Devanagari
स एवं वर्तमानोऽज्ञो मृत्युकाल उपस्थिते ।
मतिं चकार तनये बाले नारायणाह्वये ॥ २७ ॥
Verse text
sa evaṁ vartamāno ’jṣo
mṛtyu-kāla upasthite
matiṁ cakāra tanaye
bāle nārāyaṇāhvaye
Synonyms
saḥ
—
that Ajāmila
;
evam
—
thus
;
vartamānaḥ
—
living
;
ajṣaḥ
—
foolish
;
mṛtyu
—
kāle — when the time of death
;
upasthite
—
arrived
;
matim cakāra
—
concentrated his mind
;
tanaye
—
on his son
;
bāle
—
the child
;
nārāyaṇa
—
āhvaye — whose name was Nārāyaṇa .
Translation
When the time of death arrived for the foolish Ajāmila, he began thinking exclusively of his son Nārāyaṇa.
Translation (Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura)
When death arrived, the foolish man thought of his son called Nārāyaṇa.
Śrīdhara Svāmī says it is suitable to conclude that by the power of chanting the name Nārāyaṇa while caring for his son he developed bhakti.
Purport
In the Second Canto of the
Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam
(2.1.6)
Śukadeva Gosvāmī says:
etāvān sāṅkhya-yogābhyāṁ
svadharma-pariniṣṭhayā
janma-lābhaḥ paraḥ puṁsām
ante nārāyaṇa-smṛtiḥ
“The highest perfection of human life, achieved either by complete knowledge of matter and spirit, by acquirement of mystic powers, or by perfect discharge of one’s occupational duty, is to remember the Personality of Godhead at the end of life.” Somehow or other, Ajāmila consciously or unconsciously chanted the name of Nārāyaṇa at the time of death (
ante nārāyaṇa-smṛtiḥ
), and therefore he became all-perfect simply by concentrating his mind on the name of Nārāyaṇa.
It may also be concluded that Ajāmila, who was the son of a
brāhmaṇa,
was accustomed to worshiping Nārāyaṇa in his youth because in every
brāhmaṇa’s
house there is worship of the
nārāyaṇa-śilā.
This system is still present in India; in a rigid
brāhmaṇa’s
house, there is
nārāyaṇa-sevā,
worship of Nārāyaṇa. Therefore, although the contaminated Ajāmila was calling for his son, by concentrating his mind on the holy name of Nārāyaṇa he remembered the Nārāyaṇa he had very faithfully worshiped in his youth.
In this regard Śrīla Śrīdhara Svāmī expressed his verdict as follows:
etac ca tad-upalālanādi-śrī-nārāyaṇa-namoccāraṇa-māhātmyena tad-bhaktir evābhūd iti siddhāntopayogitvenāpi draṣṭavyam.
“According to the
bhaktisiddhānta,
it is to be analyzed that because Ajāmila constantly chanted his son’s name, Nārāyaṇa, he was elevated to the platform of
bhakti,
although he did not know it.” Similarly, Śrīla Vīrarāghava Ācārya gives this opinion:
evaṁ vartamānaḥ sa dvijaḥ mṛtyu-kāle upasthite satyajṣo nārāyaṇākhye putra eva matiṁ cakāra matim āsaktām akarod ity arthaḥ.
“Although at the time of death he was chanting the name of his son, he nevertheless concentrated his mind upon the holy name of Nārāyaṇa.” Śrīla Vijayadhvaja Tīrtha gives a similar opinion:
mṛtyu-kāle deha-viyoga-lakṣaṇa-kāle mṛtyoḥ sarva-doṣa-pāpa-harasya harer anugrahāt kāle datta-jṣāna-lakṣaṇe upasthite hṛdi prakāśite tanaye pūrṇa-jṣāne bāle paṣca-varṣa-kalpe prādeśa-mātre nārāyaṇāhvaye mūrti-viśeṣe matiṁ smaraṇa-samarthaṁ cittaṁ cakāra bhaktyāsmarad ity arthaḥ.
Directly or indirectly, Ajāmila factually remembered Nārāyaṇa at the time of death (
ante nārāyaṇa-smṛtiḥ
).