संत साहित्य
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संत साहित्य · Tukārām · Abhanga 317 of 4582

Abhanga 317

English: With this-world's alankāra — what real-pūjana?

When the world's-ornaments are being offered as pūjā — and the abhang says what real-pūjā?
When the path needs to be laid to Vaikuntha — and you accept this destination-orientation
When the vaiṣṇavas are your gaṇa-multitude — and you receive this identification

The verse

येथीचिया अळंकारें । काय खरें पूजन ॥१॥ वैकुंठींच्या लावूं वाटा । सर्व साटा ते ठायीं ॥ध्रु.॥ येथीचिया नाशवंतें । काय रितें चाळवूं ॥२॥ तुका म्हणे वैष्णव जेन । माझे गण समुदाय ॥३॥

Literal translation

English: With this-world's alankāra — what real-pūjana? Lay the vāṭā to Vaikuntha — all sāṭā there. With this-world's nāśavanta — what (use to) cāḷavūm emptily? Tuka says: vaiṣṇavas — my gaṇa-samudāya.

मराठी: येथीचिया अळंकारें — काय खरें पूजन. वैकुंठींच्या लावूं वाटा — सर्व साटा ते ठायीं. येथीचिया नाशवंतें — काय रितें चाळवूं. तुकाराम म्हणतां — वैष्णव जेन — माझे गण समुदाय.

Word-by-word gloss
Marathi Meaning
येथीचिया अळंकारें "with this-(world's) alankāra (ornaments)"
काय खरें पूजन "what (is) real-pūjana**"
वैकुंठींच्या लावूं वाटा "lay the vāṭā (paths) to Vaikuntha"
सर्व साटा ते ठायीं "all sāṭā (stored) — there"
येथीचिया नाशवंतें "with this-(world's) nāśavanta (perishable)"
काय रितें चाळवूं "what (use to) cāḷavūm (entertain) ritē (emptily)"
वैष्णव जेन माझे गण समुदाय "vaiṣṇavas — my gaṇa-samudāya (host-and-multitude)"

What it means

Important contextual reading: 0317 must be read together with 164's let-us-be-born-again-for-the-kālā-feast, 198's Pandhari-rejects-Vaikuntha, and 255's gods-covet-this-body. Throughout the corpus, Tukaram repeatedly rejects the Vaikuntha-frame in favor of this-world embodied-bhakti. So how to read 0317's lay paths to Vaikuntha?

Reading-1 (literal): use this-world to build-paths-to-Vaikuntha; all real-storage is there. This conflicts with the dominant-corpus claim.

Reading-2 (figurative): Vaikuntha here = the bhakta-state itself, not a separate-place. The paths-to-Vaikuntha are the paths-to-the-bhakta-state (= the deva-in-chitta state of 316). All sāṭā there = all real-storage is in the bhakta-state, not in this-world's-ornaments.

Reading-2 fits the corpus better. Three claims:

  1. येथीचिया अळंकारें — काय खरें पूजन — with this-world's ornaments — what real-pūjā? The world's ornaments (= jewelry, decorations, status-markers, ritual-paraphernalia) — what real-pūjana do they perform? The form is pūjana but the substance is not.

  2. वैकुंठींच्या लावूं वाटा — सर्व साटा ते ठायीं — lay the paths to Vaikuntha — all storage there. Read-2: lay the paths to the deva-state-of-being; all real-storage is in the deva-state-of-being. The path-laying-orientation is toward the deva-state, not toward the world's-pūjana.

  3. येथीचिया नाशवंतें — काय रितें चाळवूं — with the perishable — what (use to) entertain emptily. This-world's perishable — no use for empty-entertainment. The perishable is for transmuting-into-paths-to-Vaikuntha, not for entertainment-in-itself.

  4. तुका म्हणे वैष्णव जेन — माझे गण समुदाय — vaiṣṇavas — my gaṇa-samudāya. The closing-identification. My gaṇa (host) and samudāya (multitude) — are the vaiṣṇavas, the bhakta-band. The bhakta's people are the vaiṣṇavas, not the world-people.

[T]

For someone today

This abhang names this-world's-ornaments-vs-real-pūjana:

  1. This-world's ornaments don't perform real-pūjana. Yēthīciyā alankārē — kāya kharē pūjana. The world's-decorations don't perform real-pūjā. (Compare 263's clay-Pasupati pūjā passes through to deity, not to clay.)

  2. Lay the paths to Vaikuntha (= the deva-state). Vaikuṇṭhīmcyā lāvūm vāṭā. Vaikuntha here is the deva-state-of-being; paths to that state are what to lay. Don't accumulate-this-world's-storage; lay-paths-to-the-deva-state.

  3. Don't use the perishable for empty-entertainment. Yēthīciyā nāśavantē — kāya ritē cāḷavūm. The perishable should be transmuted into paths-to-the-deva-state, not used for entertainment-in-itself. (Compare 297's prema-priority over offering-quality.)

  4. The vaiṣṇavas are the gaṇa-multitude. Vaiṣṇava jēna — mājhē gaṇa-samudāya. The bhakta's people are the vaiṣṇavas. (Compare 264's real-kin remember Viṭhobā's feet.)

For today: check whether your ornaments / decorations / status-markers are performing real-pūjana or empty-entertainment; redirect resources to lay-paths-to-the-deva-state; recognize the vaiṣṇavas as your gaṇa-multitude.

This abhang is important for redirection-of-resources: the perishable-things should serve the path-to-the-deva-state, not be ends-in-themselves.

मराठी: ही ओवी this-world's-ornaments-vs-real-pūjana नाव सांगते:

  1. This-world's ornaments real-pūjana करत नाहीत. येथीचिया अळंकारें — काय खरें पूजन. जगाची-decorations real-pūjā करत नाहीत.

  2. Vaikuntha (= deva-state) ला paths laying करा. वैकुंठींच्या लावूं वाटा. Vaikuntha इथे deva-state-of-being; त्या state ला paths laying करायचे.

  3. Perishable empty-entertainment साठी वापरू नका. येथीचिया नाशवंतें — काय रितें चाळवूं. Perishable deva-state-कडे-paths-मध्ये transmute व्हायला हवं, entertainment-in-itself नाही.

  4. वैष्णव gaṇa-multitude. वैष्णव जेन — माझे गण समुदाय. Bhakta चे people vaiṣṇavas.

आज: तुमचे ornaments / decorations / status-markers real-pūjana करत आहेत की empty-entertainment check करा; resources deva-state-कडे-paths-laying ला redirect करा; vaiṣṇavas ला तुमचा gaṇa-multitude ओळखा.

Where this applies

Name Bhakti lay-paths-to-vaikuntha

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