Stotra · स्तोत्रStotra

Kalabhairava Ashtakam — closing verse

The hymn's own closing statement about itself — the one verse of the nine that does not end on the refrain.

Kalabhairava Ashtakam verse 9 (phalashruti)edition

Sanskrit · संस्कृत

कालभैरवाष्टकं पठन्ति ये मनोहरं ज्ञानमुक्तिसाधकं विचित्रपुण्यवर्धनम् । शोकमोहलोभदैन्यकोपतापनाशनं ते प्रयान्ति कालभैरवाङ्घ्रिसन्निधिं ध्रुवम् ॥

kālabhairavāṣṭakaṃ paṭhanti ye manoharaṃ jñānamuktisādhakaṃ vicitrapuṇyavardhanam । śokamohalobhadainyakopatāpanāśanaṃ te prayānti kālabhairavāṅghrisannidhiṃ dhruvam ॥

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Meaning

Those who recite this delightful Kalabhairava Ashtakam — a means to knowledge and to release, an increaser of manifold merit, a destroyer of sorrow, delusion, greed, wretchedness, anger and torment — they come, without fail, into the presence of Kala Bhairava's feet.

This rendering is by a DharmSetu editor, not a quotation from a published translation. Compare with the public-domain translation.

A Hindi meaning has not been written for this mantra yet. Hindi is authored by a named editor rather than machine-translated, so it arrives more slowly.

How to recite

The metre changes in the last line: te prayānti kāla-bhairava-aṅghri-sannidhiṃ dhruvam. The join bhairava + aṅghri gives a long ā, so it is bhairavāṅghri, and aṅghri carries a velar nasal followed by an aspirated gh — the same word that opens verse 1. The third line is one chain of six: śoka-moha-lobha-dainya-kopa-tāpa-nāśanaṃ. Say them as six beats rather than as one word.

Repetitions: 1 · 3
Time: brahma muhurta, sandhya

Pronunciation key — sounds commonly got wrong

ट ठ ड ढ ण · ṭ ṭh ḍ ḍh ṇ: Retroflex — the tongue curls back and touches the roof of the mouth. Distinct from the dental त थ द ध न, where the tongue touches the teeth.
श ष स · ś ṣ s: Three different sounds: ś as in “shy”, ṣ retroflex and further back, s plain. Collapsing them changes words.
ः · ḥ (visarga): A soft outward breath echoing the preceding vowel — not a hard “ha”.
ं · ṃ (anusvara): Nasalises the vowel; the closing sound follows the consonant that comes next.
Long vs short vowels — a / ā, i / ī, u / ū: Vowel length is meaningful in Sanskrit. Hold the macron vowels roughly twice as long.
Aspirated consonants — kh, gh, ch, th, dh, ph, bh: A distinct puff of breath. ph is an aspirated p, never an English “f”.

Word by word

कालभैरवाष्टकम्kālabhairavāṣṭakam: the Kalabhairava Ashtakam(acc. sg.)
पठन्तिpaṭhanti: they recite(3rd pl. pres.)MW1899-CDSL p.716
मनोहरम्manoharam: delightful, heart-stealing(acc. sg.)MW1899-CDSL p.785
ज्ञानमुक्तिसाधकम्jñānamuktisādhakam: a means to knowledge and release(acc. sg.)
विचित्रपुण्यवर्धनम्vicitrapuṇyavardhanam: increaser of manifold merit(acc. sg.)
शोकमोहलोभदैन्यकोपतापनाशनम्śokamohalobhadainyakopatāpanāśanam: destroying sorrow, delusion, greed, wretchedness, anger and torment(acc. sg.)
प्रयान्तिprayānti: they go forth(3rd pl. pres.)

Context

This is the phalaśruti, the verse in which a hymn states what it holds recitation to be for. It is the ninth verse of a hymn called an aṣṭaka, 'a set of eight', which is normal: the phalaśruti is counted as an appendix rather than as one of the eight, and it is the only verse of the nine that does not close on kāśikāpurādhinātha-kālabhairavaṃ bhaje. What it claims is worth reading exactly. The six things named — śoka, moha, lobha, dainya, kopa, tāpa — are states of mind and circumstance, not conditions of the body, and the promise made is presence at the deity's feet, not any outcome in the world. DharmSetu reproduces the verse as the text's own statement about itself and does not restate it anywhere as a benefit of reciting; the same rule was applied to the phalaśruti in apaduddharaka-batuka-bhairava-dhyanam. dhruvam, 'without fail', is the hymn's own word and is the strongest thing in it. It is left in the translation because removing it would be editing the source rather than translating it.

Shadanga — the six limbs

The traditional analytic frame for a mantra. Blank limbs are simply not recorded for this text.

devata: Kala Bhairava

Recited at / traditionally recited for

Dhyana (meditation)Protection (raksha)Peace (shanti)

Classified as Stotra — Devotional hymn literature — praise poetry rather than a Vedic formula. Basis for this classification.

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