Mukunda Mala Stotra 16 – The only rescue from the waves of material existence

he martyah paramam hitam shrinuta vo vakshyami sankshepatah

samsararnavam apad-urmi-bahulam samyak pravishya sthitah

nana-jnanam apasya cetasi namo narayanayety amum

mantram sa-pranavam pranama-sahitam pravartayadhvam muhuh

O mortal beings, you have submerged yourselves fully in the ocean of material existence, which is filled with the waves of misfortune. Please hear as I briefly tell you how to attain your supreme benefit. Just put aside your various attempts at gaining knowledge and instead begin constantly chanting the mantra om namo narayanaya and bowing down to the Lord.

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
Shri Harinam Prabhu Ki Jai Mukund Mala Stotra, verse 16 He martyaparmam hitam shrinu dvo vakyo vakshami sankshepatah samsaraar namam apadurmi bahulam samyak pravishyastitah nana gyanam apasya cetasinamo narayanityamam mantram sa pranamam pranama sahitam pravartayadhvam muhum So, Kulshetra Maharaj, in this verse, is glorifying the chanting of the Holy Names as being far superior to the cultivation of knowledge. He is telling that, He martyaparmam hitam shrinu dvo vakyo vakshami sankshepatah I speak this in brief.
So, what is our situation in this world? He is describing, samsaraar namam apadurmi bahulam samsaraar namam is the ocean of utter existence apadurmi bahulam It’s crowded with apad, calamities. Urmi, it is filled, the ocean is filled with waves. This world is filled with calamities.
And samyak pravishyastitah It is not that we are on the coast, just putting our hands and legs into the ocean to see what is the nature and temperature of the water. No, we are completely in the middle of this ocean. Samyak pravishyastitah We are situated right in the middle, being tossed by all these waves up and down.
When some financial upheaval happens, we cannot just stay detached. It just throws us up or throws us down. When somebody insults us, we cannot stay indifferent.
We are thrown up and down. Similarly, when some bodily disease comes, when the weather becomes too cold, or when there are floods, we are situated so deeply in material existence that any of the shakings in the material coverings around us, we have three coverings, the bodily-mental covering, the social covering, and the environmental covering. And all these three coverings shake us.
The waves of miseries come from all these three coverings. And when they come, because we are right in the middle of the ocean, we cannot just artificially or imaginatively transcend them. They assault us in the form of the three kleshas.
The adhyatmik klesha comes from the bodily-mind covering, the adhibhautik klesha comes from the social covering, and the adhyatmik klesha comes from the environmental covering. So in such a situation, when we are being tossed and smashed by the waves, nana, jnana, vapasya, just give up various intellectual cultivations. They are not going to be of any help.
Philosophizing in and of itself doesn’t lead to purification or higher taste or transcendence. For most people, it is impossible. And for the few that it is possible, also it is extremely difficult.
chetasi namo narayanityamam Therefore, just fix the consciousness in chanting the names, namo narayanaya, chant the names of Krishna, chant the holy names, mantram sa pranavam pranamasahitam So along with offering obeisances, this mantra, which has pranava vidya, om namo narayanaya, pravartaya dhammohu, repeat it constantly. So, normally all the other mantras are having the om, but because the names of Krishna, the Hare Krishna mantra is a direct address, it’s not an obeisance, it’s a direct address to the Lord, so we don’t have the om over here. It’s an intense call of affection, where there is no namaha also, no om also.
It’s like when a child calls the mother, there is no formality over there. So, the essential message is the same, chant the names of Krishna. So, when we actually understand how dangerous and how fragile our situation in material existence is, then that knowledge can impel us to take shelter of Krishna, and actually that awareness itself makes us realise that mere intellectualising is not going to help me.
It is only Krishna who can take me beyond these miseries, just like if a person has been tossed in the waves, somebody has to come and rescue that person, lift him out from the ocean and take him safely home. So, like that, we need Krishna’s mercy to come out of these miseries, and chanting the holy names is the attempt to fervently and earnestly call out to Krishna to come and rescue us from this miserable material existence.