Pālayamāṃ Dīnam Rāghava
Pālayamāṃ Dīnam Rāghava is a kīrtana (a devotional song) sung by Nārada Muni to Bhagavān Rāma. It is found in the twenty-second chapter of the Rājya Khaṇḍa of the Ānanda Rāmāyaṇa. Its central phrase means “Protect me, the helpless one, O Rāghava”, and the text calls that phrase a pañcadaśāksharī mantra, a mantra of fifteen syllables.
The setting
In the twenty-second chapter of the Rājya Khaṇḍa, after the Sītā-Tulasī episode, Nārada Muni came to Ayodhyā. The text tells how he came. He played his vīṇā and sang the kīrtana Pālayamāṃ Dīnam Rāghava again and again as he walked, with deep joy, in his sweet cuckoo-like voice (kalakaṇṭha).
When Bhagavān Rāma heard Nārada singing, he went out to receive him with all honours. He knew that the divine ṛshi had come.
The mantra
The central phrase is:
Pālayamāṃ dīnaṃ Rāghava — pālayamāṃ dīnam
The text names this a pañcadaśāksharī mantra. The syllables, counted with the refrain in its proper metre, are: Pa-lā-ya-māṃ-dī-naṃ-Rā-gha-va-Pā-la-ya-māṃ-dī-nam. That makes fifteen.
The words mean:
- Pālaya: protect, shelter
- māṃ: me
- dīnam: the helpless one, the distressed one, the poor one (dīna)
- Rāghava: O son of the Raghu clan, that is, Bhagavān Rāma
In full: “O Rāghava, protect me who am helpless; protect me, the helpless one.”
The power of the kīrtana
The Ānanda Rāmāyaṇa describes this kīrtana in these words:
- Mahāpātaka-nāśanakara: the destroyer of the greatest pāpa (sin)
- Uttama: of the highest order
- Sung again and again with the vīṇā, in the sweetest voice (kalakaṇṭha svara)
The mantra is addressed to Bhagavān Rāma as the refuge of the helpless (dīnarakshaka). He protects without fail those who come to him with no help of their own.
Sources
- Ānanda Rāmāyaṇa, Rājya Khaṇḍa, Chapter 22