Dainya bodhika — The Author Describes His Fallen Condition

Dainya-bodhika, the author describes his fallen condition, opens Prarthana with five songs of unguarded self-accusation — the traditional starting point for this kind of prayer-sequence, establishing honest confession before the book moves toward longing and faith. Narottama dasa Thakura, born into Bengali royalty before renouncing his inheritance to study under Lokanatha and Jiva Gosvami in Vrindavana, writes here in the same plainly self-critical register that runs through his most famous single song, Hari Hari Biphale Janama Gonainu, elsewhere in his own catalogue on this site.