Abhanga 537

A person deeply devoted to God can look completely ordinary while living something entirely different underneath: speaking yet inwardly quiet, going about daily life yet as detached as someone who has already died to the world, present in a crowd yet not really claimed by it. Tukaram says such a person can enjoy life's pleasures and still let go of them at heart, can stay in company and still remain untouched, free of pulling toward the future or being bound by the past. He warns that you shouldn't judge that inner state by outward appearance; if you really want to know what's going on inside someone, you'd have to ask God, not guess from what you see.

The verse

Literal translation

What it means

A paradox-of-living-bhakta-ask-Pāṇḍuranga abhang. One of the most-precise formulations of bhakti-paradox. Three claims:

1. बोलों अबोलणें मरोनियां जिणें — असोनि नसणें जनि आम्हां — speak silent — die-living — be-not among jana. The opening-paradox-stack: speaking isabōlaṇē(silent-speech, mauna-as-vāc); living is bymaraṇa(dying); being isasaṇē(not-being) — among thejana. Three-fold paradox: speech-silence, life-death, being-not-being. The bhakta-lives-three-paradoxes.

2. भोगीं त्याग जाला संगीं च असंग — तोडियेले लाग माग दोन्ही — in bhōga tyāga became — in samga asanga — cut lāga-māga both. The transmutation-claim: inbhōga(enjoyment) —tyāga(renunciation) has-become; insamga(company / contact) —asanga(without-attachment); cut bothlāga-māga(the track-going-forward and the trail-leaving-behind). Bhōga-becomes-tyāga, samga-becomes-asanga, no-future-no-past. Transmutation-without-leaving.

3. तुका म्हणे नव्हें दिसतों मी तैसा — पुसणें तें पुसा पांडुरंगा — Tuka says: not as I appear — ask Pāṇḍuranga what to ask. The closing-delegation: Tuka says: I am not (navhē) as Idisatōm(appear); what to ask (pusaṇē) — askPāṇḍuranga. Don't-judge-by-appearance; ask-the-deva-Himself. The bhakta's-state is-not-his-appearance; only-the-deva-knows.

[T]

For someone today

A person deeply devoted to God can look completely ordinary while living something entirely different underneath: speaking yet inwardly quiet, going about daily life yet as detached as someone who has already died to the world, present in a crowd yet not really claimed by it. Tukaram says such a person can enjoy life's pleasures and still let go of them at heart, can stay in company and still remain untouched, free of pulling toward the future or being bound by the past. He warns that you shouldn't judge that inner state by outward appearance; if you really want to know what's going on inside someone, you'd have to ask God, not guess from what you see.

मराठी: भक्तीत खोलवर रमलेली व्यक्ती बाहेरून अगदी सामान्य दिसू शकते, पण आतून पूर्णपणे वेगळं जगत असते. बोलत असूनही आतून शांत, रोजचं जीवन जगत असूनही जणू जगाला मरून गेल्यासारखी अलिप्त, लोकांमध्ये असूनही त्यांच्यात न अडकलेली. तुकाराम म्हणतात की अशी व्यक्ती सुख उपभोगतानाही मनातून त्याचा त्याग करू शकते, सहवासात राहूनही अनासक्त राहू शकते, आणि भविष्याची ओढ किंवा भूतकाळाचं बंधन तिला नसतं. आणि ते बजावतात की बाहेरून दिसणाऱ्या रूपावरून आतलं खरं स्वरूप ठरवू नका; खरंच जाणून घ्यायचं असेल तर ते पांडुरंगालाच विचारावं लागेल.

Where this applies

• Speak-silent; die-live; be-not. Three-paradoxes.
• Bhōga-tyāga; samga-asanga. Transmutation.
• Don't-judge-by-appearance. Ask-deva.
• Lāga-māga cut. No-trail.

Related verses

• Abhanga 2464 — For today: Pāṇḍuranga is sukha-rūpa ; no wandering, no shaving, no sādhana-pressure ; Chan
• Abhanga 2494 — Living in devotion turns an ordinary day into a festival and removes the fear of birth and
• 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