Sri Hari Ashtakam (Prahlada Krutam)

The name as fire

Sri Hari Ashtakam, credited in its own closing verse to Prahlada, is a meditation on a single word. It does not describe Vishnu's form or retell his avatars. It stays with the two syllables Ha and Ri. The opening verse, harir harati papani dushtachittair api smritah, says Hari takes away sin even when a corrupt mind remembers him, just as fire burns a hand that touches it by accident.

Everything held in two syllables

Verses two to seven build a long equation. The person on whose tongue the name rests has, in effect, bathed at Ganga, Gaya, Setu, Kashi and Pushkara, done whatever is done at Varanasi, Kurukshetra and Naimisharanya, given away crores of cows, studied the Rig, Yajur, Sama and Atharva Vedas, and performed the Ashvamedha. Each verse closes on the refrain harir ity aksharadvayam, so the listener hears the two syllables again and again.

Food for the last road

The eighth verse turns personal. The name is called prana prayana patheyam, the provisions packed for the departure of the life breath, and the medicine for the disease of samsara. The ninth says that anyone who has said it even once has already tightened his belt for the road to liberation.

Closing verses

The tenth verse asks that the hymn be read on rising in the morning and names long life, strength, health, fame and prosperity as its fruit. The eleventh names Prahlada as the composer and says the reader goes to the supreme abode of Vishnu. That ending suits a hymn credited to the boy who kept repeating Hari's name under his father's threats.