Harināma Kīrtanam · Verse 61

The sixty-first verse names the moment the path is granted. For one who serves with strength as he is able, with bodyless firm faith, with devotion he goes and seizes your sacred feet, that is the moment when the path is granted. The verse makes the Vaiṣṇava-tradition's prapatti exact. The seeker does not need to be more than he is; the seeker does not need to wait for special conditions; the seeker only has to seize the sacred feet in faith. The verse declares that this seizing is itself the granting of the path.

If you have come to this verse with a long history of waiting for the right moment to begin, the verse refuses the waiting. The moment is when the seeker seizes the feet. There is no other condition.

The Living Words

Niḥśakti-katha-balatāyā-uṣṭha-uri-yu-bhakti-bhavi nin-pāda-padma-grahaṇam-ennum samayam-itu mokṣa-dā Hari Nārāyaṇāya namaḥ. For one who serves with strength as he is able, with firm faith without body's pretense, with devotion seizes your lotus-feet, that is the mokṣa-giving moment. Niḥśakti is without sham; bala is strength; bhakti is devotion; pāda-padma is lotus-feet; grahaṇa is seizing; mokṣa-dā is liberation-giving.

Scripture References

The Heart of It

The verse compresses the prapatti-doctrine of the Tamil-Malayalam Vaiṣṇava tradition into one line. The seeker, in his current form, with his current strength, with his current faith, takes hold of the Lord's feet. The taking-hold is itself the granting. There is no separate moment when the path is given; the seizing is the path.

The Bhagavad Gītā's charama-śloka (already cited in verse 32) gives the canonical Sanskrit form. Sarva-dharmān parityajya mām ekaṁ śaraṇaṁ vraja: abandon all dharmas, take refuge in me alone. Vraja is go, take refuge; the verse-61 grahaṇa is the same act in a more visceral grammar. The seeker is not waiting; the seeker is grabbing.

The verse's most tender word is niḥśakti, without pretense. The seeker is not asked to make himself look stronger than he is. The seeker is asked to bring exactly what he has, in its actual condition, and to seize the feet with that. The Lord's response is not graded by the strength of the seizing; the response is the path being granted.

The Saints Who Walked This Road

Two saints whose lives were the verse-61 seizing-of-feet.

Draupadī, in the Mahābhārata, in the dice-hall at Hastinapura, called Krishna's name when she was being disrobed. The cloth, the legend records, became unending. She had not done penance; she had not earned the protection by formal practice; she only seized the Lord's feet by calling his name. Body image: the queen in the assembly-hall, the sārī unwinding from her body, the Lord's grace meeting the seizing.

Nandanār (already in verses 19, 27), the Tamil leather-worker, seized the feet of the Lord at Cidambaram by walking through fire (in the legend) when the orthodox priests asked him to. He had no formal prapatti-initiation; he had only the seizing. Body image: the saint at the temple-fire, the leather-worker's body walking through, the inside of the temple finally opening because the seizing had already happened on the outside.