Abhanga 49
English: This abhang is for the moment when the difference between being-with-people and being-alone has stopped being meaningful. The categories crowd / solitude, city / forest used to organize your sense of being; they have dimmed. Tukaram's reframe: विठ्ठलनामा प्रमाणें — by the proof of Vitthal's name — the categories collapsed because something else became visible everywhere. The forest is not empty; the parents are there. The crowd is not exhausting; the parents are there too. Every place has become homely.
The verse
जन विजन जालें आम्हां । विठ्ठलनामा प्रमाणें ॥१॥ पाहें तिकडे बापमाय । विठ्ठल आहे रखुमाई ॥ध्रु.॥ वन पट्टण एकभाव । अवघा ठाव सरता जाला ॥२॥ आठव नाहीं सुखदुःखा । नाचे तुका कौतुकें ॥३॥
Literal translation
English: People and no-people have become one for us — by the proof of Vitthal's name. Wherever I look, mother-and-father (are there): Vitthal-and-Rukhumai. Forest or city — one feeling; every place has become homely. No memory of joy or sorrow — Tuka dances out of wonder.
मराठी: आम्हाला जन-विजन एकच झालं — विठ्ठलनामाच्या प्रमाणाने. जिकडे पाहीन तिकडे बाप-माय — विठ्ठल आहे रखुमाई. वन-शहर एक भाव; प्रत्येक ठिकाण सरतं झालं. सुख-दुःखाची आठवणच नाही — तुका कौतुकाने नाचतो.
Word-by-word gloss
| Marathi | Meaning |
|---|---|
| जन विजन जालें आम्हां | "people-and-no-people have become (one) for us" (जन = people; विजन = solitude / no-people) |
| विठ्ठलनामा प्रमाणें | "by the proof of Vitthal's name" |
| पाहें तिकडे बापमाय | "wherever I look — mother-and-father" |
| विठ्ठल आहे रखुमाई | "Vitthal is (there) — Rukhumai" |
| वन पट्टण एकभाव | "forest, city — one feeling" |
| अवघा ठाव सरता जाला | "every place has become passable / homely" (सरता = the good, the passable) |
| आठव नाहीं सुखदुःखा | "no memory of joy-or-sorrow" |
| नाचे तुका कौतुकें | "Tuka dances out of wonder" (कौतुक = wonder, marvel) |
What it means
This abhang is the closing of the equanimity-cluster (0047-0049). The dissolution of categories continues: in 0047, honor-dishonor / joy-sorrow dissolved; in 0048, praise-blame dissolved; in 0049, crowd-solitude / forest-city dissolve. The image पाहें तिकडे बापमाय, विठ्ठल आहे रखुमाई — wherever I look, parents — Vitthal and Rukhumai — names the consequence: the formerly-empty places (forest, the streets of strangers) are now populated by the parental couple. Solitude is not lonely because the parents are there. [T]
The closing — नाचे तुका कौतुकें — Tuka dances out of wonder — is the abhang's emotional signature. The post-arrival state is not still or austere; it is dancing-out-of-wonder. The bhakta dances because everywhere there is parents to be wondered-at. [T]
For someone today
English: This abhang is for the moment when the difference between being-with-people and being-alone has stopped being meaningful. The categories crowd / solitude, city / forest used to organize your sense of being; they have dimmed. Tukaram's reframe: विठ्ठलनामा प्रमाणें — by the proof of Vitthal's name — the categories collapsed because something else became visible everywhere. The forest is not empty; the parents are there. The crowd is not exhausting; the parents are there too. Every place has become homely.
The closing image — Tuka dancing out of wonder — is the corrective to the assumption that post-arrival means austerity. Tukaram dances. The wonder is what dances him. If you have arrived somewhere quiet and dimmed and there is no dance, double-check: maybe you have arrived somewhere else.
मराठी: ही ओवी अशा क्षणासाठी जेव्हा लोकांत असणं आणि एकटं असणं मधला फरक अर्थपूर्ण राहिलेला नाही. आधी जीवनाला रचणाऱ्या categories — गर्दी / एकांत, शहर / वन — मंदावल्या आहेत. तुकारामांचं reframe: विठ्ठलनामा प्रमाणें — विठ्ठलनामाच्या पुराव्याने — categories collapsed झाल्या कारण दुसरं काहीतरी सर्वत्र दिसू लागलं. वन रिकामं नाही; आई-बाबा तिथे आहेत. गर्दी थकवणारी नाही; आई-बाबा तिथेही आहेत. प्रत्येक जागा सरती झाली.
शेवटचं image — तुका कौतुकाने नाचतो — हे "post-arrival म्हणजे austerity" या गृहीतकाला सुधारणा आहे. तुकाराम नाचतात. कौतुक त्यांना नाचवतं. तुम्ही कुठेतरी शांत आणि मंदावलेल्या ठिकाणी पोहोचलात आणि नाच नसेल — पुन्हा तपासा: कदाचित तुम्ही दुसरीकडे पोहोचलात.
Where this applies
- When crowd and solitude have stopped feeling different. Recognize the dissolution as the gift, not as numbness.
- When you've stopped having a home town. अवघा ठाव सरता जाला. Every place has become homely.
- When you find yourself dancing for no reason. कौतुक. Wonder. Trust it.