Abhanga 183

I have held the Krishna-jewel at the throat — light everywhere among people. Let us distribute kālā to each other — vaiṣṇavas have fine honor. Let us make faces at Brahmā etc., show (the kālā) to the upper-worlds. Tuka says: in the earth-realm — we are warrior-strongmen of the cart-procession.

The verse

Literal translation

What it means

A bold-vaiṣṇava-claim abhang in continuation of the kālā-cluster (164, 165, 168, 183). Five claims:

1. कंठीं धरिला कृष्णमणी — I have held the Krishna-jewel at the throat. The standard warkari tulasi-mālā worn at the neck is read as the Krishna-maṇī (a precious-stone-of-Krishna). The body-marker of vaiṣṇava-identity.

2. अवघा जनीं प्रकाश — light everywhere among people. Wearing the Krishna-maṇī makes the light visible everywhere. The light is not private; it spreads.

3. काला वांटूं एकमेकां — वैष्णवा निका संभ्रम — let us distribute kālā to each other; fine-honor for the vaiṣṇavas. The kālā is the eucharistic feast of the warkari tradition (curd-rice / butter mixed and shared). Niḷā sambhrama — fine honor — comes specifically from this mutual-distribution.

4. वांकुलिया ब्रम्हादिकां — उत्तम लोकां दाखवूं — make faces at Brahmā etc., show to the upper-worlds. The bold anti-establishment move: the vaiṣṇavas mock the cosmic-establishment-deities (Brahmā, Indra, etc.) by displaying their kālā-feast to them. This continues 164's Vaikuntha has no kālā and 179's Krishna eats the Indra-naivedya moves. The upper-worlds watch but cannot share. Vānkuliyā — making-mocking-faces — is specifically childlike and disrespectful.

5. आम्ही बळी वीर गाडे — we are the warrior-strongmen of the cart-procession. Gāḍē = carts (and the strongmen-pulling-them in the warkari pilgrimage). The vaiṣṇavas are not spiritual-pacifists; they are warriors whose battle is the cart-procession itself. The bhū-maṇḍala (earth-realm) is the theatre; the vīra (warrior-) identity is real. [T]

For someone today

This abhang shows a bold, collective side of bhakti identity — rarer in Tukaram's gentler verses, but important when it appears. It makes four claims.

First, the visible marker on the body matters. The Krishna-jewel worn at the throat is visible to everyone, and its light spreads outward — bhakti isn't only interior; what you wear and carry openly lets the light reach others.

Second, mutual sharing among companions comes first. The vaishnavas distribute the kālā feast to each other before showing it to anyone outside the circle, even before showing it to Brahma — this internal circulation among devotees is itself the honor.

Third, mocking the religious establishment is part of the practice. Making faces at Brahma and the other high gods isn't random rebellion — it's a way of defending the joy of this shared feast against any claim that the higher worlds are superior. The upper worlds don't have this kālā; the vaishnavas do, and the mockery names that difference plainly.

Fourth, there's a warrior identity rooted in this world. Bhakti here isn't only gentle withdrawal — it includes defending the communal, embodied pilgrimage itself, the actual carts and processions, against both the idea of liberation as pure escape and against any official religion trying to replace this lived, shared joy.

For today: when your own community of devotion gathers, share what you have with each other first; let your outward markers of faith be visible; and remember that you can be a strong, grounded presence in the world, not someone retreating from it.

मराठी: ही ओवी भक्तीच्या धाडसी, सामूहिक बाजूचं दर्शन घडवते — तुकारामांच्या नरम ओव्यांमध्ये हे दुर्मीळ आहे, पण जेव्हा येतं तेव्हा ओळखणं महत्त्वाचं. यात चार दावे आहेत.

पहिला — शरीरावरची दिसणारी खूण महत्त्वाची आहे. गळ्यात धारण केलेला कृष्ण-मणी सर्वांना दिसतो, आणि त्याचा प्रकाश सर्वत्र पसरतो — भक्ती फक्त आंतरिक नाही; उघडपणे परिधान केलेली आणि जपलेली गोष्टच प्रकाश इतरांपर्यंत पोहोचवते.

दुसरा — सोबत्यांमध्ये आधी परस्पर वाटणी होते. वैष्णव एकमेकांना काला वाटतात, वर्तुळाबाहेरच्या कुणालाही दाखवण्याआधी, अगदी ब्रह्मदेवालाही दाखवण्याआधी — भक्तांमधलं हे अंतर्गत वाटप हाच त्यांचा सन्मान आहे.

तिसरा — धार्मिक प्रस्थापिततेची थट्टा करणं हा साधनेचाच भाग आहे. ब्रह्मदेव आणि इतर मोठ्या देवांना चिडवणं ही यादृच्छिक बंडखोरी नाही — हे या सामायिक मेजवानीच्या आनंदाचं रक्षण आहे, वरच्या जगांच्या श्रेष्ठतेच्या दाव्याविरुद्ध. वरच्या जगांकडे हा काला नाही; वैष्णवांकडे आहे, आणि ही थट्टा हा फरक स्पष्टपणे नोंदवते.

चौथा — या जगातच रुजलेली एक योद्धा-ओळख आहे. इथली भक्ती फक्त सौम्य अलिप्तता नाही — यात सामूहिक, embodied तीर्थयात्रेचं, प्रत्यक्ष गाड्यांचं आणि मिरवणुकींचं रक्षण करणंही समाविष्ट आहे — मुक्ती म्हणजे केवळ पलायन ही कल्पना आणि हा जिवंत, सामायिक आनंद बदलू पाहणारी कोणतीही अधिकृत धर्मव्यवस्था — या दोन्हींविरुद्ध.

आजसाठी: तुमचा स्वतःचा भक्ती-समुदाय जमतो तेव्हा, आधी एकमेकांशी जे आहे ते वाटा; तुमच्या श्रद्धेच्या बाह्य खुणा दिसू द्या; आणि लक्षात ठेवा की तुम्ही जगातून पळून जाणारे नसून, जगात खंबीरपणे उभे राहणारे असू शकता.

Where this applies

• Body-marker visible. कंठीं कृष्ण-मणी.
• Internal-circulation first. एकमेकां.
• Earth-realm-warrior, not retreatant. बळी वीर गाडे.

Related verses

• Abhanga 4481 — Tukaram promises that sincerely calling on the Lord's name, knowingly or unknowingly, with
• Abhanga 4482 — Tukaram teaches that no ritual equals sincerely speaking the Lord's name, that self-center
• Abhanga 4486 — Tukaram shows that when God truly enters a place, worry flees and deep understanding can a
• Abhanga 4574 — Weaving remembrance of God into ordinary daily life, rather than setting it apart, is what