Abhanga 221

Blessing is not reserved for renunciates or any particular status, it belongs to ordinary people, their everyday tools, and their families, and its real measure is love for God running through every feeling they have.

The verse

Literal translation

What it means

A dhanya-litany abhang. Tukaram extends the blessed category through five concentric-rings:

1. Everyday-pastoral-objects — gōdhana, kāmbaḷī, kāṣṭhikā, mohari, pāva, brīda-vānkī. Cow-wealth, blanket, staff-wood, flute, bansuri, vow-band. The physical-equipment of the cowherd-life is first-blessed. (Compare 188: for-them — the equipment is for them.)

2. Place + people — Gokul, the gopāls, men-and-women all. The place (Gokul) and all the inhabitants — without distinction of gender or rank — are blessed.

3. The mothers and fathers — Devakī, Yaśodā (Jaśavantī), Vasudeva, Nanda. The householder-parents are blessed. Both mothers (the birth-mother Devakī and the foster-mother Yaśodā) and both fathers (Vasudeva and Nanda). The blessing applies to the householder-couples on equal footing.

4. The gopikā and all the Yadavas — sixteen-thousand maidens; all the Yadavas. The intimate-companions (gopikā) and the clan (Yadavas) — both blessed.

5. The blessing-criterion — those who came-to-birth, colored in Hari's color in all bhāva. The blessing-extends to anyone whose birth was colored in Hari's ranga in sarva-bhāva (all affects). The all-bhāva qualifier is important: not just one register, but all the affective-states must be colored in Hari's ranga. (Compare 0007-0031 gopī-arc's vyabhicāra-bhakti register — multiple-affects-toward-the-same-deity.)

[T]

For someone today

This abhang names a anti-renunciate blessing-economy:

1. Everyday-objects are first-blessed. Cow-wealth, blanket, staff-wood, flute. The householder-pastoral-equipment is blessed. Don't think blessing requires renunciation-of-objects. The objects tied to the real relationship are themselves blessed.

2. Place and people equally blessed. Men-and-women, all. The gender-hierarchy is not invoked. All the people of Gokul are blessed.

3. Householder-parents are blessed. Devakī-Yaśodā, Vasudeva-Nanda. Don't think parents and householders are less-blessed than renunciates. The householder-couples are named and blessed.

4. The intimate-companions and the clan are blessed. Sixteen-thousand maidens, all Yadavas. The plural-relations (multiple-spouses, clan-membership) are not obstacles to blessing.

5. The blessing-criterion is being colored in Hari's color, in every bhāva. Hari-rangīm rangalīm sarva-bhāvēm. This is the actual qualifier. Not renunciation, not high-status, not correct-belief — but being colored in Hari's color across all the affective-states. The all-bhāva condition is essential: every register of feeling — joy, fear, grief, anger, lust, longing, satisfaction — must be colored in Hari's ranga. (Compare 0007's gopī-arc: the same Krishna-direction across all gopī-affects.)

For today: don't withhold blessing from everyday-objects, householders, plural-relations. The blessing-criterion is being colored in Hari's ranga across every bhāva — applicable to anyone who meets that condition. Renunciation is not the criterion; being colored in that ranga across every feeling is the criterion.

मराठी: ही ओवी संन्यासाला श्रेष्ठ न मानणारी, धन्यतेची एक व्यापक मांडणी सांगते.

1. रोजच्या वापरातल्या वस्तूही आधी धन्य ठरतात — गाई-गुरं, पांघरूण, काठी, बासरी. गृहस्थाश्रमातल्या, गुराखी जीवनातल्या साधनांनाही धन्यता आहे. धन्यता मिळायला वस्तूंचा त्याग करावा लागतो असं समजू नका. खऱ्या नात्याशी जोडलेल्या वस्तूही स्वतःच धन्य असतात.

2. जागा आणि माणसं समान प्रमाणात धन्य ठरतात — स्त्री-पुरुष, सगळे. यात स्त्री-पुरुष असा भेद केलेला नाही. गोकुळातली सगळी माणसं धन्य आहेत.

3. गृहस्थाश्रमी आई-वडीलही धन्य ठरतात — देवकी-यशोदा, वसुदेव-नंद. आई-वडील किंवा गृहस्थाश्रमी हे संन्याशांपेक्षा कमी धन्य असतात असं समजू नका. या गृहस्थ जोडप्यांना नावाने घेऊन धन्य मानलं आहे.

4. जवळचे सोबती आणि संपूर्ण कुळही धन्य ठरतात — सोळा हजार गोपिका, सगळे यादव. अनेक नाती असणं किंवा कुळाशी बांधलेलं असणं हे धन्यतेच्या आड येत नाही.

5. धन्यतेची खरी कसोटी म्हणजे प्रत्येक भावात हरीच्या रंगात रंगलेलं असणं — हरिरंगीं रंगलीं सर्वभावें. हीच खरी कसोटी आहे. संन्यास नाही, उच्च दर्जा नाही, योग्य श्रद्धा नाही — तर सगळ्या भावावस्थांमध्ये हरीच्या रंगात रंगणं. हा 'सर्वभाव' निकष महत्त्वाचा आहे — आनंद, भीती, दुःख, राग, वासना, आस, तृप्ती — भावनेचा प्रत्येक प्रकार हरीच्याच रंगात रंगलेला असायला हवा.

आज एवढंच — रोजच्या वस्तूंना, गृहस्थाश्रमींना, अनेक नात्यांना धन्यतेपासून वंचित ठेवू नका. धन्यतेची कसोटी आहे — प्रत्येक भावात हरीच्या रंगात रंगलेलं असणं — ही कसोटी पूर्ण करणाऱ्या कोणालाही लागू होते. संन्यास ही कसोटी नाही; प्रत्येक भावात तो रंग असणं हीच खरी कसोटी आहे.

Where this applies

• Everyday-objects are blessed. Don't require renunciation.
• Householders blessed equally. No renunciate-supremacy.
• All-bhāva-in-Hari's-ranga is the criterion. Not status.

Related verses

• Abhanga 2467 — What looks like your whole world, like a fig to the insect living inside it, is only a tin
• 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 4497 — Tukaram describes a life so soaked in devotion that Krishna's presence fills every ordinar