Abhanga 1400

Treat your false selves as already dead, walk them to the pyre without fear since God carries every joy and sorrow, and let direct experience prove whether your surrender is real.

The verse

Literal translation

What it means

Tuka-took-stick-and-chased-the-body abhang. One of the most vivid deha-ātma-tyāga images in the Gatha. Hātīm ghē'ūniyām kāṭhī — Tukā lāgalā kiḷavarā pāṭhī — taking thekāṭhī(= stick / club) in hand — Tuka — went after — thekiḷavara(= the body / corpse). The body is treated as if it were a corpse (kiḷavara = literally a corpse); Tuka pursues it stick-in-hand, like a chastiser.

The destination: nē'ūnī nijavilēm smaśānīm — māṇasēm jāḷī tē ṭhākaṇīm — taking (it) — laid (it) down at thesmaśāna(cremation-ground); — themāṇasēm(= the persons / personality-aspects) —jāḷī(burnt) at thatṭhākaṇa(= station / spot). The māṇasēm (plural of māṇūsa = person) — the multiple personalities / ego-aspects — are cremated at the smaśāna. (The image: a living-funeral of the body-personality.)

The retrospective: kāḍilēm tēm ōḍhēm — māgīla upacārācēm puḍhēm — what waskāḍilēm(= dragged out / drawn) — theōḍhā(= drag-gully); — themāgīla upacāra(= the former treatments) — ispuḍhēm(in front / surpassed). The earlier gentle upacāras (treatments) are now behind / surpassed by this radical action.

The walking-attitude: nāhīm vāṭōm ālā bhēva — sukha duḥkha bhōgītā Deva — nobhēva(fear) came on thevāṭā(way); — Deva is thebhōgītā(= experiencer) ofsukha-duḥkha. Once the body has been handed-over-as-corpse and the personality-aspects burnt, who fears what? Deva is the experiencer; Tuka isn't.

The mind-test: yājasāṭīm hēm nirvāṇa — kēlēm kasiyēlēm mana — forthis— thenirvāṇa(= final act / decisive resolution) — the mind waskasiyēlēm(= test-rubbed on the touchstone / proven). The radical action tests the mind on the touchstone — was the renunciation real or not? This event is the nirvāṇa-test.

The closing principle: anubhava barā — nāhīm tarī sāsta hōya cōrā — anubhava (experience) is good; — otherwise,sāsta(= punishment / chastisement) — happens to thecōra(= thief). Without direct experience (anubhava) — the experiencer is just a thief (= someone who has appropriated what isn't his); and a thief receives sāsta. The stick was for that thief — the body-personality that stole the I.

[T]

For someone today

For today: take the stick after the body-personalities; lead them to the smaśāna and burn them there; no fear on the way — Deva experiences sukha-duḥkha; this is the nirvāṇa-test; without anubhava, sāsta is for the cōra.

Where this applies

• When you keep protecting a self-image that no longer serves you and are afraid to let it die.
• When you feel a fierce urge to forcibly break a habit or identity you have outgrown.
• When you are anxious about an uncertain change and need reassurance that you are not the one carrying the burden alone.
• When you say you have renounced something but have never actually tested whether that is true.

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