Hari Nama Keerthanam
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The Hari Nama Keerthanam is a poetic Indian song. It's title translates into English as "The Song of the Holy Name Hari". It was composed by Thunchaththu Ramanujan Ezhuthachan in Kerala during the 14th century. The work is historically important as it solidified the acceptance of the 51 letter version of the Malayalam alphabet owing to the song's immense popularity. The work is of great length and ususually presented in book form. There are 66 original verses, to which a number of later verses and commentaries have been added, such as a section called the "Hari Narayanaya Nama", and the philosophical thoughts of the composer Ezhuthachan. P.R. Ramachander, in an introduction to his translation, notes of Ezhuthachan that:
From the book, it is clear that [...] Ezhuthachan was a Vaishnavite who was fondly in love with the Advaitha philosophy. He mentions that his Guru was one Neelakanta Somayaji in one of the verses.
Opening lines from P.R. Ramachander's translation with his brief explanations:
Omkaramaya porul moonayi pirinju udane,
Angaramayathinnu thaan thane sakshiyithu,
Bodham varuthu vathinnu aalayi ninna,
Paramacharya roopa ,Hari Narayanaya Nama.
Onnayi ninneyiha randennu kandalavi,
Yunadyi orindal batha mindavathalla mama,
Pande kanakku varuvan nin krupa valikal,
Undakayengaliha narayanaya nama.
My salutations to that Narayana,
Who is also the lord Hari,
For being the great teacher,
Who stood as a person , to make me know,
That truth which is revealed by the sound of Om,
Though split in to three forms of trinity,
As soon as it was born,
Is only an illusion created by my ego.
[This verse is the invocation by the author not to any God figure but to the Paramathma, whose clear vision to us is prevented by the veil of “Maya”]
My salutations to that Narayana,
With a request from humble self,
To make me see him as one reality,
For I was made sad extreme,
To see that the indivisible one, has been split in to two.
[Ezhuthachan continues to tell us that though the god is one, we are made to believe that we as persons(antharatma) we are different from the all pervading reality (Paramathma)]
