Abhanga 2614
Walking on the road doesn't feel — when one goes singing along the way. Good is the company of Vaiṣṇavas — Śrīranga comes facing-toward us. No fear ahead, no heavy obstacles. Tukā: bhakti — blissful-form at the beginning and at the end.
The verse
चालिलें न वाटे । गाऊनियां जातां वाटे ॥१॥
बरवा वैष्णवांचा संग । येतो सामोरा श्रीरंग ॥ध्रु.॥
नाहीं भय आड । कांहीं विषमांचें जड ॥२॥
तुका म्हणे भिक्त । सुखरूप आदीं अंतीं ॥३॥
Literal translation
Walking doesn't feel — when one goes singing along the way. Good is the company of Vaiṣṇavas — Śrīranga comes facing-toward us. There is no fear ahead, no heaviness of obstacles. Tukā says: bhakti — blissful-form at the beginning and at the end.
What it means
The verse is one of Tukārām's most direct Vārī-experience descriptions. The opening line is a quiet wonder: chālilēm na vāṭē — gā'ūniyām jātām vāṭē — walking does not feel (na vāṭē = is not sensed/felt) — when going along the way singing. The Vārī pilgrim walks for days; with singing companions, the body's fatigue does not register. This is not mystical hyperbole — anyone who has walked the Vārī can confirm it.
The dhrūpada names what is happening: baravā Vaiṣṇavāñchā sanga — yētō sāmōrā Śrīranga — the company of Vaiṣṇavas is good — Śrīranga comes facing-toward (sāmōrā) us. Sāmōrā — facing — is the crucial word. In sant-sanga, the Lord does not stay-distant-waiting; the Lord comes facing, walks-toward, meets the walking-singing band on the way.
The second verse names the somatic experience: nāhīm bhaya āḍa — kāmhī viṣamāñchē jaḍa — no fear ahead, no heaviness of obstacles (viṣama = uneven, obstructed, difficult terrain). The road's viṣama (uneven-difficult terrain) loses its jaḍa (heaviness) inside this experience.
The close names the bhakti-time-signature: bhakti — sukha-rūpa ādī amtīm — bhakti is blissful-form at the beginning and at the end. Ādīm amtī (beginning-and-end) is the temporal claim — bhakti is not a hard middle with bliss only at the end; it is sukha-rūpa throughout. The Vārī walker knows this from the road.
For someone today
If you have ever walked a long way with singing companions on a path you all believed in, you know what Tukārām is describing. The body's fatigue does not register; the road becomes friendly; the destination feels like it is walking toward you (Śrīranga sāmōrā yētō). The verse offers a generalizable principle: long practices, long walks, long projects can be sukha-rūpa ādī amtīm — blissful-form beginning-to-end — if the company is right and the singing is shared. The viṣama (uneven terrain) of the work does not have to feel heavy. Find the Vaiṣṇavāñchā sanga and sing along the way.
Where this applies
- The Vārī pilgrimage itself or any community-walk practice
- A long professional project sustained by a singing-band of co-walkers
- Recovery-work in groups that sing or chant the way through
- The buoyancy-experience of bhakti as throughout-blissful, not end-only