Vamana Purana — Bali's Sudarshana Worship, Shloka 62

Bali’s Worship of Sudarshana and Prahlada’s Teaching on Vishnu-Bhakti

Devanagari script

तीर्थकोटिसहस्राणि तीर्थकोटिशतानि च नारायणप्रणामस्य कलां नार्हन्ति षोडशीम्

Transliteration

tīrthakoṭisahasrāṇi tīrthakoṭiśatāni ca nārāyaṇapraṇāmasya kalāṃ nārhanti ṣoḍaśīm

Translation

Thousands of crores of tīrthas, and even hundreds of crores of tīrthas, do not equal even a sixteenth part of the merit (or efficacy) of bowing to Nārāyaṇa.

Speakers

• Instructional voice within the Saro-mahātmya discourse
• continuing the address to the listener in the dialogue frame.

Primary Deities

• Vishnu (Nārāyaṇa)

Key Themes

• Supremacy of devotion over pilgrimage-counting
• Tīrtha-mahātmyam reframed through bhakti
• Praṇāma as concentrated merit
• Economy of religious practice (simple act, vast fruit)

Verse Rasa (Emotional Flavour)

{ "primaryRasa": "adbhuta", "secondaryRasa": "shanta", "rasaIntensity": 0, "emotionalArcPosition": "", "moodDescriptors": [] }

FAQs

Is the verse dismissing pilgrimage (tīrtha-yātrā)?

Not necessarily. It uses hyperbolic comparison to teach hierarchy of means: tīrthas are valuable, but their merit is said to be surpassed by direct devotion—here, a single praṇāma to Nārāyaṇa.

Why use the ‘sixteenth part’ (ṣoḍaśī kalā) as the comparison unit?

Kalā as a fractional measure is a conventional idiom for expressing relative inferiority. Saying ‘not even a sixteenth’ intensifies the claim that praṇāma is disproportionately efficacious compared to vast accumulations of tīrtha-merit.

How does this fit the Vāmana Purāṇa’s strong geographic orientation?

Even in a geography- and tīrtha-centered Purāṇa, the text repeatedly anchors sacred geography in theology: places are powerful because of the divine, and the simplest direct act toward the divine (praṇāma/nāma) is presented as the inner essence of pilgrimage.