Today Mon 5 Oct TithiDashami NakshatraPushya PlaceColumbusUse my location Full Panchang & horoscope →

Rituals

All HomasAradhanaNadi AstrologyMantra Guides

Astrology

All Free ToolsVedic AstrologyToday's PanchangFree KundliDaily Horoscope

More

BlogAsk NirnayaContact

Your account

Sign inCart
Home › Mantras › Shri Ram Chandra Kripalu
Rama Shri Ram Chandra Kripalu: Tulsidas writing on palm leaves at a river ghat before a vision of Lord Rama and Sita
Tulsidas at the ghat, and Rama and Sita in his vision
Mantra · Tulsidas's five-stanza Rama stuti, pada 45 of the Vinaya Patrika

Shri Ram Chandra Kripalu

श्रीरामचंद्र कृपालु भजु मन हरण भवभय दारुणं । नवकंज-लोचन, कंज-मुख, कर-कंज, पद कंजारुणं ॥

Also known as Shri Ramchandra Kripalu Bhaj Man

In Devanagari, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam and English — with the meaning of every word, and the one syllable most people pronounce wrongly.

What the Shri Ram Chandra Kripalu is

Shri Ramachandra Kripalu, also written Shri Ram Chandra Kripalu and often printed as Shri Ram Stuti, is pada 45 of Goswami Tulsidas's Vinaya Patrika, set in Raga Gauri. It addresses Rama, but its first word of command is to the singer's own mind: bhaju mana, O mind, worship. The five stanzas move from looking to asking. Stanza 1 builds Rama out of lotuses: lotus eyes, lotus face, lotus hands, feet red as lotuses. Stanza 2 compares him to a fresh rain cloud, with his yellow cloth as the lightning, and names him the husband of Janaka's daughter. Stanza 3 strings together his titles: friend of the lowly, son of Dasharatha, moon of Kosala. Stanza 4 pictures his crown, earrings and knee-length arms holding bow and arrow, and recalls his victory over Khara and Dushana. Stanza 5 carries the poet's signature and a single request: that Rama live in the lotus of his heart and break the band of desire and the other passions.

A petition filed in Rama's court

The book this hymn comes from is framed as a legal plea. Vinaya Patrika means, roughly, a letter of humble petition, and it gathers 279 padas, widely regarded as among the last works Tulsidas composed. According to a tradition retold by Swami Yatiswarananda and others, Kali, the spirit of the dark age, began to torment the poet. Tulsidas turned to Hanuman, who came to him in a dream and told him to take his case directly to Rama. The result reads like a court file: Tulsidas is the plaintiff speaking for all people, Hanuman acts as his advocate, and the charges are laid against the six passions, including lust, anger and greed, and a list of vices that flourish in the Kali age. Before reaching Rama, the collection also praises Ganesha, Surya, Devi, Ganga, Hanuman, Sita and the city of Kashi. In its closing padas the poet asks Bharata, Lakshmana, Shatrughna and Hanuman to vouch for him, and the last pada states that Rama himself signed the petition. Pada 45 fits this frame closely: its last line asks Rama to destroy the band of kama and the passions that follow it, the very defendants named in the plea. Many Hindu households in North India sing this pada as their evening aarti.

The mantra, in six scripts

DevanagariSanskrit & Hindiश्रीरामचंद्र कृपालु भजु मन हरण भवभय दारुणं । नवकंज-लोचन, कंज-मुख, कर-कंज, पद कंजारुणं ॥
Tamilஶ்ரீராமசம்த்ர க்ருபாலு பஜு மந ஹரண பவபய தாருணம் । நவகம்ஜ-லோசந, கம்ஜ-முக, கர-கம்ஜ, பத கம்ஜாருணம் ॥
Teluguశ్రీరామచంద్ర కృపాలు భజు మన హరణ భవభయ దారుణం । నవకంజ-లోచన, కంజ-ముఖ, కర-కంజ, పద కంజారుణం ॥
Kannadaಶ್ರೀರಾಮಚಂದ್ರ ಕೃಪಾಲು ಭಜು ಮನ ಹರಣ ಭವಭಯ ದಾರುಣಂ । ನವಕಂಜ-ಲೋಚನ, ಕಂಜ-ಮುಖ, ಕರ-ಕಂಜ, ಪದ ಕಂಜಾರುಣಂ ॥
Malayalamശ്രീരാമചംദ്ര കൃപാലു ഭജു മന ഹരണ ഭവഭയ ദാരുണം । നവകംജ-ലോചന, കംജ-മുഖ, കര-കംജ, പദ കംജാരുണം ॥
EnglishRoman transliterationśrīrāmacaṃdra kṛpālu bhaju mana haraṇa bhavabhaya dāruṇaṃ | navakaṃja-locana, kaṃja-mukha, kara-kaṃja, pada kaṃjāruṇaṃ ||
“O mind, worship the compassionate Shri Ramachandra, who removes the terrible fear of worldly existence. His eyes are like fresh lotuses, and his face, hands and feet are like red lotuses.”
श्रीरामचंद्र
śrīrāmacaṃdra — Shri Ramachandra
कृपालु
kṛpālu — the compassionate
भजु
bhaju — worship
मन
mana — O mind
हरण
haraṇa — remover of
भवभय
bhavabhaya — fear of worldly existence
दारुणं
dāruṇaṃ — terrible
नवकंज-लोचन
navakaṃja-locana — eyes like fresh lotuses
कंज-मुख
kaṃja-mukha — lotus face
कर-कंज
kara-kaṃja — lotus hands
पद
pada — feet
कंजारुणं
kaṃjāruṇaṃ — red as lotuses

Shri Ram Chandra Kripalu lyrics in full

All 5 verses, in Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam and English, each with its meaning. Choose a script:

Download the Shri Ram Chandra Kripalu PDFAll 5 verses with their meanings, in Hindi. Free to print and keep.

