Abhanga 195

Real devotion is danced all the way to the destination, joining an outer rhythm with an inner one, and it can restore what seemed permanently broken: sight, mobility, even youth.

The verse

Literal translation

What it means

The Pandhari-pilgrimage-dance abhang — third in the vāḷavaṇṭa cluster (193-195). Three movements:

1. जतिस पद राखों — टिपरिया घाई — अनुहातें — मांदळा — the rhythm-step is kept by the sticks-rhythm; the māndaḷa plays with the un-struck sound. The dual-register of the warkari kīrtana-rhythm: external — the ṭiparī (small percussion-sticks) keep the audible-beat; internal — the māndaḷa (drum) sounds with the anuhata-nāda (un-struck inner sound). The dance is simultaneously outer-and-inner.

2. नाचत पंढरिये जाऊं रे खेळिया — विठ्ठल रखुमाई पाहूं — dancing, let us go to Pandhari — let's see Viṭṭhal-Rakhumāī. The call. The vāḷavaṇṭa-festival on the way is not the destination; the destination is Pandhari, where Viṭṭhal-Rakhumāī wait. Khēḷiyā — comrades / players — is the address.

3. विसरती पक्षी चारा घेणें पाणी — तारुण्य देहभाव बाळा — birds forget grain-and-water; youthful body-sense becomes child-like. The forgetting-of-the-ordinary is the festival's marker. Even the birds (creatures whose entire-life is eat-and-drink) forget. And the youthful body-sense (the adult-condition) returns to child-like-ness. The festival reverses the maturation.

4. आंधळ्यासि डोळे — पांगळांसि पाय — वृद्ध होती तारुण्यें — blind get eyes, lame get feet, old become young. The classical miracle-triplet. The festival's effect is reversal of disability and reversal of aging. This is not metaphor only in warkari literature — it is reported as literally happening at Pandhari for some pilgrims, and as a metaphor for the spiritual-disability-reversal that happens to all participants. [T]

For someone today

This abhang names what real arrival at the destination feels like:

1. Dual-rhythm: outer-and-inner. The ṭiparī (audible-rhythm) and the anuhata-nāda (un-struck inner-sound) are simultaneously present. If your practice has only outer rhythm (mechanical) or only inner sound (disconnected), the integration is missing. Real-practice is both.

2. The dance is the way to the destination. नाचत पंढरिये जाऊं. You don't walk there and only dance on arrival; you dance the whole way there. The journey itself is the arrival-mode.

3. Forgetting the ordinary is the marker. When the birds forget grain, when adult body-sense returns to child-like-ness — these are the signs you have entered the right-register. If you are still worrying about ordinary-supplies, the register has not yet taken hold.

4. Reversal of disability and aging. Blind-get-eyes, lame-get-feet, old-become-young. Receive these as offered. They are not metaphors only; in real practice these reversals do happen — sometimes literally, often spiritually. Don't moderate the claim.

For today: when the call to dance your way to the destination lands — go. Carry both outer rhythm (with comrades) and inner sound (your own anuhata). Forget the ordinary-supplies. Receive the reversals. वृद्ध होती तारुण्यें — the old become young.

मराठी: ही ओवी खऱ्या अर्थाने पोचणं म्हणजे काय, हे सांगते.

1. दुहेरी ताल — बाहेरचा आणि आतला. टिपरीचा ऐकू येणारा ताल आणि अनाहत नाद — न वाजवलेला आतला नाद — हे दोन्ही एकाच वेळी असतात. तुमच्या साधनेत फक्त बाहेरचा यांत्रिक ताल असेल, किंवा फक्त आतला, तुटलेला नाद असेल, तर एकसंधता उरलेली नाही. खरी साधना दोन्ही एकत्र असते.

2. नाच हाच पंढरीला पोचण्याचा मार्ग आहे — 'नाचत पंढरिये जाऊं.' आधी नुसतं चालायचं आणि पोचल्यावरच नाचायचं, असं नाही; तर वाटेतच नाचत जायचं. प्रवास हाच पोचण्याचा अनुभव असतो.

3. रोजच्या गोष्टी विसरणं हीच खूण आहे. पक्षी चारा-पाणी विसरतात, तरुण शरीराची जाणीव पुन्हा बालपणासारखी होते — ही चिन्हं दाखवतात की तुम्ही योग्य अवस्थेत आला आहात. जर अजूनही रोजच्या गरजांची काळजी वाटत असेल, तर ती अवस्था अजून पूर्णपणे रुजलेली नाही.

4. अपंगत्व आणि म्हातारपण उलटतं — आंधळ्याला डोळे, पांगळ्याला पाय, म्हाताऱ्याला तारुण्य. हे जसं दिलं जातं तसं स्वीकारा. हे केवळ रूपक नाही; खऱ्या साधनेत हे बदल घडतात — कधी प्रत्यक्ष, अनेकदा आध्यात्मिक पातळीवर. हा दावा सौम्य करू नका.

आज एवढंच — पोचण्यासाठी नाचत जाण्याची हाक आली, तर जा. सोबत्यांबरोबरचा बाहेरचा ताल आणि स्वतःचा आतला अनाहत नाद, दोन्ही सोबत घेऊन जा. रोजच्या गरजा विसरा. हे बदल स्वीकारा. वृद्ध होती तारुण्यें — म्हातारेही तरुण होतात.

Where this applies

• Dual-rhythm — outer + un-struck. Real-practice marker.
• Dance-while-going, not arrival-then-dance. Journey-as-mode.
• Reversals offered. Don't moderate.

Related verses

• Abhanga 2448 — The easiest path to God is repeating divine names with love at home, right where you are,
• Abhanga 2494 — Living in devotion turns an ordinary day into a festival and removes the fear of birth and
• 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