śrī vāsudeva dvādaśārṇava stutiḥ

Twelve verses, and their arrangement is the point: the syllable each one begins with, taken in order, spells out the twelve-syllabled mantra of Vasudeva — om namo bhagavate vasudevaya — one syllable to a verse, which is where the hymn gets its name. Every verse then ends on the same plea, save me, Madhusudana. What lies between is a plain and unsparing account of the speaker's condition: washed clean of passion by the cloth of knowledge and yet fallen asleep in works; smeared with the mud of maya; bewildered in the net of delusion over sons and wife and house; worn out with coming and going on the long road of deeds; afraid of the womb, afraid of age and death; having done no good and a great deal of harm. The twelfth asks for one thing only — wherever I am born, as a woman or as a man, let devotion to you be there.