Abhanga 1741

Devotion has no fixed price, its worth is exactly as genuine as what you sincerely bring, and the bond with God stays open enough to untangle whatever knots life creates.

The verse

Literal translation

What it means

Bhakta-as-Lord's-shopkeeper abhang.

The opening: ghātalā dukāna — paḍhīyē taisā āhē vāna — set up the shop — price as one likes. Vāna = price, rate. We've set up the bhakti-shop; the price is whatever-the-customer-likes-to-pay (because the bhakti-goods don't have fixed-market-rates).

The bhāṇḍārī: āmhī bhāṇḍārī Devācē — dyāvēm ghyāvēm māpa vācē — we are Deva's bhāṇḍārī — give-take, measure by speech. Bhāṇḍārī = storekeeper, treasury-official; māpa vācē = the speech-itself is the measure. Give-and-take is done by speech (= the nāma is the unit-and-currency).

The unravel-knowing: ugavūm jāṇōm mōḍī — jālī navhē tyācī jōḍī — we know how to unravel the bent-up — not yoked, his pair. Mōḍī = the broken-and-bent-and-tangled (yarn-thread-or-knot); jōḍī = pair, yoking. We can unravel-the-tangle; (yet) the yoking is not (his) made (= the bhakta's-yoking-with-Lord is open-and-loose).

The closing: Tukā mhaṇē puḍī — mōla taisī kharī kuḍī — Tuka says: the packet — true-value-as-it-is — kharī kuḍī. Puḍī = the small-paper-packet (in which goods are sold by weight); kharī = real, genuine; kuḍī = the body / vessel (Marathi-pejorative-sense: false-claim). The packet contains the genuine-value-as-it-is — real-or-false (depending on what you bring).

[T]

For someone today

For today: we have set up the shop — the price of the bhakti-goods is as one likes; we are Deva's storekeepers — we give-and-take with speech as the measure; we know how to unravel the tangled-knots — though his yoking with us is open, not formal; Tuka says — the small packet contains the true-value as it is — whether you bring genuine vessel or false.

Where this applies

• When you feel devotion has to look a certain formal way to count as real
• When you worry that your practice is not measured up against someone else's, richer or more elaborate offering
• When you are trying to untangle a difficult knot in your relationship with faith or with God
• When you want reassurance that sincere words and simple giving are enough

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