Abhanga 208

Bring your best and leave the residue behind; give little but pure, and if you feel you have no one, plead never to be kept apart from Vitthal's feet.

The verse

Literal translation

What it means

A sharing-with-rules abhang in the gopa-band register. Tukaram speaks as one of the band — the distributor-and-supplicant. Four moves:

1. घ्या रे भोंकरें भाकरी — दहींभाताची सिदोरी — ताक सांडीं दुरी — take bhokarē-bhakari and curd-rice shidori; throw the buttermilk far. The good shidori — bread and curd-rice — is taken; the buttermilk (tāka — the thinned-leftover after butter-extraction) is thrown far. (Compare 191's taka-sarovar at home, navanīta-pūra here — the taka-vs-navanīta discrimination.) The kālā requires good-substance, not residue.

2. येथें द्यावें तैसें घ्यावे — थोडें परी निरें व्हावें — give as I give — take little, but it should be unmixed. The quality-rule: the offering should be nirē (unmixed, pure, undiluted). The quantity-rule is thoḍē (little). Little-and-pure over much-and-mixed.

3. माझें आहे तैसें पाहे — नाहीं तरी घरा जाये — चोरोनियां माये नवनीत आणावें — (take and) look at mine; otherwise, go home, secretly from your mother bring fresh-butter. The what-if-you-have-no-good-shidori fallback. Go home and steal navanīta from your mother. The navanīta-stealing of 178 returns — but here as the alternative-supply when one's own provision is inadequate.

4. घरीं माझें कोणी नाहीं हरी — नका करूं दुरी मज पायां वेगळें — at home, Hari, my no-one is there — don't keep me far from your feet. The plea. Tukaram's autobiographical-claim: at home, I have no one. (The Tukaram of biography lost his first wife and son to famine; the verse may carry this register.) The consequence of this no-one-at-home condition is the plea: don't keep me far from your feet. Pāyām-veguḷē — separate from the feet — is the only thing the bhakta cannot bear. [T]

For someone today

This abhang names a real-collective-distribution discipline and a bhakta's-vulnerability register together:

1. Throw the residue away. Tāka sāṇḍī durī. When entering a real shared-meal, the buttermilk-residue (the leftover, the diluted, the past-prime) is thrown far. Don't bring residues into the kālā. Asela tē tayāpe — let it stay with whoever has it.

2. Little-and-unmixed over much-and-mixed. Thoḍē parī nirē vhāvē. The quality-rule: the offering should be nirē (pure, undiluted). The quantity-rule is thoḍē (small). Most failure-modes happen by adding more, mixed instead of little, pure.

3. If you have no good-shidori, go home and bring fresh-butter from your mother — even by stealing. This is a striking instruction. If your own provision is inadequate, the backup-supply is navanīta from your mother, even acquired by theft. The love-economy permits the theft (compare 184). What is not permitted is bringing inadequate-provision.

4. At-home no-one is the bhakta's vulnerability. Gharī mājhē koṇī nāhīm Harī. The bhakta is structurally lonely. The plea — don't keep me far from your feet — is unconditional. Pāyām-veguḷē — separate from the feet — is the only thing the bhakta cannot bear. Receive this register; if you are in the state of having no one at home, the pāyām-veguḷē-prevention is the appropriate prayer.

For today: at any real-shared-meal — throw the residue, bring little and pure, fall back on the love-stolen supply if needed, and hold on to the plea: don't separate me from your feet.

मराठी: ही ओवी सामायिक वाटणीची शिस्त आणि भक्ताच्या असुरक्षिततेची भावना एकत्र सांगते.

1. उरलेलं फेकून द्या — ताक सांडीं दुरी. खऱ्या सामायिक जेवणात येताना उरलेलं, पातळ झालेलं, शिळं ताक दूर फेकावं. कालात उरलेलं घेऊन येऊ नका. जे असेल ते ज्याच्याकडे आहे त्याच्याजवळच राहू द्या.

2. थोडं पण शुद्ध — जास्त पण मिसळलेल्यापेक्षा चांगलं. गुणवत्तेचा नियम — अर्पण शुद्ध, निवळ असावं. प्रमाणाचा नियम — थोडं असावं. बहुतेक चुका जास्त आणि मिसळलेलं आणण्यातून होतात, थोडं आणि शुद्ध आणण्यातून नाही.

3. चांगली शिदोरी नसेल तर घरी जा, आईकडून लोणी आणा — अगदी चोरूनही. ही सूचना धक्कादायक आहे. जर तुमची स्वतःची तरतूद अपुरी असेल, तर पर्यायी पुरवठा म्हणजे आईकडून चोरलेलं लोणी — तेही चालतं. प्रेमाची अर्थव्यवस्था ही चोरी परवानगी देते. जे परवानगी नाही ते म्हणजे अपुरी तरतूद घेऊन येणं.

4. घरी कोणी नसणं ही भक्ताची असुरक्षितता आहे — घरीं माझें कोणी नाहीं हरी. भक्त मुळातच एकटा असतो. त्याची विनंती — मला तुझ्या पायांपासून दूर ठेवू नकोस — बिनशर्त आहे. पायांपासून वेगळं होणं हीच एक गोष्ट भक्ताला सहन होत नाही. घरी कोणी नाही अशा अवस्थेत असाल, तर पायांपासून वेगळं न होण्याची ही प्रार्थनाच योग्य आहे.

आज एवढंच — कोणत्याही खऱ्या सामायिक जेवणात उरलेलं फेकून द्या, थोडं आणि शुद्ध घेऊन या, गरज पडल्यास प्रेमाने चोरलेल्या पुरवठ्यावर अवलंबून राहा, आणि ही विनंती धरून ठेवा — मला तुझ्या पायांपासून दूर ठेवू नकोस.

Where this applies

• Throw the residue away. ताक सांडीं दुरी.
• Little-and-unmixed. थोडें परी निरें.
• Backup-supply: love-stolen navanīta. When inadequate.
• At-home no-one — don't separate me from the feet. Unconditional plea.

Related verses

• 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
• Abhanga 2402 — For today: happily take rebirths — IF among the Paṇḍharī-Vārkarīs ; Hari-dāsas' company is