Abhanga 2604
Who will now hold the samsāra-tangle? It has unraveled on its own. You who made it, run your own prapañca. What loss or gain in giving or taking? Naturally it happens, without the bundle-weight. Tukā: I have become naturally a seer — what is yours, by yours, has shown the signs.
The verse
कोण होईंल आतां संसारपांगिलें । आहे उगवलें सहजें चि ॥१॥
केला तो चालवीं आपुला प्रपंच । काय कोणां वेच आदा घे दे ॥ध्रु.॥
सहजें चि घडे आतां मोळ्याविण । येथें काय सीण आणि लाभ ॥२॥
तुका म्हणे जालों सहज देखणा । ज्याच्या तेणें खुणा दाखविल्या ॥३॥
Literal translation
Who will now hold the samsāra-tangle? It has unraveled by itself. You who made it, run your own prapañca. What is the loss or gain to anyone in giving or taking? Naturally it happens now, without the bundle-weight. What is fatigue and gain here? Tukā says: I have become naturally a seer; whose own — by their own — the signs have been shown.
What it means
The verse names a stage in the spiritual journey that comes only after long work. Kōṇa hōīla ātām samsāra-pāngilēm — āhē ugavalēm sahajēm chi — who will now manage the samsāra-tangle? It has unraveled by itself. Pāngilēm — tangled, snarled — has come undone sahajēm chi, naturally, without further effort. The bhakta who once strained to undo the tangle now finds the tangle gone.
The dhrūpada turns to the maker: kēlā tō chālavīm āpulā prapancha — you who made it, you carry your own prapañca. The Lord made the world-system; let the Lord run it. Kāya kōṇām vēcha ādā ghē dē — what is the loss or gain to anyone in giving and taking — the transactional anxiety has lifted.
The second verse names the sahaja (natural, effortless, born-with-it) mode: sahajēm chi ghaḍē ātām mōḷyāvīṇa — now things happen naturally, without bundle-weight. Mōḷyā is the burden-bundle (the same root as 2603's mōḷa-vikā); the mōḷyāvīṇa state is without-bundle — the inner backpack has been put down.
The close is the seal of jñāna-bhakti integration: jālōm sahaja dēkhaṇā — jyāchyā tēṇē khuṇā dākhaviliyā — I have become naturally a seer (dēkhaṇā = the one who sees, witness); whose own, by their own, signs have been shown. The mystery of the verse is in jyāchyā tēṇē — whose-own, by-their-own: the Lord's own signs are shown by the Lord, through the Lord, in the Lord — the bhakta is not the one doing the seeing in the old sense; seeing happens.
For someone today
There is a stage in any long discipline when the tangle you have been working on for years simply unravels — not because you tried harder, but because the trying ran out, and the natural form underneath emerged. Tukārām hands you the recognition-words: sahajēm chi ugavalēm (it untangled itself); mōḷyāvīṇa (without the bundle-weight). You can also hand the prapañca back: the one who made this carries it. And then notice the seer who is now there without your having to maintain the seeing. Most of all — do not mistake this stage for spiritual achievement-by-effort; the verse insists jyāchyā tēṇē — by-their-own. It was a gift, not a reward.
Where this applies
- Later-stage of practice when the entanglements have quietly untangled
- A retirement, after-the-children-are-grown, post-illness recognition that the load is gone
- The sahaja-dēkhaṇā stage where seeing happens without seer-effort
- Putting down the mōḷyā backpack of running prapañca oneself