232 - Kulamruta Jnanamruta Hymn

Suta said: 

1. When he was asked by Sri Narada, Lord Hara mentioned this hymn called Kulamruta (otherwise known as Jnánamruta). Please listen to it. 

Narada said: 

2. He who is fettered by Dvandvas (conflicting factors) -Lust and Anger, the auspicious and the inauspicious and the various objects of the sense organs, sound, etc., and is tortured by them is necessarily a wretch in this world. 

3. O Lord, the slayer of Tripuras, I wish to hear from you the means whereby that creature can be saved quickly from the ocean of death and transmigration. 

Maheshvara said: 

4. On hearing these words of Narada the three-eyed deity Shambhu (Hara) spoke unto the sage. 

5. O, Excellent sage, I shall tell you the great secret mantra and hymn called Jnánamruta' that destroys all miseries and removes the fear of bondage of worldly existence. 

6-7. The four types of living beings beginning with the blade of grass and ending with the four-faced deity Brahma, consisting of the entire universe the mobile and the immobile, sleeps due to the Maya of Vishnu. If due to the grace of Lord Vishnu any one among them wakes up, he will cross the ocean of worldly existence which is impassable even to the gods. 

8-9. It is the person who is averse to the acquisition of real knowledge that becomes puffed up due to the enjoyments and prosperity he possesses. Inebriated creatures get entangled in their attachment to sons, wives and families like the wild elephants sinking below the surface of waters of deluge. 

I do not find any means of salvation even after hundred crores of births for that wretch who shuts up his mouth [and does not sing the Lord's Prayer] like the silk worm in the cocoon. 

10. Hence, O Narada, one shall propitiate the imperishable lord of all gods. One shall take delight in meditating on Vishnu. 

11. [The hymn begins here and ends in the eighteenth verse] He who meditates constantly on Lord Vishnu, the universe formed, devoid of beginning and end, the unborn, stationed in His own self and the omniscient becomes free. 

12. A person meditating constantly on Vishnu holding devas (and others) within Himself becomes free. He who perpetually meditates on Vishnu, devoid of bodies, the creator, possessed of all knowledge and mental proclivities, the immovable and all-pervading becomes free. 

13. He who constantly meditates on Lord Vishnu, free from doubts and contradictions, devoid of specific manifestations, divested of the created groups, free from ailments and afflictions, Vasudeva the preceptor of all, becomes free. 

14. He who meditates on all manifestations of the sentient soul of the all-pervading, on Vishnu the auspicious, the single, the imperishable, becomes free. 

15. He who meditates constantly on Vishnu, who is beyond the pale of all statements, who knows the three units of time (the past, present and future) who is lord of the universe, who bears witness to everything and who is more excellent than all the others, becomes free. 

16. He who constantly meditates on Vishnu served by Brahma and other gods, Gandharvas, Sages, Siddhas, Charanas¹, and Yogins becomes free.

1. A wandering actor or singer: a bard.

17. All the people wishing for release from the bondage of worldly existence become free on singing thus the prayer of Vishnu the granter of boons. 

18. Whoever wishes to get release from the bondage of worldly existence shall with concentration meditate on Vishnu. He who contemplates on the endless, imperishable lord Vishnu, established in the universe, the unborn and the lord of worlds, becomes free. 

Suta said: 

19. What the Bull-emblemed deity Shiva narrated to Narada on being requested by him I have now told you. 

20. My dear Sir, meditating on the supreme Brahman, the unwasting, the spotless, you shall obtain certainly the eternal and unchanging region. 

21. Thousands of horse sacrifices, and hundreds of Vajapeya sacrifices do not merit even a sixteenth part of extremely concentrated devotion even for a moment. 

22. After hearing the importance of Lord Vishnu from Shiva the divine sage propitiated Lord Vishnu devotedly and attained the status of achievement. 

23. The sin committed in the course of millions of lives of the person who reads or hears this excellent hymn, perishes. 

24. He who assiduously reads this hymn constantly of Lord Vishnu, recited by Lord Shiva at first, attains immortality.