Stanza 1

श्रीरामचंद्र कृपालु भजु मन हरण भवभय दारुणं ।
नवकंज-लोचन, कंज-मुख, कर-कंज, पद कंजारुणं ॥

O mind, worship the compassionate Shri Ramachandra, who removes the terrible fear of worldly existence. His eyes are like fresh lotuses, and his face, hands and feet are like red lotuses.

Stanza 2

कंदर्प अगणित अमित छवि, नवनील नीरद सुंदरं ।
पट पीत मानहु तड़ित रुचि शुचि नौमि जनक सुतावरं ॥

His beauty surpasses countless Kamadevas, and he is lovely like a fresh dark-blue rain cloud. His yellow garment shines like lightning; I bow to that pure one, the husband of Janaka's daughter.

Stanza 3

भजु दीनबंधु दिनेश दानव-दैत्य-वंश निकंदनं ।
रघुनंद आनँदकंद कोशलचंद दशरथ-नंदनं ॥

Worship the friend of the lowly, radiant like the sun, who uproots the clans of demons. He is the joy of the Raghu line, the root of bliss, the moon of Kosala and the son of Dasharatha.

Stanza 4

सिर मुकुट कुंडल तिलक चारु उदारु अंग विभूषणं ।
आजानुभुज शर-चाप-धर, संग्राम-जित-खरदूषणं ॥

He wears a crown on his head, earrings and a lovely tilak, with fine ornaments on every limb. His arms reach to his knees, he carries bow and arrows, and he defeated Khara and Dushana in battle.

Stanza 5

इति वदति तुलसीदास शंकर-शेष-मुनि-मन-रंजनं ।
मम हृदय कंज निवास कुरु, कामादि खल-दल-गंजनं ॥

Thus says Tulasidas: O delight of the minds of Shiva, Shesha and the sages, destroyer of the wicked host of desire and the other passions, make your dwelling in the lotus of my heart.

The syllable people get wrong

In stanza 2, taṛita (lightning, written तड़ित) has the retroflex flap ṛ (ड़): curl the tongue tip back and flick it forward once. Avoid both a plain English 'r' ('ta-rit') and a hard 'd' ('ta-dit').

When the Shri Ram Chandra Kripalu is chanted

Weekday. Thursday

Festival. Rama Navami

Questions

No. The five stanzas are pada 45 of the Vinaya Patrika, a separate collection of devotional songs by Tulsidas, set there in Raga Gauri. Gita Press printings of the Vinaya Patrika give exactly these five stanzas. The confusion arises because popular bhajan books add two passages after them that do come from the Ramcharitmanas, from the Bala Kanda at doha 236.
They are a chhand and a soratha from the Ramcharitmanas, Bala Kanda, doha 236. In that scene Sita worships Gauri, Parvati, in the temple by King Janaka's garden after first seeing Rama. The image's garland slips and the goddess smiles, and her blessing says the dark, handsome groom Sita's heart has chosen will be hers. The soratha describes Sita's joy and her left arm throbbing as a good omen. Many singers append both to the stuti; this page prints only the Vinaya Patrika pada.
Sources describe it differently. The Vinaya Patrika as a whole is usually classed as Braj Bhasha, while some references call this pada a mix of Sanskrit and Awadhi. In practice the line endings are Sanskrit-style, such as darunam, sundaram and nandanam, and compounds like kandarpa aganita are Sanskrit, but words such as bhaju, mana, manahu and udaru are vernacular. The rhyme on -am at the end of every half-line holds the whole song together.
Some versions print niraja, lotus, where the Gita Press printings read nirada, cloud. Nirada suits the picture the stanza draws: Rama is navanila nirada sundaram, lovely as a fresh dark-blue rain cloud, and the next line makes his yellow garment the lightning flashing across that cloud. Other common small differences include chhabi for chhavi and an added nasal in manahun; these change the spelling, not the meaning.
Not sure a mantra is enough?

Have your chart read before you decide

Chanting is yours to do, and free. But which deity your situation calls for — and whether a mantra alone is the right response — depends on your chart. Sometimes it is; sometimes it is not.

Brahmashree Shivaaya
Chief Operating Officer & Head of Astrological & Spiritual Solutions
  • Over 30 years in the Guru–Sishya Parampara, from the age of five
  • He reads every chart himself — 60 minutes, one to one, never delegated
  • Charts are read only between sunrise and sunset, following tradition
Book a consultation Ask Nirnaya — free
+91 96295 55442 WhatsApp us support@astrobhava.com Closed now · Mon–Sat, 9:30–18:00 IST (0:00–8:30 EDT your time) — WhatsApp and email are answered the next working morning
Continue

Related

Nirnaya

AstroBhava’s automated guide

Nirnaya is AstroBhava’s automated guide. What you tell it — including birth details — is kept to recommend rites and is reviewed by our team to improve it. It does not predict. Conversations are anonymised 12 months after your last message; you can delete them sooner from your account. Privacy policy

Speak to someone at the ashram

Message the ashram on WhatsApp or by email. We answer Mon–Sat, 9:30–18:00 IST (0:00–8:30 EDT your time).

Message on WhatsAppsupport@astrobhava.com

WhatsApp opens in a new tab; nothing is sent from this page.

See the Rama HomaBook a consultation