Abhanga 400

A woman selling milk-curds in the market is so full of Krishna that when a customer comes she blurts out "take Hari" instead of "take curds." Tukaram says this is not silliness: what the eyes have truly seen settles into the mind and eventually surfaces on the tongue, whether or not the moment is convenient. He tells us not to be embarrassed when devotion breaks into ordinary life at odd moments, and not to look down on the plain, unguarded person through whom this happens; that innocence is exactly where the divine plays. When bystanders laugh at such a slip, it says nothing about the woman and everything about their own deafness to what is happening right in front of them.

The verse

Literal translation

What it means

A gōrasa-seller-says-take-Hari abhang. Four claims:

1. कोणी एकी भुलली नारी — विकितां गोरस म्हणे घ्या हरी — some woman, bhulalī — selling gōrasa says take Hari! The opening-image: some woman, lost-in-Krishna-absorption, while sellinggōrasa(milk-curds) — calls outtake Hari(instead oftake gōrasa). The bhakti-absorption replaces the marketplace-call.

2. देखिला डोळां बैसला मनीं — तो वदनीं उच्चारी — saw with eyes — sat in mana — utters in vadana. The interior-trajectory: what was seen with eyes — sat in themana — utters in thevadana(mouth). Eyes → mana → vadana — the deva pervades the whole faculty-chain.

3. आपुलियाचा विसर भोळा — गोविंद कळा कौतुकें — forgot her own — bhōḷā — Govinda-kaḷā by kautuka. The forgetting-self image: she forgot her own (status, role, mission); she isbhōḷā(innocent / simple-minded); Govinda'skaḷā(art) plays through her — bykautuka(wonder-play). Govinda's-art operates in the bhōḷā-innocent-bhakta.

4. तुका म्हणे हांसे जन — नाहीं कान ते ठायीं — Tuka says: people laugh — no ears at that place. The closing-claim: people laugh; (but they) have no ears at that place. People hear (the absurdity) but don't have-ears-for-the-bhakti-place. Their laughter is from deafness, not insight.

[T]

For someone today

A woman selling milk-curds in the market is so full of Krishna that when a customer comes she blurts out "take Hari" instead of "take curds." Tukaram says this is not silliness: what the eyes have truly seen settles into the mind and eventually surfaces on the tongue, whether or not the moment is convenient. He tells us not to be embarrassed when devotion breaks into ordinary life at odd moments, and not to look down on the plain, unguarded person through whom this happens; that innocence is exactly where the divine plays. When bystanders laugh at such a slip, it says nothing about the woman and everything about their own deafness to what is happening right in front of them.

मराठी: बाजारात दही विकणारी एक स्त्री कृष्णभक्तीत इतकी तल्लीन आहे की गिऱ्हाईक आल्यावर ती चुकून "दही घ्या" ऐवजी "हरी घ्या" असं म्हणून जाते. तुकाराम म्हणतात की ही काही वेडेपणाची गोष्ट नाही: डोळ्यांनी जे खरोखर पाहिलं आहे ते मनात रुजतं आणि योग्य वेळ असो वा नसो, अखेर जिभेवर येतंच. वेळी-अवेळी भक्ती अशी सहज प्रकट झाली तर लाजू नका, आणि ज्या साध्या, निरागस माणसातून हे घडतं त्याला कमी लेखू नका; तीच निरागसता म्हणजे परमेश्वराच्या लीलेचं खरं व्यासपीठ आहे. अशा क्षणी बघे हसले, तर त्यातून त्या स्त्रीबद्दल काही सिद्ध होत नाही, उलट समोर घडणाऱ्या गोष्टीविषयीचा त्यांचा बहिरेपणा उघड होतो.

Where this applies

• Hari-nāma slips into marketplace-call. Bhakti-replaces-worldly.
• Eyes → mana → vadana. Faculty-propagation.
• BhōḷāisGovinda-kaḷā's vehicle. Don't despise innocence.
• Public-laughter is deafness. Recognize.

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