Verse 62 of 68
Harināma Kīrtanam · Verse 62
ഷഡ്വൈരികൾക്കു വിളയാട്ടത്തിനാക്കരുതു
ചിത്താംബുജം മമ ഹി സദ്ധ്യാനരംഗമതിൽ
തത്രാപി നിത്യവുമൊരിക്കലിരുന്നരുൾക
ചിത്താംബുജേ മമ ച നാരായണായ നമഃṣaḍvairikaḷkku viḷayāṭṭattinākkarutu cittāṁbujaṁ mama hi saddhyānaraṁgamatil tatrāpi nityavumorikkalirunnaruḷka cittāṁbujē mama ca nārāyaṇāya namaḥ
“Do not let the six enemies play their games on the stage of my heart-lotus, the place of right meditation. There, daily, let the Lord come and sit. In the lotus of my mind, salutation to Hari Nārāyaṇa.”
The sixty-second verse names the inner enemies and asks the heart-lotus to be the Lord's seat instead. Do not let the six enemies play their games on the stage of my heart-lotus, the place of right meditation. There, daily, let the Lord come and sit. In the lotus of my mind, salutation to Hari Nārāyaṇa. The Sanskrit canon's ariṣaḍ-varga (the six inner enemies: lust, anger, greed, delusion, pride, envy) are named indirectly. The verse asks them not to play in the heart-lotus; the Lord, daily, is asked to sit there.
If you have come to this verse with a heart you have been letting the six enemies use as a stage, the verse names them and asks for the seat to be cleared.
The Living Words
Ariḷ-ṣaḍ-varga-līlā-aṅgaṇām-iha hṛd-ambuja-vēdy-aham-iha mā-astu nityam tatra dhyāna-gōcara-mēvan īśan iha asma-manas-ambuja-yām Hari Nārāyaṇāya namaḥ. Let the six enemies' play not be in the stage of my heart-lotus, the place of right meditation; there, daily, let the Lord come and sit, in the lotus of my mind. The Anantasatsang English carries the verse's imagery directly.
Scripture References
Lust, anger, and greed are the triple gate of hell, destroyers of the self; therefore one should abandon these three.
त्रिविधं नरकस्येदं द्वारं नाशनमात्मनः । कामः क्रोधस्तथा लोभस्तस्मादेतत्त्रयं त्यजेत् ।।
tri-vidhaṁ narakasyedaṁ dvāraṁ nāśanam ātmanaḥ | kāmaḥ krodhas tathā lobhas tasmād etat trayaṁ tyajet ||
Lust, anger, and greed are the triple gate of hell, destroyers of the self; therefore one should abandon these three.
Krishna's Sanskrit naming of three of the verse-62 *ariṣaḍ-varga*. The verse takes Krishna's three and adds delusion, pride, and envy in the bhakti tradition's expanded list. The *tyajet* (one should abandon) is the Sanskrit imperative; the verse-62 plea is gentler: let the Lord sit, and the abandoning happens of itself.
The Heart of It
The Sanskrit ariṣaḍ-varga (six enemies) are: kāma (lust), krodha (anger), lobha (greed), moha (delusion), mada (pride/intoxication), mātsarya (envy). The Bhagavad Gītā 16.21 names lust, anger, and greed as the triple gate of hell; the bhakti-tradition expanded this to six. Verse 62 takes the six and refuses them the heart-lotus.
The verse's image is precise. The heart is a stage (aṅgaṇa); the six enemies have been using it. The verse asks the stage to be cleared and the Lord to come sit on it. The Sanskrit-Tantric ambuja (lotus) is the heart-chakra, the anāhata; the verse asks the anāhata to be the Lord's seat, not the playground of the six.
The practical question is how the seat gets cleared. The verse's answer is in its imperative grammar: let the Lord come and sit there, daily. The clearing is not the seeker's first act; the seat-taking is. When the Lord sits, the six enemies are crowded out by the Lord's presence. The seeker's job is to invite. The Lord's sitting is what does the cleaning.
When the Lord sits, the six enemies are crowded out by the Lord's presence.
The Saints Who Walked This Road
Two saints who set up the verse-62 heart-lotus-seat.
Āṇṭāḷ (already in verses 3, 50), the Tamil girl-saint, never let the six enemies play in her heart-lotus. She kept it open for Krishna alone from her earliest years. The Tiruppāvai's daily-recitation discipline (thirty verses recited in the pre-dawn dark) is the aṅgaṇa (stage) being prepared each morning before the day's distractions arrive. Body image: the small girl at the temple-gate at four a.m., the lamp lit, the verses arriving in the same hour every day.
Mīrābāī (already in verses 2, 25, 40) is the Hindi-tradition's queen-saint who, in the most famous bhajan attributed to her, sings: the home of my heart is your home now; no other guest is welcome. The body image is the queen on the courtyard at Chittor, the Lord seated in her heart, the in-laws' attempted poisoning failing because the seat was already taken.
The Refrain
ഹരി നാരായണായ നമഃ
Salutation to Hari Nārāyaṇa.