Abhanga 2605
For us refuge-takers — what worry is there? These are play-spectacles, we watch them all. With the host of fearlessness-gifts on our side, what dualities for us? Tukā: we Hari-people are the masters of sādhana.
The verse
आम्हां शरणागतां । एवढी काय करणें चिंता ॥१॥
परि हे कौतुकाचे खेळ । अवघे पाहातों सकळ ॥ध्रु.॥
अभयदानवृंदें । आम्हां कैंचीं द्वंदें ॥२॥
तुका म्हणे आम्ही । हरिजन साधनाचे स्वामी ॥३॥
Literal translation
For us refuge-takers — what is the worry to do? But these are delightful play-spectacles — we watch them all. With the host of fearlessness-gifts — what dualities for us? Tukā says: we Hari-people are the masters of sādhana.
What it means
A verse with the unmistakable mature-refuge tone — almost relaxed, almost amused. Āmhām śaraṇāgatām — ēvaḍhī kāya karaṇē chintā — for us who have taken refuge, what worry is there of this size? The dimensional word ēvaḍhī (this-much, this-size) makes the line precise — the worry you are pressing on me is the wrong size for someone in my position.
The dhrūpada then names what the changing world actually is, from refuge: pari hē kautukāchē khēḷa — avaghē pāhātōm sakaḷa — but these are play-spectacles; we watch them all. Kautuka names delighted-curiosity, the affectionate-spectator stance. The world's events are khēḷa (plays), watched from a seat that does not depend on them.
The middle verse compresses the bhakti-shield: abhayadāna-vrndēm — āmhām kāñchīm dvandvēm — with the host (vrnda) of fearlessness-gifts, what dualities for us? Dvandva (binary, opposition, pair-of-opposites — pleasure-pain, gain-loss, praise-blame) is the philosophical pair-vocabulary; the abhayadāna host has dissolved it.
The close is the masterstroke and one of Tukārām's quietly radical claims: āmhī Hari-jana — sādhanāñchē svāmī — we Hari-people are the masters of sādhana. The inversion is striking. The expected formula is sādhana leads to mukti; the bhakta is the sādhaka, the seeker, the disciple-of-sādhana. Tukārām reverses it: Hari-jana are masters of sādhana, not its servants. Sādhana is the bhakta's tool, not the bhakta's master. The verse claims sovereignty.
For someone today
When you have actually taken refuge — in a tradition, a community, a tested practice — the right stance toward the world's changing scenes is not anxious-engagement but kautuka-khēḷa — affectionate-spectator delight. The events that used to tug at you are play-spectacles you can watch. The radical line of the verse is the last one: we are masters of sādhana, not its servants. Practice is your tool; you are not its property. The mature bhakta does not crouch under sādhana; she inherits it.
Where this applies
- Mature-stage practice when the changing scenes have become watchable
- A community of practice in which Hari-jana sovereignty is enacted, not just preached
- Reframing duties as inherited tools rather than imposed masters
- Kautuka-khēḷa stance toward your own life as it changes