Abhanga 473

Real devotion can arrive suddenly and uncontrollably, and there is no shame in letting the body show what the heart feels.

The verse

Literal translation

What it means

A Mallārī-Khaṇḍobā-prema-possession abhang. Mallārī / Mhaḷārī / Khaṇḍobā — the Maharashtrian-folk-deity at Jejuri, a Bhairava-form of Śiva, with strong-Vārkarī-and-Marāṭhā syncretism. The waghyā-muraḷī (male-female devotee-pair, the dog-and-bowl-bearing) tradition is associated with Khaṇḍobā; the gurugurū (dog-bark) and bhumkavīlē (made-to-bark) imagery here is the waghyā-bhakta register. Five claims:

1. अनंत जुगाचा देव्हारा — निजबोधांचा घुमारा — अवचिता भरला वारा — या मल्लारी देवाचा — ananta-yuga's dēvhārā — nija-bōdha's ghumārā — wind blew — of Mallārī-deva. The opening-claim: thedēvhārā(deity-shrine) is ofananta-yuga(eternal-time); theghumārā(resonance) is ofnija-bōdha(own-knowledge); suddenly,avacita, the wind of Mallārī-deva blew. Eternal-shrine, sudden-wind.

2. शुद्धसत्वाचा कवडा मोठा — बोधबिरडें बांधला गांठा — गळां वैराग्याचा पट्टा — वाटा दावूं या भक्तिच्या — śuddha-sattva's big kavaḍā — bōdha-bīrḍa tied at gāṭha — neck-vairāgya-paṭṭā — show bhakti-vāṭā. The internal-Khaṇḍobā-equipment image: thekavaḍā(cowrie-shell, Khaṇḍobā's-emblem) isśuddha-sattva's big one; thebōdha-bīrḍa(knowledge-knot) is tied at thegāṭha; the neck wearsvairāgya'spaṭṭā(renunciation-strap); let's show thebhakti-vāṭā(bhakti-path). Internalized Khaṇḍobā-equipment for bhakti.

3. हृदय कोटंबा सांगातें — घोळ वाजवूं अनुहातें — ज्ञानभांडाराचें पोतें — रितें नव्हे कल्पांतीं — hṛdaya-koṭambā together — sound ghōḷ with anuhāta — jñāna-bhāṇḍāra's pōtē — not empty even at kalpānta. The jñāna-bhāṇḍāra-pōtē claim: thehṛdaya-koṭambā(heart-tomb / heart-housing) together; let's sound theghōḷ(a horn / sound-pipe used in Khaṇḍobā-worship) withanuhāta (the unstruck-sound);the jñāna-bhāṇḍāra's pōtē (sack) is not empty even at the kalpānta (end-of-world). Inexhaustible-knowledge-treasury.

4. लक्ष चौर्‍यांशी घरें चारी — या जन्माची केली वारी — प्रसन्न जाला देव मल्लारी — सोहंभावीं राहिलों — 84,000 houses, four — made the vārī of this janma — Mallārī deva prasanna — I stayed in sōham-bhāvī. The birth-vārī-completion claim: the 84-lakh houses, four-fold (= the 84-lakh-yonis × four-types-of-birth) — thevārī(pilgrimage / round) of thisjanmahas been made; Mallārī-deva becameprasanna; I have stayed in thesōham-bhāvī(so'ham-state, the I-am-That state). Janma-vārī-completion + sōham-establishment.

5. या देवाचें भरतां वारें — अंगीं प्रेमाचें फेंपरें — गुरुगुरु करी वेडे चारें — पाहा तुकें भुंकविलें — this deva's wind blowing — prema-fēparē in body — gurugurū makes mad-around — see, Tuka made to bark. The closing-possession-image: when thisdeva's wind blows; theprema-fēparē(love-trembling / fit) is in the body; the bhakta makesgurugurū(dog-growl / bark), mad-around;see — Tuka has been made to bark!Tukaram-as-Khaṇḍobā's-waghyā-dog, possessed-and-barking.

[T]

For someone today

This abhang describes a sudden, unplanned rush of devotion, likened to the wind of the folk deity Mallari, or Khandoba, sweeping through the body. Tukaram says you cannot schedule that inrush of grace; it arrives when it arrives. He turns outward religious symbols, a cowrie shell, a devotional knot, a renunciate's cord, into inward qualities: purity, wisdom tied close to the heart, real detachment. He says the heart itself becomes a storehouse of knowledge that never runs empty, and he pictures his whole cycle of births as one long pilgrimage that has finally pleased the deity, leaving him resting in the sense that he and the divine are not separate. When that divine wind blows through him, his body trembles with love, so much that he barks like the devotee-dogs at Khandoba's shrine, unembarrassed by how it looks from outside.

मराठी: हा अभंग अचानक, न ठरवता येणाऱ्या भक्तीच्या उमाळ्याबद्दल आहे, जो खंडोबा म्हणजेच मल्लारी देवाच्या वाऱ्यासारखा अचानक अंगात भरतो. तुकाराम म्हणतात की अशी कृपेची लाट आपण वेळापत्रकात बसवू शकत नाही, ती जेव्हा येते तेव्हाच येते. बाह्य धार्मिक चिन्हं - कवडा, गाठ, वैराग्याचा पट्टा - ते आतल्या गुणांमध्ये बदलतात, शुद्धता, हृदयाशी बांधलेलं ज्ञान, खरा वैराग्यभाव. ते म्हणतात की हृदय स्वतःच ज्ञानाचा असा साठा बनतो जो कधीच रिकामा होत नाही, आणि आपल्या संपूर्ण जन्ममरणाच्या फेऱ्याला एका मोठ्या वारीसारखं पाहतात जी अखेर देवाला प्रसन्न करून गेली, आणि आता ते देवाशी एकरूप झाल्याच्या भावात राहतात. जेव्हा तो दैवी वारा अंगात भरतो, तेव्हा शरीर प्रेमानं थरथरतं, इतकं की ते खंडोबाच्या वाघ्यांसारखे भुंकतात, बाहेरून हे कसं दिसेल याची पर्वा न करता.

Where this applies

• Sudden-deva-wind. Don't predict.
• Internalize bhakti-equipment. Kavaḍā, bīrḍa, paṭṭā.
• Heart-housing, anuhāta-ghōḷ, jñāna-bhāṇḍāra. Inner-implements.
• 84-lakh-vārī, sōham-bhāvī. Birth-cycle-completed.
• Prema-fēparē;gurugurū-bhumka. Possession.

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