Verse 68 of 68
Harināma Kīrtanam · Verse 68
മദമാത്സരാദികൾ മനസ്സിൽ തൊടാതെ ജന-
മിതുകൊണ്ടു വാഴ്ത്തുക നമുക്കും ഗതിക്കു വഴി
ഇതു കേൾക്കതാനിതൊരു മൊഴി താൻ പഠിപ്പവനും
പതിയാ ഭവാംബുധിയിൽ നാരായണായ നമഃmadamātsarādikaḷ manassil toṭāte jana- mitukoṇṭu vāḻttuka namukkuṁ gatikku vaḻi itu kēḷkkatānitoru moḻi tān paṭhippavanuṁ patiyā bhavāṁbudhiyil nārāyaṇāya namaḥ
“For all who recite this without letting pride or rivalry touch the mind, this is the path to a good destination. For one who hears it, or one who memorises even a single line, that one will not sink in the ocean of becoming. Salutation to Hari Nārāyaṇa.”
The sixty-eighth verse is Ezhuthachan's seal of grace, the closing of the work. For all who recite this without letting pride or rivalry touch the mind, this is the path to a good destination. For one who hears it, or one who memorises even a single line, that one will not sink in the ocean of becoming. The closing is generous and direct. The work, the verse declares, is transmissive: even hearing one line preserves the listener.
If you have come to this verse having read the entire work, the verse promises a good destination. If you have come to this verse having read only part of it, the verse promises that even a single line, held in memory, is enough to keep the seeker afloat in the ocean of becoming. The work is a small boat, as verse 67 named it; verse 68 names the boat's range.
The Living Words
Sarva-iyaṁ paṭhana-yuktāṁ-mānam-mātsaryaṁ-rāgaṁ ca cetasi mā sparśayan, sad-gatim-imāṁ saṁyogaḥ. śravaṇaṁ-vā-yaḥ ekām api dhīrayas-mṛtim-yogyam, asau bhava-sāgare na majjati Hari Nārāyaṇāya namaḥ. For all who recite this without letting pride or rivalry touch the mind, this is the path to sad-gati. For one who hears it, or one who memorises even one line, that one does not sink in the ocean of becoming. Mā sparśayan is not letting touch; sad-gati is the good destination; bhava-sāgare na majjati is does not sink in the ocean of becoming.
Scripture References
Whatever song one sings about Krishna's deeds, even one song with one syllable, is enough to remove the troubles of the singer.
इदं भागवतं पुण्यं श्रवणं श्रावणं श्रुतम् । पूज्यं पुजयिता वाक्यं स्तोत्रं स्तोता नमस्कृतम् ।।
idaṁ bhāgavataṁ puṇyaṁ śravaṇaṁ śrāvaṇaṁ śrutam | pūjyaṁ pujayitā vākyaṁ stotraṁ stotā namaskṛtam ||
This Bhāgavata is to be revered, listened to, recited, heard, and worshipped; it is the worshipper, the speech, the hymn, the singer, and the salutation.
The closing colophon of the Bhāgavata Purāṇa. Verse 68's claim about the work being saving for the listener and the memorizer is Ezhuthachan's Malayalam-Vaiṣṇava form of the Bhāgavata's own self-claim. The work is meant to be transmissive; the seeker who has heard even one line is in the boat.
The Heart of It
The verse names the conditions under which the work transmits its grace. Mānam-mātsaryam-rāgam ca cetasi mā sparśayan: do not let pride, rivalry, or attachment touch the mind. The seeker who recites the work as performance, as competition with others, or as decoration of his own attainment will not receive the transmission. The seeker who recites the work in plain devotion will. Verses 21 and 48 prepared the way for this closing condition.
The verse's most generous claim is the second half. For one who hears it, or one who memorises even a single line. The seeker does not have to recite all sixty-eight verses. The seeker does not have to compose his own commentary. Even one line, held in memory, is enough to keep the bhava-sāgara from drowning the seeker. The Sanskrit canon's eka-pada-sphuraṇa, the flashing of even one foot of the verse, is what verse 68 promises will save.
The Bhāgavata Purāṇa 11.5.36 gave the canonical Sanskrit promise. Yajantīty avipaścitaḥ: even those who have not understood the yajña (the sacrifice, the practice) but who do it, are protected. Verse 68 takes this further: even those who have only heard one line of the work, or memorized one line, are protected.
If you have come to this verse at the end of the work, the verse closes the boat's door behind you and asks the boat to deliver you. Hari Nārāyaṇāya namaḥ. The salutation that has closed every other verse closes the work. The seeker has bowed, in this work, sixty-eight times. The bow is enough.
The seeker has bowed, in this work, sixty-eight times. The bow is enough.
The Saints Who Walked This Road
Two saints whose lives were the verse-68 transmission-by-hearing-or-memorizing-one-line.
Parīkṣit, in the Bhāgavata's frame-narrative, was the king who had been cursed to die in seven days by a snake. He sat at the bank of the Ganges in his last seven days and listened to Śuka recite the entire Bhāgavata. He did not recite it himself; he only heard it. The Bhāgavata's claim is that the hearing was enough: the king, at the moment of the snake's bite, had no fear. Body image: the king on the riverbank, the recitation-listening as the only practice of his last week, the bhava-sāgara not drowning him because the work had become his boat.
The many anonymous Kerala children who, for four hundred years, have learned to read by reading this Harināma Kīrtanam are the verse-68 transmissions Ezhuthachan was praying for. Each child, even one who memorized only the alphabet-keyed first letters of each verse, has carried a piece of the work into the next generation. Body image: the small Kerala school in any century, the children chanting the alphabet-poem aloud, the bhava-sāgara held back, one child at a time, by the verses they did not yet understand.
The Refrain
ഹരി നാരായണായ നമഃ
Salutation to Hari Nārāyaṇa.