ശ്രീമധുസൂദനസ്തോത്രമ് (ശുകദേവ രചിത)

Sixteen verses given in the colophon to Shukadeva, every one of them closing on the same plea: save me, Madhusudana. What leads up to it each time is an admission. I am sunk in the mire of sin; no other way exists and you alone are my refuge; I have done nothing good and a great deal of harm; I am drowned in the terrible round of birth. Nothing is described and nothing is praised — the hymn is a statement of position repeated sixteen times with only the circumstance altered, which is what gives it its weight. The last verse leaves that tone for a practical instruction: one who recites the twelve-syllable mantra fasting on the day sacred to Hari reaches the place where Hari the lord of yoga is.