Abhanga 2599
The eye is filled with the form, the mind has resolved at the feet, everything is parceled out, prema lives in kīrtana, the voice does the measuring, Hari-nāma is in unmeasured heaps. Tukā: my share is filled — Pāṇḍuranga has sat down.
The verse
डोळां भरिलें रूप । चित्ता पायांपें संकल्प ॥१॥
अवघी घातली वांटणी । प्रेम राहिलें कीर्तनी ॥ध्रु.॥
वाचा केली माप । रासीं हरिनाम अमुप ॥२॥
भरूनियां भाग । तुका बैसला पांडुरंग ॥३॥
Literal translation
The eye has filled with the form; the mind has resolved at the feet. The whole distribution has been made — prema (love) remains in kīrtana. The voice has done the measuring; Hari-nāma is in heaps, immeasurable. Filling my share, Tukā says — Pāṇḍuranga has sat down.
What it means
This is one of Tukārām's most economical inventories of the integrated bhakti-life. Each faculty has a placement:
- Eye — filled with the form (Viṭhṭhala-mūrti)
- Mind/Chitta — resolved at the feet (samkalpa — settled-resolution, no longer wandering)
- Voice (vāchā) — the measuring-instrument (māpa) — but the substance being measured (Hari-nāma) is amupa — without measure, in rāśī (heaps)
- Prema — lives in kīrtana (not interior-emotion only, but the communal-singing-event)
The structural conceit is vāṇṭaṇī — distribution or parceling-out. The bhakti-life is an economy in which each faculty receives its allotted share-of-the-Lord. The closing line is the seal: bharūniyām bhāga — Tukā baisalā Pāṇḍuranga — my share is filled (or — having filled the share), Pāṇḍuranga has sat down. The verb baisalā (sat down) is significant — Viṭhṭhala arrives and takes up residence, no longer a visitor. The eye-mind-voice-prema have done their work; Pāṇḍuranga is now seated.
For someone today
Mature practice looks like vāṇṭaṇī — each part of your apparatus settled into its specific contribution. The eye that used to wander has a form to rest on. The mind that used to ricochet has a samkalpa (resolution) at the feet. The voice has work (measuring, calling names) even though the substance keeps overflowing the measure. Prema doesn't live in solitary feeling; it lives in kīrtana — the shared singing. When all these placements happen, what arrives is the baisalā — the seated-settled presence. You can audit your practice by asking: which of these placements is incomplete? Where is the parceling-out still unfinished?
Where this applies
- Years into a practice, taking stock of which faculty has settled
- The realization that prema lives in shared singing, not in private feeling
- A practice-audit when something feels not-yet-arrived
- The settled-stage bhakti-life