Abhanga 2440
When love for the divine truly becomes your own, no one can take it away, and service given freely and abundantly can even put God in your debt.
The verse
सर्वात्मकपण । माझें हिरोनि नेतो कोण ॥१॥ मनीं भक्तीची आवडी । हेवा व्हावी ऐशी जोडी ॥ध्रु.॥ घेईंन जन्मांतरें । हें चि करावया खरें ॥२॥ तुका म्हणे देवा । ॠणी करूनि ठेवूं सेवा ॥३॥
Literal translation
Sarvātmaka-being — who can rob from me. Love-of-bhakti in mind — let envy become such association. I'll take rebirths — to do this truly. Tuka says: Dēvā — keeping you in debt, we'll do service.
What it means
THE I'LL-TAKE-REBIRTHS-TO-SERVE + KEEP-LORD-IN-DEBT ABHANG. Echoes 2402's foundational line.
The rebirth-acceptance: ghē'īmna janmāntarē — hē chi karāvayā kharē — I'll take rebirths — to do this truly. I'll-take rebirths — to-do-this (= service-of-the-Lord) truly. Compare-with 2402's sukhē ghē'ūm janmāntarē — Paṇḍharīchē Vārakarī hōtām thōrī jōḍī.
THE LORD-IN-DEBT: Tukā mhaṇē Dēvā — ṛṇī karūni ṭhēvūm sēvā — Dēvā — keeping you in debt, we'll do service. We'll-do-service in-a-way that-keeps-the-Lord-in-debt to-us. A reversed-economy: bhakti so-abundant-that-the-Lord-becomes-the-debtor.
[T]
For someone today
For today: who can rob sarvātmaka-being; let envy become bhakti-association; I'll take rebirths to serve ; keep the Lord in debt by service .
Where this applies
- When you worry that outside pressure or other people's envy could take away your inner faith
- When your commitment to a practice or a person feels so deep you'd choose it again and again
- When you're tempted to treat devotion as a debt owed to God rather than a gift freely given
- When you want to serve so completely that generosity itself becomes the whole point