Abhanga 338

The overwhelming joy of truly beholding the divine is the ripened fruit of everything you have quietly stored up, and it is worth dropping propriety and self-consciousness to receive it.

The verse

Literal translation

What it means

A mother-bhāva and child-Krishna abhang. Five claims:

1. मुख पाहे माता — सुख न माये चित्ता — the mother sees the face — sukha doesn't fit in the citta. The mother's beholding of the child-Krishna's face — produces sukha-overflow. The citta cannot contain it.

2. धन्य मानव संचिता — वोडवलें आजि — blessed is the mānava-sañcita — has come up today. The mānava-sañcita (human-stored-merit) has come up — uvaḍavalē (= surfaced, ripened). The darśana is the fruit of stored-merit.

3. विसरल्या घरें — तान्हीं पारठीं लेकुरें — धाक सांडोनियां येरें — तान भूक नाहीं — houses forgotten — milk-fed turned-back child — fear-abandoned — no thirst, no hunger. The complete-absorption. Children running back to the mother — but here the mother's attention is on the deva-child; all bodily-needs (thirst, hunger) and social-fears are abandoned.

4. लाज सांडियेली वोज — नाहीं फजितीचें काज — सुख सांडोनियां सेज — तेथें धाव घाली — lāja-abandoned, no disgrace-fear, leaving the bed of sukha — runs there. The abandonment of all conventional-restraints: lāja (shame), propriety, fear of phajitī (disgrace), the bed of sukha. All abandoned to run toward the darśana.

5. कुमर कुमारी — नाभाव हा शरीरीं — दृष्टी न फिरे माघारी — kumāra-kumārī — no body-awareness — dṛṣṭi doesn't turn back. The child-state: no body-awareness, no self-consciousness. The gaze-upon-Krishna does not turn back.

6. तुका म्हणे सुखी केलीं आपणासारिखीं — स्वामी माझा कवतुकें — बाळवेषें खेळे — Tuka says: He made them sukhī like Himself — my Lord plays in kautuka in child-form. The closing-image: the Lord made themlike-Himself-sukhī; He plays inkautuka(wonder, play) — inbāḷa-veṣa(child-form). The Lord-as-child plays; those who behold are made-sukhī-like-Him.

[T]

For someone today

Tukaram paints the image of a mother gazing at the child-Krishna's face, so full of joy that her heart cannot contain it — such a moment is the ripened fruit of everything good she has quietly stored up in life. In that state, all ordinary restraints fall away: hunger, thirst, worry about propriety, fear of embarrassment, even the comfort of one's own bed — everything is abandoned in the rush to reach that vision. The gaze, once fixed on him, never turns back, and all self-consciousness about the body disappears. In the end, the Lord himself, playing joyfully in child form, draws everyone who beholds him into that same overflowing happiness he embodies.

मराठी: तुकाराम बालकृष्णाचे मुख पाहणाऱ्या आईचे चित्र रेखाटतात — तिचे मन आनंदाने इतके भरून जाते की ते मावतच नाही; असा क्षण म्हणजे तिने आयुष्यभर साठवलेल्या पुण्याचे पिकलेले फळ असते. अशा अवस्थेत सगळे रोजचे बंधन गळून पडते — भूक, तहान, प्रतिष्ठेची काळजी, लाज-लज्जेची भीती, अगदी स्वतःच्या शय्येचे सुखही — सगळे सोडून ती त्या दर्शनाकडे धावते. एकदा नजर त्याच्यावर स्थिरावली की ती मागे वळतच नाही, आणि देहभानही हरपून जाते. शेवटी बाळरूपात आनंदाने खेळणारा तो देव, त्याला पाहणाऱ्या प्रत्येकाला त्याच्यासारखाच आनंदी करून टाकतो.

Where this applies

• Sukha-overflow upon child-darśana. Mother-bhāva.
• Sañcita ripens here. मानव-संचिता वोडवलें.
• Abandon conventional-restraints. Run toward darśana.
• Lord plays in child-form. बाळवेषें खेळे.

Related verses

• 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 4495 — Tukaram tells how Krishna's mother and the cowherd families, absorbed in their own practic
• Abhanga 4497 — Tukaram describes a life so soaked in devotion that Krishna's presence fills every ordinar