Abhanga 1601
At his final moment Tukaram trusted so completely that, tradition says, he held nothing back, not even his body, when Vitthal came for him.
The verse
आम्ही जातों तुम्ही कृपा असों द्यावी । सकळा सांगावी विनंती माझी ॥१॥ वाडवेळ जाला उभा पांडुरंग । वैकुंठा श्रीरंग बोलावितो ॥२॥ अंतकाळीं विठो आम्हांसी पावला । कुडीसहित जाला गुप्त तुका ॥३॥
Literal translation
We are going — you, let the kṛpā be — please convey my request to all. Pāṇḍuranga has stood long — Śrī-ranga calls to Vaikuṇṭha. In the anta-kāḷa, Viṭho arrived to us — kuḍī-sahita, Tuka became gupta.
Word-by-word gloss
| Marathi | Meaning |
|---|---|
| आम्ही जातों तुम्ही कृपा असों द्यावी | "we are going; — you — kṛpā — let it be" |
| सकळा सांगावी विनंती माझी | "to all — please convey — my request" |
| वाडवेळ जाला उभा पांडुरंग | "long has it been — standing — Pāṇḍuranga" |
| वैकुंठा श्रीरंग बोलावितो | "to Vaikuṇṭha — Śrī-ranga — calls" |
| अंतकाळीं विठो आम्हांसी पावला | "in (the) anta-kāḷa — Viṭho — to us — has arrived" |
| कुडीसहित जाला गुप्त तुका | "with body (kuḍī-sahita) — has become — gupta (vanished) — Tuka" |
What it means
The foundational bodily-ascension abhang. The most famous single line of the vaikuṇṭha-gamana narrative: kuḍī-sahita jālā gupta Tukā — with body, Tuka became gupta (disappeared).
The opening: āmhī jātōm tumhī kṛpā asōm dyāvī — sakaḷā sāngāvī vinantī mājhī — we are going — you, let the kṛpā be — convey my request to all. Tuka asks the immediate-listeners to keep the kṛpā and to convey his vinantī (request) to the absent ones.
The waiting-Lord: vāḍa-vēḷa jālā ubhā Pāṇḍuranga — Vaikuṇṭhā Śrī-ranga bōlāvitō — long has it been — Pāṇḍuranga is standing — Śrī-ranga calls to Vaikuṇṭha. Vāḍa-vēḷa = long-time; Pāṇḍuranga has been standing for a long time waiting (referring to the visible-arrived-Lord of 1592-1593); Śrī-ranga (= Viṣṇu) calls (Tuka) to Vaikuṇṭha.
The famous line: anta-kāḷīm Viṭhō āmhāmsī pāvalā — kuḍī-sahita jālā gupta Tukā — in the anta-kāḷa, Viṭho arrived to us — kuḍī-sahita, Tuka became gupta.
- Anta-kāḷa = the last-time / death-hour
- Pāvalā = arrived / reached
- Kuḍī = body (Marathi: the physical-body, esp. a perishable-form)
- Kuḍī-sahita = with-the-body / body-and-all
- Gupta = hidden / disappeared / made-invisible / merged
This single-line is the Warkari-tradition's foundational claim: Tukaram did not die in the ordinary sense; at his anta-kāḷa, Viṭṭhal personally arrived, and Tukaram disappeared bodily — vanishing not as a corpse but as a living-body taken up to Vaikuṇṭha. The traditional-narrative places this on the banks of the Indrāyaṇī river at Dehu (Tukaram's home village), where his śiṣyas and family witnessed the ascension-by-vimāna.
The grammatical-construction is striking: kuḍī-sahita + gupta — body-and-all + hidden. The kuḍī itself became gupta — the body, not just the soul, was transferred. (Compare 1602's Tukā baisalā vimānī — samta pāhātī lōcanī — Tuka sat in the vimāna, the saints watched with their own eyes. The witnessing-tradition.)
This abhang — together with 1605 (the date-stamp) and 1602 (the vimāna-image) — forms the triadic-canonical-record of the vaikuṇṭha-gamana.
[T]
For someone today
For today: we are going — you, let the kṛpā remain — please convey my request to all; Pāṇḍuranga has been standing waiting a long time — Śrī-ranga calls to Vaikuṇṭha; in the very last hour, Viṭho came personally to us — and with body itself, Tuka became hidden / disappeared.
Where this applies
- When you have to say a final goodbye and want to leave the people you love with a blessing and a message for everyone else
- When you sense that something you have long trusted or waited for is finally, truly arriving
- When you are asked to pass a parting message along to people who are not present
- When a defining moment calls for complete trust rather than holding anything back