संत साहित्य · Tukārām · Abhanga 35 of 4582

Abhanga 35

What is given to God is the inner sweetness. Wealth-displays don't cross the threshold; feeling does.

When you've been giving 'enough' externally and have noticed it isn't reaching whoever you meant it for

When you're poor in resources and feel disqualified from offering anything — and you have to remember whose kin God is

When the offering you can give is only your feeling — and you have to learn that this is, structurally, the whole of what is asked

The verse

अंतरींची घेतो गोडी । पाहे जोडी भावाची ॥१॥ देव सोयरा देव सोयरा । देव सोयरा दीनाचा ॥ध्रु.॥ आपुल्या वैभवें । शृंगारावें निर्मळ ॥२॥ तुका म्हणे जेवी सवें । प्रेम द्यावें प्रीतीचें ॥३॥

Literal translation

English: He takes the inner sweetness; He looks at the gathering of feeling. God is kin, God is kin — God is the kin of the lowly. Adorn (Him) cleanly with whatever splendor is yours. Tuka says: at the meal, with love, give the love of affection.

मराठी: तो आतली गोडीच घेतो; भावाची जोड बघतो. देव सोयरा, देव सोयरा — देव दीनाचा सोयरा. आपल्या वैभवाने (त्याला) निर्मळपणे शृंगारावं. तुकाराम म्हणतात — जेवणावेळी प्रेमानं प्रीतीचं प्रेम द्यावं.

Word-by-word gloss

Marathi	Meaning
अंतरींची घेतो गोडी	"He takes the inner sweetness"
पाहे जोडी भावाची	"He looks at the gathering / accumulation of bhāva (feeling)"
देव सोयरा	"God is the kin / relative" (सोयरा = kin, family-friend, in-law-by-marriage)
दीनाचा	"of the lowly / the poor / the helpless"
आपुल्या वैभवें शृंगारावें निर्मळ	"with one's own splendor, adorn (Him) cleanly / purely"
जेवी सवें प्रेम द्यावें प्रीतीचें	"at meal-time, with love, give the love of affection"

What it means

This abhang's theological content is in two moves. First — अंतरींची घेतो गोडी — He takes the inner sweetness — establishing that the deity's appetite is for feeling, not for the surface offering. Second — देव सोयरा दीनाचा — God is the kin of the lowly — declaring God's structural identification with the poor. The combination is potent: the lowly are not disqualified from offering, because what is taken is the inner sweetness, and the lowly have at least as much of that as the wealthy. [T] [Tradition]

For someone today

English: This abhang is permission to offer when you have been telling yourself you don't have enough to offer. The "enough" you imagine is external — money, time, polish. The deity's appetite is internal — feeling, sweetness, the small bhāva-jodi (gathering of devotional emotion). What is yours, even if everything-else is missing, is exactly what is asked. The structural claim — God is kin of the lowly — is not flattery. It is the assertion that God's preferred relational location is with the resource-poor, not as a charitable extension but as kin.

मराठी: ही ओवी देणगी देण्याची परवानगी आहे — जेव्हा तुम्ही स्वतःला सांगत आहात की देण्यासारखं काही नाही. "पुरेसं" तुम्ही जे कल्पता ते बाहेरचं — पैसे, वेळ, चकाचक. देवाची भूक आतली — भाव, गोडी, छोटी भाव-जोडी. तुमचं जे आहे — बाकी सगळं नसलं तरी — तेच विचारलं जातं. रचनात्मक दावा — देव दीनाचा सोयरा — हे चापलूस नाही. हे आहे की देवाची आवडती relational जागा resource-गरीबांसोबत आहे — दानाची विस्तार म्हणून नाही, सोयरा म्हणून.

Where this applies

When you've been giving 'enough' externally without it reaching the person you meant. External-only doesn't cross the threshold. Inner sweetness does.
When you feel disqualified from offering because you're poor in resources. देव सोयरा दीनाचा. You are kin.
When the only offering you can make is your feeling. That is structurally the whole of what is asked.