Verse 67 of 68
Harināma Kīrtanam · Verse 67
കരുണാപയോധി മമ ഗുരുനാഥനിസ്തുതിയെ
വിരവോടുപാർത്തു പിഴ വഴിപോലെ തീർത്തരുൾക
ദുരിതാബ്ധിതൻ നടുവിൽ മറിയുന്നവർക്കു പര-
മൊരു പോതമായ് വരിക നാരായണായ നമഃkaruṇāpayōdhi mama gurunāthanistutiye viravōṭupārttu piḻa vaḻipōle tīrttaruḷka duritābdhitan naṭuvil maṟiyunnavarkku para- moru pōtamāy varika nārāyaṇāya namaḥ
“Ocean of compassion, my guru-master: receive this praise, examine it carefully, and correct its faults as you see fit. For those who toss in the middle of the ocean of suffering, let it become a small boat. Salutation to Hari Nārāyaṇa.”
The sixty-seventh verse is Ezhuthachan's own colophon-prayer. Ocean of compassion, my guru-master: receive this praise, examine it carefully, and correct its faults as you see fit. For those who toss in the middle of the ocean of suffering, let it become a small boat. The poet hands the work back to the guru-Lord and asks for two things: the work's faults to be corrected, and the work to become a small boat for those drowning in bhava-sāgara, the ocean of becoming.
If you have come to this verse aware that you are also tossing in the ocean of suffering, the verse names you as the recipient: the work was composed for those exactly like you. The boat, however small, was made for the seeker who needs one.
The Living Words
Karuṇā-sindhu-mama-guru-svāmi-iha-stutim-imāṁ vihita-ṛju-doṣa-pari-saṁśodhayan-iha; bhava-sāgara-mēvam-ārta-jana-vargāya saṅkalpaya laghu-naukāṁ Hari Nārāyaṇāya namaḥ. Ocean-of-compassion, my guru-master, here, receive this praise, examine it and correct its faults; for those tossed in the bhava-sāgara (ocean of becoming), make it a small boat. The verse uses formal-Sanskrit grammar: karuṇā-sindhu is ocean of compassion; bhava-sāgara is ocean of worldly existence; laghu-naukā is small boat; ārta-jana is suffering people.
Scripture References
Four kinds of pious people worship me: the afflicted, the seeker of knowledge, the seeker of wealth, and the wise.
चतुर्विधा भजन्ते मां जनाः सुकृतिनोऽर्जुन । आर्तो जिज्ञासुरर्थार्थी ज्ञानी च भरतर्षभ ।।
catur-vidhā bhajante māṁ janāḥ sukṛtino'rjuna | ārto jijñāsur arthārthī jñānī ca bharatarṣabha ||
Four kinds of righteous people worship me, Arjuna: the afflicted, the seeker of knowledge, the seeker of wealth, and the wise.
Krishna's Sanskrit naming of the four-fold devotee. The *ārta* (the afflicted) is the first category. Verse 67's plea for the work to be a *laghu-naukā* (small boat) for the *ārta-jana* is the Malayalam form of the Gītā's recognition: the afflicted are also Krishna's beloved devotees.
The Heart of It
The verse is the bhakti-tradition's standard colophon-prayer: the author offers the work back to the guru, asks for correction, and asks the work to serve the next generation. The Bhāgavata Purāṇa closes with a similar colophon (12.13.18-23) in which Sūta Gosvāmī asks for the work to bring grace to whoever hears it.
The verse's most personal phrase is bhava-sāgara-mēvam-ārta-jana-vargāya, for those tossed in the ocean of becoming. The poet does not pretend the work is for the already-realized. The work is for the ārta-jana, the suffering people, the ones in the middle of the wave. The Sanskrit canon has a name for this category of devotee: ārta, the afflicted, named first in the Bhagavad Gītā 7.16 in Krishna's enumeration of the four kinds of devotee. The verse closes by asking the Lord to make the boat for exactly this category.
The seeker who has read this far in the work is one of the ārta-jana. The work is the boat the verse asked the Lord to make. The reading is the boarding.
The boat, however small, was made for the seeker who needs one.
The Saints Who Walked This Road
Two saints whose lives were the verse-67 colophon-prayer-and-boat-building.
Vyāsa (already in verse 16), the legendary compiler of the Mahābhārata and the Bhāgavata, ended each of his works with the same kind of colophon-prayer: that the work be received by whoever needs it, that its faults be forgiven, that it serve the next generation of ārta-jana. The Bhāgavata 12.13.18-23 is the canonical model. Body image: the sage at the manuscript-bank, the closing colophon arriving in the same Sanskrit grammar Ezhuthachan uses in this verse.
Ezhuthachan himself, sixteenth-century Kerala, signed off his works with this kind of guru-samarpaṇa. The same poet who, in verse 5, asked his guru's blessing to begin the work, here at verse 67 asks the same guru to receive and correct the work. Body image: the saint at the small house at Tirur, the manuscript completed, the bow at the beginning balanced by the bow at the end.
The Refrain
ഹരി നാരായണായ നമഃ
Salutation to Hari Nārāyaṇa.