ശ്രീ വിഠ്ഠല കവചമ്

A kavacha from the Padma Purana, spoken by Suta, and built in two unequal halves. The first five verses are the armour proper, head downward, a different name of Vitthal guarding each part: Vitthala the head, the one who loves the mudgara the cheeks, Vaikuntha the nose, and so on to Trivikrama at the feet and Govinda and Madhava over the whole body at once. The six verses after it do something else. They salute the mantra one syllable at a time and give each syllable a theology of its own: a is Vishnu the pervader and the fire that burns sins, the om is what the dharma texts sing as the ferry of all beings, ya carries the seed of Mahamaya the Vaishnavi, vi is the lord of Vaikuntha who also gives it, tha is bathed in every tirtha, and la is the one whose mount is Garuda, whose bed is the serpent and at whose left Lakshmi sits.