Harināma Kīrtanam · Verse 44

The forty-fourth verse names the inner-yoga structure: cast away the eight defects (beginning with pride); first establish the seat (āsana); calm the trembling of the central nāḍī (the suṣumnā); cross the six stations (the chakras of verse 9); and through this, clear away all the seeker's troubles. The verse compresses, in four Malayalam lines, the entire kuṇḍalinī-yoga discipline. The plea at the end is plain: clear my troubles.

If you have come to this verse with no kuṇḍalinī-yoga training, the verse still hands you the basic frame: pride goes first, the seat comes next, then breath stillness, then the inner climb. The verse is asking the Lord to do this, not the practitioner alone.

The Living Words

Ḍambha-ādi-doṣam-uḍan eṭṭum kaḷaññu hṛdi mumbe nija-āsanam-uṟaccu eka-nāḍi-uṭe kampam kaḷaññu nilayāṟum kaṭappatinnu tumpaṅṅaḷ tīrkka Hari Nārāyaṇāya namaḥ. Casting away the eight defects beginning with ḍambha (pride/hypocrisy); first establishing one's own seat in the heart; calming the kampa (trembling) of the central nāḍī; for the crossing of the six stations, please clear away the troubles. Ḍambha is pride, hypocrisy; eka-nāḍi is the single nāḍī (i.e., suṣumnā, the central spinal channel); kampa is trembling; nilayāṟu is six stations (chakras).

Scripture References

The Heart of It

The verse compresses the aṣṭāṅga-yoga tradition's introductory work. The eight doṣas the verse names beginning with pride correspond to the ariṣaḍ-varga expanded with two: kāma, krodha, lobha, moha, mada, mātsarya, dambha, asūyā (lust, anger, greed, delusion, intoxication-of-pride, envy, hypocrisy, jealousy). These are what classical yoga calls the kleśas and vikāras the seeker has to kaḷañju (cast away) before serious practice can begin.

The second movement, nija-āsanam uṟaccu, establishing one's own seat, is the third of Patañjali's eight limbs (āsana). The suṣumnā is the central energy-channel that, in kuṇḍalinī-yoga, must be opened for the rising of the kuṇḍalinī-energy through the chakras. The nilayāṟu (six stations) are the six chakras of verse 9, mūlādhāra through ājñā.

The verse's bhakti-move is its closing plea. Tumpaṅṅaḷ tīrkka, clear away the troubles. The seeker is not pretending he can do this work by himself. The seeker is naming the discipline, recognizing he is short of the discipline, and asking the Lord to clear the way. Verse 9 made the same move: only through Lord's grace one can do and reach such a state.

If you have come to this verse with no kuṇḍalinī-practice but with the same eight defects (pride, hypocrisy, etc.), the verse is still for you. The seat is not a posture; it is the inward establishment in the heart. The trembling is not just a nāḍī; it is the daily restlessness. The six stations are not just chakras; they are the levels of awareness the seeker has to cross. The verse asks the Lord to do this work in whatever register the seeker can receive.

The Saints Who Walked This Road

Two saints of the verse-44 yogic discipline.

Gorakhnāth (already in verse 9), the central figure of the Nātha-Yogī movement, gave the Haṭha-Yoga-Pradīpikā tradition the canonical Sanskrit-Sanskrit on the eight defects, the āsana, the suṣumnā, the six chakras. The body image is the wandering yogī with the jhola and the kuṇḍala-earrings, walking from one math to the next, the body itself prepared as the ladder of the chakras.

Patañjali, the legendary author of the Yoga Sūtras, gave the same discipline its more philosophical Sanskrit form. The aṣṭāṅga-yoga of yama-niyama-āsana-prāṇāyāma-pratyāhāra-dhāraṇā-dhyāna-samādhi is the verse-44 path enumerated. The bhakti tradition's twist (which the verse takes) is to ask the Lord, not the seeker's own discipline, to clear the path. The body image is the legendary sage in samādhi, the Sanskrit aphorisms arriving as the eight limbs.