Abhanga 700

Stop wearing yourself out searching far and wide for God, since what you seek is close by in plain sight, and the real secret is simply to drop the ego you carry like a load on your head.

The verse

Literal translation

What it means

A don't-search-Veda-forest-come-to-gauḷī-house-tied-rope-above-drop-ahankāra abhang. Anti-Veda-search-and-pastoral-bhakti-call register. Three claims:

1. निगम-वन — शोधूं नका — सीण-नका. Don't-search-Veda-forest-claim. TheNigama(Veda) —vana (forest);don't śōdhūm (search through it) — and karūm sīṇa (cause yourselves fatigue).Don't-tire-searching-the-Veda-forest. (The Veda is avana — a vast forest in which one can wander forever and not find what one seeks.)

2. या-गौळी-घरी — बांधलं-दावं-वरी. Come-to-gauḷī-house-tied-rope-above-claim. Come-here, to thegauḷī's (cowherd's)ghara(house); the tied-(thing — the rope, the cow-tying-rope) is up there (varī — in the upper-loft). In-the-cowherd's-house, what's-sought is up-on-the-loft (= simple-and-near, not-in-the-forest). (Two readings: (a) the gauḷī's-house is Kṛṣṇa's house — the cowherd-Kṛṣṇa, where the bhakta-Pandharī is found, simply and directly; (b) the bāndhalē-dāvē-varī — the rope tied up in the loft — is the bhakta's resort, in plain sight, not deep-in-the-forest.)

3. भ्रम-पीडलेति — वर्म-न-कळतां — Tuka: भार-माथा — अहंकार-टाकूं. Suffered-by-bhrama-drop-ahankāra-claim. You have-suffered (pīḍalētī) bybhrama(delusion); not-knowing the path'svarma(secret); Tuka says: thebhāra— themāthā(head) — drop (ṭākā) theahankāra. The path's-secret is: drop-the-ahankāra-from-the-head. (The bhāra (load) is the ahankāra itself; the māthā — the head — carries it; drop it.)

[T]

For someone today

Tukaram says don't wear yourself out searching through the vast forest of the Vedas looking for God. Instead, come to the cowherd's house, to Krishna, to Pandharpur, where what you are looking for is right there in plain sight, like a rope tied up in the loft. People suffer because they wander in confusion, not knowing this simple secret. The real secret, Tukaram says, is to drop the load you carry on your head, which is your own ego. You do not need endless scholarly searching to find God; you need to stop wandering and set down your pride.

मराठी: तुकाराम म्हणतात, वेदांच्या विशाल वनात शोधून शोधून स्वतःला थकवू नका. त्याऐवजी गौळ्याच्या घरी या, कृष्णाकडे, पंढरपुरात, जिथे तुम्ही जे शोधत आहात ते अगदी उघड, माळ्यावर बांधलेल्या दोरीसारखं सहज दिसतं. लोक भ्रमात भटकत राहतात म्हणून दुःख भोगतात, कारण त्यांना हे साधं रहस्य कळत नाही. खरं रहस्य, तुकाराम म्हणतात, म्हणजे डोक्यावरचं ओझं खाली टाकणं - म्हणजे स्वतःचा अहंकार. देव सापडण्यासाठी अंतहीन शास्त्रीय शोध नको; भटकणं थांबवा आणि आपला अहंकार खाली ठेवा.

Where this applies

• Veda-vana-search. Tire-out.
• Gauḷī-ghara. Pastoral-bhakti.
• Drop-ahankāra. Head-load.

Related verses

• Abhanga 2448 — The easiest path to God is repeating divine names with love at home, right where you are,
• Abhanga 2467 — What looks like your whole world, like a fig to the insect living inside it, is only a tin
• 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