Abhanga 561

When you stop needing an audience and turn a relationship fully inward toward what matters most, outside cleverness and debate can no longer touch it.

The verse

Literal translation

What it means

A You-alone-śrōtā-vaktā-Hari-our-gāmṭhī abhang. Withdrawal-from-public-into-Hari-only register. Three claims:

1. कोण जाणे कोणा घडे उपासना — कोण या वचनाप्रति पावे — who knows — upāsanā? — who attains vacana? The opening-public-question: who knows — to whomupāsanā(worship-meditation) befits / falls?; who attains (pāvē) to thisvacana(word, teaching)? Public-fitness-for-the-teaching-is-uncertain. Recognition-of-public-uncertainty.

2. आतां माझा श्रोता वक्ता तूं चि देवा — करावी ते सेवा तुझी च मां — śrōtā-vaktā — You alone — deva — sevā — to You only. The withdrawal-into-Hari-claim: now —śrōtā(listener) andvaktā(speaker) — You alone, deva;the sevā to be done — only Yours.The bhakti-cycle-becomes-a-private-circle-with-Hari-only.Speaker-listener-and-receiver are all the deva.

3. कुशळ चतुर येथें न सरते — करितील रिते तर्क मतें — तुका म्हणे जालें पेणें एके घरीं — मज आणि हरी तुम्हां गांठी — kuśaḷa-catura — don't saratē — ritē — tarka-matē — pēṇē — one ghara — me and Hari — gāmṭhī. The closing-private-meeting-claim: kuśaḷa-catura (clever-skillful, the intellectuals-and-debaters) — don't saratē (suffice, count, work) here;they make ritē tarka-matē (empty arguments-and-opinions);Tuka says: came to pēṇē (dwell, take residence) in one ghara (house);me and Hari — Your gāmṭhī (knot, meeting, bundle, knot-tied-relationship).Private-meeting-of-bhakta-and-Hari; intellectuals-can't-enter.The gāmṭhī-image: a knot-tied that can't be untied; or a bundle-tied; or simply a meeting.

[T]

For someone today

Tukaram admits he does not know who is truly ready for real devotion or who actually understands the teachings he offers, and rather than worry about that, he simply turns the whole relationship inward, toward God alone. He says God is now both the one he speaks to and the one who listens, and that all his service belongs to God and no one else. He adds that clever, argumentative people have no real place here, their debates and opinions are empty next to this. What he describes is an intimate bond, as if he and God have quietly come to share one home, a closeness that outside cleverness cannot enter or unravel.

मराठी: खऱ्या भक्तीसाठी कोण खरोखर तयार आहे किंवा त्याच्या शिकवणी कोणाला खरोखर समजतात हे आपल्याला माहीत नाही, असे तुकाराम कबूल करतात, आणि त्याची काळजी करण्याऐवजी ते संपूर्ण नाते आतल्या बाजूला, फक्त देवाकडे वळवतात. ते म्हणतात की देव आता ज्याच्याशी ते बोलतात आणि जो ऐकतो तो दोन्हीही आहे, आणि त्यांची सगळी सेवा फक्त देवाचीच आहे, दुसऱ्या कोणाचीही नाही. ते पुढे सांगतात की हुशार, वादविवाद करणाऱ्या लोकांना इथे खरा वाव नाही, त्यांचे वाद आणि मते या नात्यासमोर पोकळ आहेत. ते जे वर्णन करतात ते एक जवळिकीचे नाते आहे, जणू ते आणि देव शांतपणे एकाच घरात राहायला आले आहेत, अशी जवळीक जिच्यात बाहेरची हुशारी शिरूच शकत नाही किंवा तिला उकलूही शकत नाही.

Where this applies

• Upāsanā-fitness uncertain. Public-uncertainty.
• You-alone śrōtā-vaktā. Private-circle.
• Clever-tarka-matē empty. Reject-debate.
• Gāmṭhī-with-Hari. Private-bond.

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