42
Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam
[Canto 6, Ch. 1
TRANSLATION
When the time of death arrived for the foolish Ajāmila, he began thinking exclusively of his son Nārāyaṇa.
PURPORT
In the Second Canto of the  Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam  (2.1.6) Śukadeva Gosvāmī says:
etāvān sārikhya-yogābhyāṁ svadharma-pariniṣṭhayā janma-lābhaḥ paraḥ puṁsām ante nārāyaṇa-smṛtiḥ
“The highest perfection of human life, achieved either by complete knowledge of matter and spirit, by acquirement of mystic powers, or by perfect discharge of one’s occupational duty, is to remember the Personality of Godhead at the end of life.” Somehow or other, Ajāmila consciously or unconsciously chanted the name of Nārāyaṇa at the time of death ( ante nārāyaṇa-smṛtiḥ ), and therefore he became all-perfect simply by concentrating his mind on the name of Nārāyaṇa.
It may also be concluded that Ajāmila, who was the son of a  brāhmaṇa , was accustomed to worshiping Nārāyaṇa in his youth because in every  brāhmaṇa ’s house there is worship of the  nārāyaṇa-śilā . This system is still present in India; in a rigid  brāhmaṇa ’s house, there is  nārāyaṇa-sevā , worship of Nārāyaṇa. Therefore, although the contaminated Ajāmila was calling for his son, by concentrating his mind on the holy name of Nārāyaṇa he remembered the Nārāyaṇa he had very faithfully worshiped in his youth.
In this regard Śrīla Śrīdhara Svāmī expressed his verdict as follows:  etac ca tad-upalālanādi-śrī-nārāyaṇa-namoccāraṇa-māhātmyena tad-bhaktir evābhūd iti siddhāntopayogitvenāpi draṣṭavyam . “According to the  bhakti-siddhānta , it is to be analyzed that because Ajāmila constantly chanted his son’s name, Nārāyaṇa, he was elevated to the platform of  bhakti , although he did not know it.” Similarly, Śrīla Vīrarāghava Ācārya gives this opinion:  evaṁ vartamānaḥ sa dvijaḥ mṛtyu-kāle upasthite satyajño nārāyaṇākhye putra eva matiṁ cakāra matiṁ āsak-