Abhanga 919

When you finally find the one truth that matters, all the lesser loyalties simply stop competing for your attention, not because you rejected them but because they were never separate from the one thing to begin with. A river does not need a new name once it enters the ocean; it has become the ocean. Once you know Vitthal, you do not need another god, another shrine, another practice, the way a lamp adds nothing once the sun is already up. Tukaram says he recognizes no second thing beside Panduranga, not out of stubbornness, but because once you have found the source, the smaller lights cease to matter.

The verse

Literal translation

What it means

A what-other-deities-apart-from-Paṇḍharī-nātha-river-merged-in-ocean-no-other-names-remain-many-lamps-destroyed-when-sun-rises-know-no-second-apart-from-Paṇḍharī-rāja abhang. River-in-ocean-no-other-names register. Three claims:

1. आन-दैवतें — एका-विण-Paṇḍharī-नाथें. No-other-deities-claim. What otherdaivata?;apart from the one Paṇḍharī-nātha?

2. सरिता-सागरीं-मिळाली — आणिकां-नांवांची-उरी-कैची. River-in-ocean-no-names-claim. Thesaritāmerged in thesāgara; what othernāvas remain? River-becomes-ocean-loses-its-name. (Beautiful-image: the Yamunā, the Gangā, etc., all enter the ocean and lose their identity; just so, all-deities merge-into-Paṇḍharī-nātha.)

3. अनेक-दीप-प्रकाश — सूर्य-उगवतां-नाश. Lamps-destroyed-by-sun-claim. Manydīpas'prakāśa; destroyed when thesūryarises. Lamps-disappear-when-sun-rises.

4. Tuka: दुजें-नेणें — Paṇḍharī-राजें-एकच. Know-no-second-claim. Tuka says: I know noduja; apart from the onePaṇḍharī-rāja. One-only.

[T]

For someone today

When you finally find the one truth that matters, all the lesser loyalties simply stop competing for your attention, not because you rejected them but because they were never separate from the one thing to begin with. A river does not need a new name once it enters the ocean; it has become the ocean. Once you know Vitthal, you do not need another god, another shrine, another practice, the way a lamp adds nothing once the sun is already up. Tukaram says he recognizes no second thing beside Panduranga, not out of stubbornness, but because once you have found the source, the smaller lights cease to matter.

मराठी: जेव्हा तुम्हाला ती एक खरी गोष्ट सापडते, तेव्हा बाकीच्या सगळ्या छोट्या गोष्टी आपोआप महत्त्वाच्या राहत नाहीत, त्या नाकारल्या म्हणून नव्हे तर त्या कधीच वेगळ्या नव्हत्याच म्हणून. नदी समुद्रात मिसळल्यावर तिला वेगळ्या नावाची गरज उरत नाही, कारण ती स्वतःच समुद्र बनते. विठ्ठल सापडल्यावर दुसरा देव किंवा दुसरं दैवत शोधण्याची गरज उरत नाही, जसं सूर्य उगवल्यावर असंख्य दिव्यांच्या प्रकाशाला वेगळं महत्त्व उरत नाही. तुकाराम म्हणतात, पंढरीरायाशिवाय मला दुसरं काही ठाऊक नाही, हा हट्ट नाही तर एकदा मूळ स्रोत सापडला की छोटे प्रकाश आपोआप गौण होतात.

Where this applies

• When you're juggling many practices or teachers and secretly wondering which one is the real one
• When you've found one relationship or path that feels complete but you're tempted to add more just to feel safe
• When you're grieving an old identity or name and wondering if you're disappearing into something larger
• When you compare a small achievement to something vastly greater and feel deflated by the comparison

Related verses

• Abhanga 2448 — The easiest path to God is repeating divine names with love at home, right where you are,
• 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