दैन्यार्णवे निमग्नोऽस्मि मन्तुग्रावभरार्दितः ।
दुष्टे कारुण्यपारीण मयि कृष्ण कृपां कुरु ॥
आधारोऽप्यपराधानामविवेकहतोऽप्यहम् ।
त्वत्कारुण्यप्रतीक्षोऽस्मि प्रसीद मयि माधव ॥
dainyārṇave nimagno’smi mantu-grāva-bharārditaḥ |
duṣṭe kāruṇya-pārīṇa mayi kṛṣṇa kṛpāṁ kuru ||
ādhāro’py aparādhānām aviveka-hato’py aham |
tvat-kāruṇya-pratīkṣo’smi prasīda mayi mādhava ||
(Stava-mālā: Praṇāma-praṇaya-stava, 13–14)
“I am immersed in an ocean of distress and burdened by the weight of the stone of my offenses [which is shackled to me as I flounder]. O Adept in compassion! O Kṛṣṇa! Please bestow your grace upon my wicked self. Although I am a repository of aparādhas, and although I am blighted by indiscrimination, I wait [expectantly] for your compassion. Please bestow your grace upon me.”
Commentary
evaṁ praṇamya sva-doṣa-vijñapti-pūrvakam anugrahaṁ prārthayati | … dainyārṇave durgati-samudre nimagno’ham asmi | he kāruṇya-pārīṇa dayā-sāgara, upariṣṭān mantu-grāvaṇo’parādha-śilāyā bhareṇārditaḥ pīḍitaś cāsmi | … duṣṭe dainya-mantu-doṣavati mayi tvaṁ kṛpāṁ kuru | yat tvaṁ kāruṇya-pārīṇo’sīti hetu-garbhaṁ sambodhanam | … nanu duṣṭe tvayi mat-kṛpā kathaṁ syāt tatrāha … ādhāra iti | … yadyapy aham aparādhānām ādhāraḥ khaniḥ avivekena sārāsāra-vivekābhāvenāpi hataḥ pīḍitaś cāsmi, tathāpi tvat-kāruṇya-pratīkṣas tvad-anukampāṁ nīcocca-viveka-śūnyāṁ prapaśyann āsmi | he mādhava, tādṛśe’pi mayi prasīda prasādaṁ kuru | anyathā tvat-kāruṇyasya tathātvaṁ hīyeta, tad-vādinaḥ santaś ca pīḍitāḥ syur iti bhāvaḥ |
(Excerpt from the ṭīkā of Baladeva Vidyābhūṣaṇa)
“Having offered obeisance in this way [i.e., in the earlier verses in the composition], the author recounts his own faults and prays for grace [in the present verses]. … I am immersed in an ocean of distress, that is, an ocean of [troubling] misfortune. Furthermore, O Adept in compassion, that is, O Ocean of kindness, I am burdened, that is, bound [alt., tormented], by the weight of the stone of my offenses, that is, the rock of my aparādhas [i.e., I am weighed down by the ball and chain of my past aparādha as I struggle amid the ocean of my distress]. Please bestow your grace upon my wicked self, that is, I who bear the faults of distress and offenses, since you are adept in compassion. This is the implied sense of the vocative [i.e., ‘O Adept in compassion’]. … ‘Well, how can my grace be [bestowed] upon you who are wicked?’ To this [question raised by Kṛṣṇa], he speaks the [second] verse (ādhāraḥ …). Although I am a repository, that is, a mine, of aparādhas, and although I am blighted, that is, tormented, by indiscrimination, that is, a lack of discrimination between the essential and inessential, still I wait [expectantly] for your compassion, since I see that your grace is free from discrimination between the low and the high [i.e., between deserving and undeserving recipients]. O Mādhava, although I am such [i.e., although I am undeserving for the aforementioned reasons], [still,] please bestow your grace upon me. Otherwise [i.e., if you do not], your compassion’s being such [i.e., its being shown without judgement of the worthiness of the recipient] shall be forfeited, and the sādhus who propound it [to be such] shall be troubled. This is the purport.”