Abhanga 1037

Tuka asks to be shaken awake so completely that he collapses in devotion again and again, not just once. He wants love to grip him by the throat and drop his body to the ground, a love so total it overrides his self-control. He explicitly asks for ordinary social propriety to fall away and be forgotten, because he wants to meditate on God with what he calls vibhīcāra-bhāva, the reckless, all-or-nothing intensity of a lover who loves outside the rules of respectable society, indifferent to what anyone thinks. It is a deliberately scandalous image: the devotion he asks for is not polite or restrained, it is meant to sweep away his dignity the way a forbidden love does.

The verse

Literal translation

What it means

A make-me-such-awake-that-at-every-moment-I-fall-at-your-feet-let-prema-cling-at-my-throat-let-the-body-roll-on-the-ground-let-worldly-conduct-stay-aside-let-it-fall-all-forgetting-let-me-meditate-on-you-with-the-intensity-of-adulterous-love abhang. Meditate-with-vibhīcāra-bhāva register. The deliberately scandalous vibhīcāra-bhāva image. Four claims:

1. जागें — पायां-वेळोवेळां. Awake-fall-at-feet-claim. Make (me) suchjāgē (awake);at-every-moment, fall at (your) pāya. (Constant collapse-at-the-feet.)

2. प्रेम-कंठ — देह-धरणी-लोटीं. Prema-clings-body-rolls-claim. Letprēmacling at (my)kaṇṭha;let the dēha roll on the dharaṇī (ground). (Throat-strangled by prema, body thrown on the ground.)

3. लोकाचार-राहे — विसर-पडे. Worldly-conduct-stay-aside-claim. Letlōkācāra(worldly-conduct, propriety) stay-aside, let it fall; allvisara. (Let propriety vanish; let everything be forgotten.)

4. Tuka: ध्यावें — विभीचार-भावें. Meditate-with-adulterous-intensity-claim. Tuka says: let (me)dhyāvēyou; withvibhīcāra-bhāva (adulterous-intensity, the bhāva of one-who-loves-outside-the-law). (The model is the woman who lovesoutside marriage— with absolute total-abandon,because the love is itself transgressive. Tuka invokes this for bhakti's intensity.)

[T]

For someone today

Tuka asks to be shaken awake so completely that he collapses in devotion again and again, not just once. He wants love to grip him by the throat and drop his body to the ground, a love so total it overrides his self-control. He explicitly asks for ordinary social propriety to fall away and be forgotten, because he wants to meditate on God with what he calls vibhīcāra-bhāva, the reckless, all-or-nothing intensity of a lover who loves outside the rules of respectable society, indifferent to what anyone thinks. It is a deliberately scandalous image: the devotion he asks for is not polite or restrained, it is meant to sweep away his dignity the way a forbidden love does.

मराठी: तुकाराम इथे विनवतात की मला असे जागृत करा की मी वारंवार, प्रत्येक क्षणी तुझ्या चरणी कोसळावे. प्रेमाने माझा कंठ इतका आवळावा आणि माझा देह जमिनीवर लोटावा की स्वतःवरचा ताबा सुटावा. ते स्पष्टपणे मागतात की सामाजिक शिष्टाचार, लोकाचार गळून पडावा आणि सगळे विसरले जावे — कारण त्यांना देवाचे ध्यान विभीचार-भावाने करायचे आहे, म्हणजे प्रस्थापित सामाजिक बंधनांबाहेर जाऊन प्रेम करणाऱ्या प्रेमिकेच्या बेभान, सर्वस्व पणाला लावणाऱ्या तीव्रतेने, कुणाला काय वाटेल याची पर्वा न करता. ही मुद्दामच धक्कादायक प्रतिमा आहे — इथे भक्ती सभ्य किंवा आवरलेली नाही, तर निषिद्ध प्रेमाप्रमाणे तुमची सगळी प्रतिष्ठा वाहून नेणारी आहे.

Where this applies

• Awake-fall. Vēḷō-vēḷām.
• Body-overcome. Kaṇṭha.
• Propriety-falls. Lōkācāra.
• Adulterous-intensity. Vibhīcāra-bhāva.

Related verses

• Abhanga 2374 — Rather than scattering devotion among many lesser deities who demand offerings, Tukaram sa
• Abhanga 2377 — This detailed meditation on Vitthal standing on a brick at Pandharpur, out of love for his
• Abhanga 2387 — Accept whatever life brings with reverence, and place the burden on God rather than carryi
• Abhanga 2402 — For today: happily take rebirths — IF among the Paṇḍharī-Vārkarīs ; Hari-dāsas' company is