संत साहित्य · Tukārām · Abhanga 2348 of 4582

Abhanga 2348

Sitting in true, wholehearted kathā where God, devotee, and Name meet is itself the highest pilgrimage, powerful enough to burn away a lifetime of wrongdoing.

When you carry old shame and doubt that anything can wash it away

When you have the chance to listen to kathā or kirtan but think it is not worth your time

When you assume holiness only exists somewhere far away, at a famous shrine or river

The verse

कथा त्रिवेणीसंगम देव भक्त आणि नाम । तेथींचें उत्तम चरणरज वंदितां ॥१॥ जळती दोषांचे डोंगर शुद्ध होती नारी नर । गाती ऐकती सादर जे पवित्र हरिकथा ॥ध्रु.॥ तीर्थी तया ठाया येती पुनीत व्हावया । पर्वकाळ पायां तळीं वसे वैष्णवां ॥२॥ अनुपम्य हा महिमा नाहीं द्यावया उपमा । तुका म्हणे ब्रम्हा नेणे वर्णू या सुखा ॥३॥

Literal translation

Kathā is the tri-vēṇī-sangama: Dēva, bhakta, and Nāma — veneration of the feet-dust there is the highest. Mountains of dōṣas burn — women and men become śuddha — those who sing and listen-attentively to the pure Hari-kathā. Tīrthas come to that place to become punīta — the parva-kāḷa dwells under the vaiṣṇavas' feet. This glory is anupamya — no upamā to give — Tukā says — even Brahmā doesn't know how to describe this sukha.

What it means

THE KATHĀ-AS-TRI-VĒṆĪ-SAṄGAMA ABHANG.

THE CELEBRATED OPENING: kathā tri-vēṇī-sangama Dēva bhakta āṇi Nāma — kathā is the tri-vēṇī-sangama: Dēva, bhakta, and Nāma. Tri-vēṇī-sangama = the three-river-confluence (Gangā-Yamunā-Sarasvatī at Prayāga). Kathā is the tri-vēṇī-sangama where the three (Dēva, bhakta, and Nāma) meet — like the three rivers at Prayāga. One of Tukārām's-most-celebrated kathā-images — kathā as the supreme-tīrtha where the three-elements-of-bhakti unite.

Tīrthas-come-to-vaiṣṇavas: tīrthī tayā ṭhāyā yētī punīta vhāvayā — parva-kāḷa pāyām taḷīm vasē vaiṣṇavām — tīrthas come to that place to become punīta — the parva-kāḷa dwells under the vaiṣṇavas' feet. The other-tīrthas come-to-this-place to-become-punīta (purified); the parva-kāḷa (auspicious-time) dwells-under-the-vaiṣṇavas'-feet. The reversal: instead-of-bhaktas-going-to-tīrthas, the-tīrthas-come-to-bhaktas.

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For someone today

For today: kathā is the tri-vēṇī-sangama of Dēva, bhakta, and Nāma; mountains of dōṣas burn — women-and-men become śuddha; tīrthas come to become punīta; even Brahmā can't describe this sukha.

Where this applies

When you feel weighed down by years of guilt and wonder if anything could ever lift it
When you dismiss sitting and listening to a kirtan or kathā as a small, ordinary act
When you think you must travel far to a holy place before you can feel clean or renewed
When you want words for a joy in a gathering that felt bigger than anything you can explain