Abhanga 2425
Surrender every part of your life completely to what you trust most, and let go of the rest as no longer your burden.
The verse
तूं माझा मायबाप सकळ वित्त गोत । तूं चि माझें हित करिता देवा ॥१॥ तूं चि माझा देव तूं चि माझा जीव । तूं चि माझा भाव पांडुरंगा ॥ध्रु.॥ तूं चि माझा आचार तूंचि माझा विचार । तूं चि सर्व भार चालविसी ॥२॥ सर्व भावें मज तूं होसी प्रमाण । ऐसी तुझी आण वाहातुसें ॥३॥ तुका म्हणे तुज विकला जीवभाव । कळे तो उपाव करीं आतां ॥४॥
Literal translation
You are my mother-father, all wealth-kin — you alone do my good, Dēvā. You alone are my Dēva, you alone my jīva — you alone my bhāva, Pāṇḍurangā. You alone my conduct, my thought — you carry all my burden. In every bhāva you are my proof — by this oath I swear. Tuka says: to you I sold jīva-bhāva — what you know, the remedy, do now.
What it means
THE MOST-FAMOUS TUKĀRĀM BHAKTI-SURRENDER LITANY. Daily-recited in Vārkarī households, used in countless bhajans and kīrtans.
The complete tūm chi mājhā (you alone are my) anaphora across-all-life-categories:
- Family: tūm mājhā māyabāpa sakaḷa vitta gōta — you are my mother-father, all wealth-kin
- Welfare: tūm chi mājhē hita karitā — you alone do my good
- Divinity-and-life-essence: tūm chi mājhā Dēva tūm chi mājhā jīva — you alone are my Dēva, you alone my jīva
- Inner-feeling: tūm chi mājhā bhāva Pāṇḍurangā — you alone my bhāva, Pāṇḍurangā
- Conduct: tūm chi mājhā āchāra — you alone my conduct
- Thought: tūm chi mājhā vichāra — you alone my thought
- Burden-carrier: tūm chi sarva bhāra chālavisī — you carry all my burden
- Proof: sarva bhāvē maja tūm hōsī pramāṇa — in every bhāva you are my proof
HISTORICAL-CULTURAL SIGNIFICANCE: This is one of the most-recited Tukārām abhangs in the entire Vārkarī tradition. It is: - Daily-prayer in many Vārkarī households - Used as bhakti-bhajan in kīrtans and home-pūjās - A model of complete-surrender (śaraṇāgati) — every aspect of personhood handed-over to Pāṇḍuranga - Quoted in popular Marathi-discourse as the paradigm of bhakti-surrender
The closing: Tukā mhaṇē tuja viklā jīva-bhāva — kaḷē tō upāva karīm ātām — to you I sold jīva-bhāva — what you know, the remedy, do now. The bhakta has-sold-himself completely; the-rest-is-the-Lord's-business.
[T]
For someone today
For today: you are everything — mother-father, wealth-kin, welfare; Dēva, jīva, bhāva, Pāṇḍurangā; my conduct, my thought, all my burden; in every bhāva you are my proof; jīva-bhāva sold — do now what you know.
Where this applies
- When you feel like you're carrying every worry alone and need to hand some of it over
- When you're deciding who to trust completely with your welfare and future
- When you want a single prayer to hold onto during hard days, something short enough to repeat daily
- When you've done everything you can and need to stop trying to control the outcome