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

Ribuan krore tīrtha, bahkan ratusan krore tīrtha, tidak sebanding dengan seperenambelas bagian pun dari jasa (kemuliaan) bersujud kepada 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.