Abhanga 164

May we be born again — to eat the kālā-curd-rice. There is no such thing in Vaikuntha — not a single bite of kālā there. Let us put it in each other's mouths; let us make happy whoops. Tuka says: the riverbank — that's the right, fine, true place.

The verse

Literal translation

What it means

One of Tukaram's most famous and theologically radical abhangs. The kālā — the gopa-gopikā children's communal curd-and-rice mix that Krishna and his friends share at the Yamuna riverbank — is the central image. Tukaram makes a stunning move:

उपजोनियां पुढती येऊं — काला खाऊं दहींभात — let us be born again to eat the kālā-curd-rice.

In standard moksha-frameworks, rebirth is the problem and escape from rebirth is the goal. Vaikuntha (Vishnu's heaven, the abode-without-return) is the prize. Tukaram reverses this: Vaikuntha has no kālā. The communal-feast-on-the-riverbank — with friends, putting food in each other's mouths, making whooping joy-cries — does not exist in heaven. So rebirth is preferred if rebirth keeps the kālā available.

This is embodied, communal, riverbank-bhakti vs. disembodied, solitary, heaven-bhakti — and Tukaram chooses embodied. वाळवंट बरवें नीट उत्तम — the riverbank is good, fine, the best.

The companion-doctrine: bhakti is not for escape from the world; bhakti is for deeper participation in the world's communal-joy-with-Krishna. Vaikuntha is no upgrade over Vrindavan-riverbank. [T] [Major teaching of Warkari tradition]

For someone today

This abhang pushes back against the urge to escape embodied, communal life — food, friends, laughter — in favor of some abstracted 'higher' state. Tukaram says plainly: that abstract higher state has no kālā in it. Whatever liberation is supposed to look like, if it doesn't include eating curd-rice with friends on a riverbank, putting food in each other's mouths, and whooping with joy, then he wants no part of it — send him back to be born again instead.

The spiritual move here isn't to reject the world; it's to deepen communal, embodied joy with the deity as a friend among friends. Tukaram's bhakti doesn't renounce the world — it loves the world, with Krishna right there in it.

For today: when a spiritual framework starts making your friends, your food, your body, or your laughter feel like something lesser, that framework has gone wrong somewhere. Tukaram's test is simple — is there kālā in this framework's heaven? If not, the riverbank is better.

मराठी: ही ओवी embodied आणि communal जीवनापासून — अन्न, मित्र, हसणं — पळून जाण्याच्या ओढीला उत्तर देते, एखाद्या अमूर्त 'उच्च' अवस्थेच्या नावाखाली. तुकाराम स्पष्ट सांगतात: त्या अमूर्त उच्च अवस्थेत काला नाही. मुक्ती जशी काही असेल — जर तिच्यात नदीकाठी मित्रांसोबत दहींभात खाणं, एकमेकांच्या तोंडात घास भरवणं, आणि आनंदाने हुंबरी घालणं नसेल — तर मला ती नको; मला परत पाठवा, पुन्हा जन्म द्या.

इथली आध्यात्मिक हालचाल जगाचा त्याग नाही; ती देवाला मित्रांमधला एक मित्र मानून communal, embodied आनंद अधिक खोल नेणं आहे. तुकारामांची भक्ती जग सोडणारी नाही — ती जगावर, त्यात कृष्णासह, प्रेम करणारी आहे.

आजच्यासाठी: एखादी आध्यात्मिक चौकट तुमचे मित्र, अन्न, शरीर किंवा हसणं कमी दर्जाचं वाटायला लावत असेल, तर ती चौकट कुठेतरी चुकते आहे. तुकारामांची कसोटी साधी आहे — या चौकटीच्या स्वर्गात काला आहे का? नसेल, तर वाळवंटच बरं.

Where this applies

• When a teacher or tradition tells you that enjoying food, friendship, or laughter is a distraction from real spirituality
• When you imagine an afterlife or enlightened state as cold and solitary, and it leaves you uneasy rather than comforted
• When you feel pressure to renounce simple communal joys in the name of spiritual progress
• When you want to test whether a spiritual path is actually life-affirming or secretly life-denying

Related verses

• Abhanga 198 — There is more than one real path to freedom from suffering, and once you've experienced th
• Abhanga 2374 — Rather than scattering devotion among many lesser deities who demand offerings, Tukaram sa
• Abhanga 2377 — This detailed meditation on Vitthal standing on a brick at Pandharpur, out of love for his
• Abhanga 2387 — Accept whatever life brings with reverence, and place the burden on God rather than carryi