Abhanga 776

Doing everything correctly by the rules can take you somewhere good, but only inner freedom while still living in the body, not ritual, scholarship, or technique, marks a true saint.

The verse

Literal translation

What it means

A varṇāśrama-cōkha-uttama-lōka-not-Brahma-paṇḍita-tāna-māna-eye-twisting-saint-vidēhī-in-body abhang. Anti-formalist-Brahma-realization register. The structure is a list of what-you-have contrasted with what-you-don't-know:

1. Varṇāśrama-cōkha — uttama-lōka — पण Brahma नाही. Varṇāśrama-uttama-not-Brahma-claim. If you dovarṇāśramascrupulously — you reachuttama-lōka; but you don'tṭhāvē(know) the (path) by-which by-the-very-anga(body) one becomesBrahma. Varṇāśrama-takes-you-to-uttama-lōka-not-to-Brahma.

2. पंडित — śabda-pāṇḍitya — tāna-māna-bandha — hāva-bhāva-gīta-chanda. Paṇḍita-but-only-śabda-claim. If you have-become apaṇḍita— you dośabda-pāṇḍitya(verbal-erudition); you singtāna-māna-bandha(tāna-mode-bondage),hāva-bhāva-gīta-chanda(mood-and-rhythm). Paṇḍita-only-doing-śabda-and-rhythm.

3. Svatantra — āgama-ukta pūjā-yantra. Svatantra-but-only-āgama-pūjā-claim. You would-knowsvatantra(independence); but onlyāgama-ukta pūjā-yantra(āgama-prescribed pūjā-mechanism). Svatantra-only-as-āgama-pūjā-mechanism.

4. Sādhana — ओढी — eyes-mōḍā-mōḍī. Sādhana-pulls-eyes-twisting-claim. (With) the pulls ofsādhana, themōḍā-mōḍī(breaking-and-twisting) of the eyes (the contortions of meditation, the twisting-of-the-eyes-back). Sādhana-results-in-eye-contortions.

5. Tuka: देहीं — संत-विदेही. Saint-vidēhī-in-body-claim. Tuka says: in the verydēha(body); santas have-becomevidēhī(bodiless, beyond-body). Saint-vidēhī-in-the-very-body. (This is the resolution: the saint, while in-the-body, has become vidēhī — beyond the body, free of the body's-bondage. This is jīvan-mukti in bhakti-vocabulary.)

[T]

For someone today

Following your social and religious duties carefully can take you to a good place - a respected life, a decent afterlife - but that is not the same as becoming one with the divine. Being a great scholar who wins arguments with words, singing beautifully in the right meters, performing prescribed rituals exactly as the texts say, or straining through meditation techniques: none of these, by themselves, get you there. What actually marks a saint is different. They go on living in an ordinary body, yet they are free of it, unbound by its demands and cravings. That inner freedom, lived out while still walking around in flesh and blood, is the real sign, not any of the formal achievements.

मराठी: वर्णाश्रमाचे नियम काटेकोरपणे पाळल्याने तुम्हाला चांगली जागा मिळू शकते - सन्मानाचे जीवन, चांगली पुढची गती - पण त्याने परमेश्वराशी एकरूप होणे साधत नाही. शब्दांनी वाद जिंकणारा मोठा पंडित असणे, योग्य तालसुरात सुंदर गाणे, शास्त्रात सांगितल्याप्रमाणे तंतोतंत पूजाविधी करणे, किंवा ध्यानात डोळे ताणून बसणे - यापैकी काहीही एकटे तुम्हाला तिथे पोहोचवत नाही. खरा संत ओळखायची खूण वेगळी आहे. तो साध्या देहात राहतो, पण देहाच्या मर्यादांपासून आणि मागण्यांपासून तो मुक्त असतो. देहात असूनही देहातीत असणे - हीच खरी खूण आहे, कोणतीही बाह्य उपलब्धी नव्हे.

Where this applies

• Varṇāśrama→uttama-lōka. Limit.
• Paṇḍita→śabda. Limit.
• Sādhana → eye-twist. Limit.
• Saintvidēhīindēha. Resolution.

Related verses

• 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
• Abhanga 2557 — For today: now I've become master — what I do, the authority is mine .