Stotra · स्तोत्रStotra

Kalabhairava Ashtakam — verse 5

Guardian of the bridge of dharma and cutter of the noose of karma — the verse this platform is named after.

Kalabhairava Ashtakam verse 5edition

Sanskrit · संस्कृत

धर्मसेतुपालकं त्वधर्ममार्गनाशकं कर्मपाशमोचकं सुशर्मदायकं विभुम् । स्वर्णवर्णकेशपाशशोभिताङ्गनिर्मलं काशिकापुराधिनाथकालभैरवं भजे ॥

dharmasetupālakaṃ tvadharmamārganāśakaṃ karmapāśamocakaṃ suśarmadāyakaṃ vibhum । svarṇavarṇakeśapāśaśobhitāṅganirmalaṃ kāśikāpurādhināthakālabhairavaṃ bhaje ॥

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Meaning

Guardian of the bridge of dharma, destroyer of the road of adharma; who unfastens the noose of karma and gives good refuge; the all-pervading; spotless, his body made lovely by a mass of gold-coloured hair — I worship Kala Bhairava, lord of the city of Kashi.

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 first line has a t before adharma: dharmasetupālakaṃ tv adharmamārga-nāśakaṃ. That tu is the connective 'and, but', not part of the following word. Line three is four pieces: svarṇa-varṇa-keśa-pāśa | śobhita-aṅga | nirmalaṃ. keśapāśa is not a noose but a mass or braid of hair — the same word doing quite different work from the pāśa two lines above, which is worth hearing as you say it.

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

धर्मसेतुपालकम्dharmasetupālakam: guardian of the bridge of dharma(acc. sg.)
अधर्ममार्गनाशकम्adharmamārganāśakam: destroyer of the road of adharma(acc. sg.)
कर्मपाशमोचकम्karmapāśamocakam: who unfastens the noose of karma(acc. sg.)
सुशर्मदायकम्suśarmadāyakam: giver of good refuge(acc. sg.)
विभुम्vibhum: all-pervading(acc. sg.)MW1899-CDSL p.978
स्वर्णवर्णकेशपाशsvarṇavarṇakeśapāśa: a mass of gold-coloured hair
शोभिताङ्गम्śobhitāṅgam: whose body is made lovely(acc. sg.)
निर्मलम्

Context

dharma-setu — the bridge of dharma — opens this verse, and it is the phrase this platform takes its name from. A setu is a causeway raised across water: something built and maintained so that people can cross ground that would otherwise stop them. Calling Bhairava its pālaka makes him not the builder but the guard, which is exactly the office the Shiva Purana gives him at Kashi. The verse then runs two nooses against each other. In verse 3 the pāśa is in Bhairava's hand, a thing he binds with. Here karma-pāśa-mocakaṃ makes him the one who unties it. The tradition is comfortable with that: the deity who binds by consequence is the same deity who releases from it, and there is no third party involved. suśarma-dāyakaṃ, 'giver of good refuge', is a quiet pun in a hymn that is otherwise loud — śarman is shelter and also happiness, and the verse chooses the word that means both.

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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