Abhanga 1983
Tukaram declares he would rather drink deeply from the flowing sweetness of love and devotion than settle for anything else, because that joy is unmistakably clear once you taste it. He compares it to a simple dish of rice mixed with curd, shared in loving community, and says even the gods find that kind of shared, humble joy hard to come by. Then he does something bold: he dismisses the traditional goal of liberation from rebirth itself, calling it merely a tired, worn-out kind of rest, almost pitiful next to the richness of loving devotion. He ends by admitting he has not even begun to describe the deepest love, the love where the sense of separateness between the lover and the beloved dissolves completely. The lesson is that the goal is not just escaping suffering or achieving peace and quiet; it is the richer, more alive experience of loving connection, which Tukaram values even above the traditional idea of final release.
The verse
घेइन प्रेमपान्हा । भक्तिसुख निवाडें ॥१॥ काला भात दहीं । ब्रम्हादिकां दुर्लभ ॥ध्रु.॥ मोक्षपदें होती । ते विश्रांति बापुडी ॥२॥ बोलिलों त्या नाहीं । अभेदाची आवडी ॥३॥ ॥४॥
Literal translation
I'll drink prema-milk-stream — bhakti-sukha clearly. Kāḷā, rice-curd — rare-even-to-Brahmā. Mokṣa-states are — tired-rest, the poor-thing. I haven't spoken — the love-of-non-difference. ॥4॥
Word-by-word gloss
| Marathi | Meaning |
|---|---|
| घेइन प्रेमपान्हा | "I'll drink prema-milk-stream" |
| भक्तिसुख निवाडें | "bhakti-sukha clearly" |
| काला भात दहीं | "kāḷā, rice-curd" |
| ब्रम्हादिकां दुर्लभ | "rare-even-to-Brahmā" |
| मोक्षपदें होती | "mokṣa-states are" |
| ते विश्रांति बापुडी | "tired-rest, the poor-thing" |
| बोलिलों त्या नाहीं | "I haven't spoken" |
| अभेदाची आवडी | "the love-of-non-difference" |
| ॥४॥ | "colophon-4 — closes 4-abhang advaita-non-difference sub-cluster (1980-1983)" |
What it means
Prema-milk-bhakti-over-mokṣa + abhēdācī-āvaḍī + colophon-4 abhang. CLOSES 4-ABHANG SUB-CLUSTER.
The opening: ghē'ina prēma-pānhā — bhakti-sukha nivāḍē — I'll drink prema-milk-stream — bhakti-sukha clearly. Pānhā = milk-stream (when cow's milk flows). The bhakta drinks-prema-milk; bhakti-sukha is-clearly-distinguished.
The kāḷā-comparison: kāḷā bhāta dahīm — Brahmādikām durlabha — kāḷā, rice-curd — rare-even-to-Brahmā. Kāḷā = the rice-and-yogurt mixture (Kṛṣṇa's-favorite gōpāḷa-kālā, the prasāda of bhakti-circles). The bhakti-prasāda (kāḷā) is rare-even-to-Brahmā — the gods-themselves don't-easily-get-it.
The dismissal of mokṣa: mōkṣa-padē hōtī — tē viśrānti bāpuḍī — mokṣa-states are — tired-rest, the poor-thing. Mokṣa-states are merely-tired-rest (viśrānti = rest); bāpuḍī = the poor-thing (= patronizing). Tukārām classically-dismisses mokṣa as-merely-rest, in-favor-of bhakti.
The closing — abhēdācī āvaḍī: bōlilōm tyā nāhīm — abhēdācī āvaḍī — I haven't spoken — the love-of-non-difference. I-haven't-yet-spoken about abhēdācī āvaḍī (the-love-of-non-difference) (= advaita-bhakti, where the lover-and-beloved collapse). The closing of-the-4-cluster: abhēdācī-āvaḍī as the-name of-the-cluster's-theme.
The colophon ॥४॥ confirms the 4-abhang sub-cluster (1980-1983).
[T]
For someone today
Tukaram declares he would rather drink deeply from the flowing sweetness of love and devotion than settle for anything else, because that joy is unmistakably clear once you taste it. He compares it to a simple dish of rice mixed with curd, shared in loving community, and says even the gods find that kind of shared, humble joy hard to come by. Then he does something bold: he dismisses the traditional goal of liberation from rebirth itself, calling it merely a tired, worn-out kind of rest, almost pitiful next to the richness of loving devotion. He ends by admitting he has not even begun to describe the deepest love, the love where the sense of separateness between the lover and the beloved dissolves completely. The lesson is that the goal is not just escaping suffering or achieving peace and quiet; it is the richer, more alive experience of loving connection, which Tukaram values even above the traditional idea of final release.
मराठी: तुकाराम ठामपणे सांगतात की त्यांना इतर कशाहीपेक्षा प्रेम आणि भक्तीच्या वाहत्या गोडव्यातून मनसोक्त प्राशन करायचं आहे, कारण एकदा तो आनंद चाखला की तो स्पष्टपणे ओळखू येतो. ते त्याची तुलना भात आणि दही एकत्र मिसळून प्रेमळ सहवासात वाटून घेतलेल्या साध्या पदार्थाशी करतात, आणि म्हणतात की देवांनाही असा सहवासातला, नम्र आनंद सहजासहजी मिळत नाही. मग ते काहीतरी धाडसी करतात - ते पुनर्जन्मापासून मुक्तीच्या पारंपरिक ध्येयालाच झिडकारतात, त्याला फक्त थकलेली, जुनाट विश्रांती म्हणतात, प्रेमळ भक्तीच्या समृद्धीसमोर जवळजवळ केविलवाणी. ते शेवटी कबूल करतात की त्यांनी सर्वात खोल प्रेमाबद्दल, जिथे प्रेम करणारा आणि प्रिय व्यक्ती यांच्यातला वेगळेपणाचा भावच पूर्णपणे विरघळून जातो, त्याबद्दल अजून बोलायलाच सुरुवात केलेली नाही. यातून हे शिकायला मिळतं की ध्येय फक्त दुःखातून सुटका किंवा शांतता मिळवणं इतकंच नाही - ते प्रेमळ नात्याचा अधिक समृद्ध, अधिक जिवंत अनुभव आहे, जो तुकाराम पारंपरिक अंतिम मुक्तीच्या कल्पनेपेक्षाही जास्त मोलाचा मानतात.
Where this applies
- When you're chasing peace of mind or escape from stress and realize what you actually crave is connection and joy
- When you find more meaning in simple, shared moments like a meal or gathering than in solitary achievement
- When you've achieved a goal that felt hollow compared to the relationships or love around it
- When you want words for a love so deep that the usual boundary between self and other starts to blur