is lord of the earth; muhūrta is a unit of time, about 48 minutes; gati is the way, the destination.

Oṭṭalla nin kaḷikaḷ ippōle taṅṅaḷil viruddhaṅṅaḷ-āyavakaḷ Hari Nārāyaṇāya namaḥ. Your plays are not few, and they appear contradictory among themselves; salutation. Oṭṭalla is not few, many; kaḷi is play, līlā; viruddha is contradictory.

Scripture References

The Heart of It

King Khaṭvāṅga's story, recorded in the Bhāgavata 9.9 and several Purāṇic compilations, is the inverse of verse 32's Indradyumna. Khaṭvāṅga had fought on Indra's side against the asuras and was granted, after victory, the boon of a single muhūrta's grace before his death. He used the muhūrta to renounce, to meditate on Viṣṇu, and to attain liberation. One short hour was enough.

The verse poses the question every honest devotee has asked. Why does the Lord's grace arrive in a muhūrta for one and after a thousand years for another? The verse does not answer. It calls the variation kaḷi, the Lord's play, and notes that the play sometimes appears self-contradictory. The Sanskrit canon's word for this is līlā-vaicitryam, the variety of the divine play. The Lord does not explain his variety. The seeker, in the bhakti tradition, is allowed to remark on it.

The Bhāgavata Purāṇa's narrator, Sūta Gosvāmī, gave the canonical bhakti response in the second book. Etāvad eva jijñāsyaṁ tattva-jijñāsunātmanaḥ: this much alone is to be inquired into by the seeker of the Self. The jijñāsā, the inquiry, is not for the līlā's vaicitryam; it is for the Self that is consistent under the variety. Verse 33 is asking the seeker to keep the inquiry pointed at the Self, even when the variety is bewildering.

If you have come to this verse with a sense that the Lord has dealt others a kinder hand than yourself, the verse legitimizes the comparison and then quietly redirects it. The plays are kaḷi. The plays are not the Lord. The bow at the end of the verse is to the Lord, not to the play.

The Saints Who Walked This Road

King Khaṭvāṅga himself, in the Bhāgavata 9.9, is the verse's central figure. His muhūrta is the canonical Sanskrit example of the one short hour sufficient for liberation. The body image is the king on the battlefield, the boon of one muhūrta given by Indra, the king turning inward at the moment of the boon, finding the Self, and dissolving in time for death. His prayer in the Bhāgavata is short and direct: I, Khaṭvāṅga, the king of the earth, take refuge in you alone, who cannot be deceived by any object, who are the Self of all. The legend is myth-form. The teaching it carries (one short hour, when surrendered, is enough) is what the verse asks the seeker to remember.