Abhanga 266

A mother feels her child's goodness as her own and grieves separation as much as the child does, so caring for one side of a close bond heals the whole relationship.

The verse

Literal translation

What it means

A mother-bhāva abhang. Four claims:

1. करावें गोमटें — बाळा माते तें उमटे — do good — in the child, to the mother, that is felt. When the child does something good, the mother feels it — the good-doing appears in the mother through the child. The mother-child organism is single.

2. आपुलिया जीवाहूनी असे वाल्हें तें जननी — the jananī (mother) loves (= is-loved-by-her, or loves) more than her own life. The mother's love-of-the-child exceeds her own life-self-preservation. This is the signature of mother-bhāva.

3. वियोग तें तिस — त्याच्या उपचारें तें विष — separation is for her; his ministrations (to the loved-one) are her poison-antidote. Two paired claims:

4. Separation isfor her (not for the child) — the grief-of-separation is on the mother's side.

5. His ministrations are her poison-antidote — when the child / loved-one ministers to the mother, the separation-poison is countered. The child's care of the mother heals her.

6. तुका म्हणे पायें — डोळा सुखावे ज्या न्यायें — Tuka says: as the eye is comforted by the foot — by the same justice. The body-unity image. When the foot is cared for, the eye (a different organ, far away) is comforted. The single-body experiences the foot-care as eye-comfort. The same justice / mechanism / logic applies to mother-and-child: what is done to one is felt in the other.

[T]

For someone today

Tukaram paints the divine as a mother who feels everything her child does as if it happened to her — a good deed by the child registers as joy in the mother's own heart, because the two are really one being. Her love for the child runs deeper than her love of her own life, and when the child is far away, she grieves that separation just as much as the child does, maybe more. But the same love that aches also heals: any care or attention the child offers back to her soothes that ache, like a poison being drawn out. Tukaram compares it to how tending a hurt foot brings relief to the eye far away in the same body — because devotee and God share one body of love, care given to any part of that bond is felt as comfort throughout the whole.

मराठी: तुकाराम देवाला अशा मातेच्या रूपात रंगवतात, जिला आपल्या लेकराचे प्रत्येक कर्म स्वतःचेच वाटते — लेकराने केलेले चांगले कृत्य मातेच्याच अंतःकरणात आनंद म्हणून उमटते, कारण दोघे खरे तर एकच असतात. मातेचे लेकरावरचे प्रेम तिच्या स्वतःच्या जीवापेक्षाही अधिक असते, आणि लेकरू दूर गेले की तिलाही लेकराइतकाच, किंबहुना जास्तच, विरहाचा त्रास होतो. पण जे प्रेम दुखावते तेच बरेही करते — लेकराने मातेची जी काही सेवा, काळजी घेतली, ती त्या विरह-वेदनेवरचे औषध ठरते, जणू विषच उतरवले जाते. तुकाराम याची तुलना पायाला झालेली इजा बरी केल्याने त्याच शरीरातील दूरच्या डोळ्यालाही आराम मिळण्याशी करतात — कारण भक्त आणि देव एकाच प्रेमाच्या शरीराचे भाग असतात, त्या नात्याच्या कोणत्याही भागाला दिलेली काळजी संपूर्ण नात्याला सुख देऊन जाते.

Where this applies

• Your good-doing is felt by the mother-deity. Single-body.
• Mother loves more than own life. Signature.
• Separation grieves the mother too. Mutual.
• Your ministrations heal the separation-poison. Mutual healing.
• Foot-care comforts the eye. Body-unity.

Related verses

• Abhanga 2425 — Surrender every part of your life completely to what you trust most, and let go of the res
• Abhanga 2477 — Like a child too absorbed in play to notice how tired he is, let go and trust the parent c
• Abhanga 2484 — Real devotion can include anger and demand, not just sweetness, because a devotee who trul
• Abhanga 2540 — Even the smallest, most helpless creature that cries out to God in danger is sheltered and