Verse 52 of 68
Harināma Kīrtanam · Verse 52
പലതും പറഞ്ഞു പകൽ കളയുന്നനാവുതവ
തിരുനാമകീർത്തനമിതതിനായ് വരേണമിഹ
കലിയായ കാലമിതിലതുകൊണ്ടു മോക്ഷഗതി
എളുതെന്നു കേൾപ്പു ഹരി നാരായണായ നമഃpalatuṁ paṟaññu pakal kaḷayunnanāvutava tirunāmakīrttanamitatināy varēṇamiha kaliyāya kālamitilatukoṇṭu mōkṣagati eḷutennu kēḷppu hari nārāyaṇāya namaḥ
“Many things are spoken; the day is wasted. Let your tongue speak this Hari-nāma-song instead. In this Kali age, by this alone the path of liberation is said to be easy. Salutation to Hari Nārāyaṇa.”
The fifty-second verse names the daily problem. Many things are spoken; the day is wasted. Let your tongue speak this Hari-nāma-song instead. In this Kali age, by this alone the path of liberation is said to be easy. The verse holds the same teaching as verse 17 (the only counsel is the Name) and applies it to the most ordinary fact of human life: the speaking that fills the day. The day is short; the tongue is busy; let the tongue's busyness be the Name.
If you have come to this verse aware of how much of your day goes into talking that does not nourish you, the verse offers one substitution. Not silence; the verse does not require silence. The same tongue that has been speaking other things, the verse asks, can speak the Name.
The Living Words
Palatum paṟaññu pakal kaḷayunna-nāvu tava tirunāma-kīrttanam ataināy varēṇam-iha. Speaking many things, your tongue wastes the day; let it instead become (the speaking of) the divine-name-song. Palatum paṟaññu is speaking many things; pakal kaḷayunna is wasting the day; nāvu is tongue; tirunāma-kīrttanam is the divine-name-song.
Kali-āya kālam-itil atu-koṇḍu mokṣa-gati eḷut-ennu kēḷppu Hari Nārāyaṇāya namaḥ. In this Kali age, by that alone, the path to liberation is said to be easy. Kali-āya kālam is the Kali-age; eḷut is easy; kēḷppu is is heard.
Scripture References
In the Kali age, there is no other way, no other way, no other way (than the Name).
हरेर्नाम हरेर्नाम हरेर्नामैव केवलम् । कलौ नास्त्येव नास्त्येव नास्त्येव गतिरन्यथा ।।
harer nāma harer nāma harer nāmaiva kevalam | kalau nāsty eva nāsty eva nāsty eva gatir anyathā ||
Hari's name, Hari's name, Hari's name alone; in the Kali age, there is no other way, no other way, no other way.
Already cited in verse 17 and verse 22. Verse 52's *kali-āya kālam-itil atu-koṇḍu mokṣa-gati eḷut* (in the Kali age, by that, liberation is easy) is the Malayalam compression of this Sanskrit *nāsty eva* triple.
The Heart of It
The verse references the canonical Bṛhan-Nāradīya verse cited in verse 17: kalau nāsty eva nāsty eva nāsty eva gatir anyathā: in the Kali age, there is no other way. The verse-52 kēḷppu, (it) is heard, is Ezhuthachan's quiet acknowledgement that this is not his own claim; this is what the tradition has heard. The seeker is being asked to receive what the tradition has handed forward.
The verse's economy is in its honesty about the tongue. The tongue is going to speak. The day is going to be filled. The verse does not ask the tongue to stop; the verse asks the tongue to redirect. The same speaking that fills the day with gossip, work, complaint, and small talk can be filled with the Name. The tongue is happy to speak; the only question is what.
The same speaking that fills the day with gossip, work, complaint, and small talk can be filled with the Name. The tongue is happy to speak; the only question is what.
The Saints Who Walked This Road
Two saints whose tongues were the verse-52 Name-speaking tongue.
Haridāsa Ṭhākur (already in verse 5), the Nāmācārya of the Caitanya tradition, kept his tongue busy with three hundred thousand names of Kṛṣṇa daily. The body image is the small thatched hut, the wooden seat smoothed by years, the tongue continuously naming. The day was not wasted because the tongue was filled.
Guru Nānak (already in verse 7), at Sultanpur Lodhi at dawn, recited the Japji Sāhib and gave the Sikh community a tradition of daily morning Name-recitation that has, in five hundred years, never broken. The body image is the saint at the river-bank, the Mool Mantra arising as the morning broke, the tongue that taught a community to fill its days the same way.
The Refrain
ഹരി നാരായണായ നമഃ
Salutation to Hari Nārāyaṇa.