Abhanga 608

True devotion isn't driven by need or hunger; it comes from honoring a constantly present witness, and what remains after all doing and not-doing burns away is a steady, mature self.

The verse

Literal translation

What it means

A deva-as-all-witness-bhōgī-bhōgavitā-karma-burnt-Tuka-firm-remained abhang. Three claims:

1. नाही दुकळलों अन्ना — परि या मान जनार्दना — opening-claim: I am notdukaḷalōm(famished) ofanna(food); but thismāna(honor / consideration) — toJanārdana. Bhakti-not-driven-by-hunger-but-by-honor-to-deva.

2. देव केला सकळसाक्षी — काळीं आणि शुद्धपक्षीं — भोगी भोगविता — बाळासवें तो चि पिता — deva all-witness — kāḷa-śuddha-pakṣa — bhōgī-bhōgavitā — bāḷa-pitā. The witness-and-father-claim: the deva is made thesakaḷa-sākṣī(all-witness); inkāḷa(dark-half-month) andśuddha-pakṣa(bright-half-month); bhōgī-bhōgavitā (enjoyer-and-the-cause-of-enjoyment);with the bāḷa (child), He is the pitā (father).The deva is the all-time-witness; both-enjoyer-and-cause-of-enjoyment; father-with-the-child.

3. कर्म अकर्म जळालें — प्रौढें तुका तें उरले — karma-akarma burnt — prauḍha Tuka — uralē. The closing-burnt-and-firm-claim: karma and akarma (action and non-action / inaction) burnt;prauḍha(firm-grown / mature) — Tuka — that aloneuralē(remained). Both-action-and-non-action-burnt; only-the-firm-grown-Tuka-remained. Beyond-karma-akarma-firm-remaining.

[T]

For someone today

Tukaram says he is not driven by hunger for food; what he wants is simply to honor God. God is present as a constant witness through every phase of time, through both the dark and the bright half of the month, never absent. God is both the one who enjoys and the one who provides the enjoyment, standing with a devotee the way a father stands with his own child. In the end all of Tukaram's doing and not-doing burned away, and what remained was simply the mature, steady person he had become.

मराठी: तुकाराम म्हणतात की ते अन्नाच्या भुकेने प्रेरित नाहीत, त्यांना फक्त देवाचा मान राखायचा आहे. देव सतत साक्षीदार म्हणून उपस्थित असतो, महिन्याच्या काळ्या आणि उजळ अशा दोन्ही पंधरवड्यांत, तो कधीच अनुपस्थित नसतो. देव स्वतःच भोगणारा आहे आणि भोग देणाराही आहे, तो भक्तासोबत बापासारखा उभा राहतो जसा बाप आपल्या मुलासोबत उभा राहतो. शेवटी तुकारामांचं सगळं करणं आणि न-करणं जळून गेलं, आणि उरला तो फक्त प्रौढ, स्थिर असा तुकाराम.

Where this applies

• Not-anna-famished; māna-Janārdana. Right-motive.
• Sakaḷa-sākṣī — both halves. Constant.
• Bhōgī-bhōgavitā. Enjoyer-cause.
• Karma-akarma burnt — Tuka remained. Final.

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