Abhanga 49
When crowd and solitude, forest and city, stop feeling different, what's left is dancing out of wonder, because the divine parents seem present everywhere you look.
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
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
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.