Abhanga 2618
If you have witnessed a real kīrtana — Vārkarī or otherwise — you know what mātalē means: people genuinely intoxicated with bhajan, time collapsing, distinctions between performers and audience dissolving, hands holding tāḷa or chipaḷī or each other. The verse hands you the theological frame: no need for mokṣa-as-elsewhere, no need for tīrtha-as-elsewhere, no need for forest-as-elsewhere — the whole earth is Hari-Hara-self. Bhakti is not a future-achievement; it is a present-tense saturation. Bhajanīm āvaḍī — love is in the bhajan — is the doctrinal seal.
The verse
एका हातीं टाळ एका हातीं चिपळिया । घालिती हुंमरी एक वाताती टाळिया ॥१॥
मातले वैष्णव नटती नाना छंदें । नाहीं चाड मोक्षपदें भजनीं आवडी ॥ध्रु.॥
हाका अरोळिया गीतवादें सुखसोहळे । जाय तें न कळे केव्हां रजनी दिवस ॥२॥
तीर्थी नाहीं चाड न लगे जावें वनांतरा । तुका म्हणे हरिहरात्मक चि पृथुवी ॥३॥
Literal translation
One hand a tāḷa (cymbal), one hand chipaḷī (clapper) — some shout humarī, some clap. The intoxicated Vaiṣṇavas dance in countless modes (nānā chandem) — no need for the mokṣa-position; love is in bhajan. Calls, shouts, song-instruments, joy-celebrations — when night and day pass, one does not know. No need for tīrtha, no need to go to the forest — Tukā says: the whole earth is Hari-Hara-self.
What it means
This is one of Tukārām's most-recited ecstatic-kīrtana tableaux — a self-description of Vārkarī practice in motion. The opening line is purely sensory: ēkā hātīm ṭāḷa — ēkā hātīm chipaḷiyā — ghālitī humarī — ēka vātatī ṭāḷiyā — one hand a tāḷa (small finger-cymbal), one hand chipaḷī (clapper-stick), some shout humarī (an ecstatic-cry), some clap. The polyphonic, irregular, simultaneous activity of a Vārkarī kīrtana is rendered exactly.
The dhrūpada makes the radical claim: mātalē Vaiṣṇava — naṭatī nānā chandem — nāhī chāḍa mōkṣa-padēm — bhajanīm āvaḍī — the intoxicated Vaiṣṇavas dance in many modes — they have no need (chāḍa) for the mokṣa-position; love is in bhajan. Mātalē (intoxicated, drunk-with-bliss) and naṭatī (dance, perform, take attitudes) describe the participants. The theological line is the second half: no need for mokṣa — bhajan-love is enough. This is one of the most-quoted Vārkarī rejections of mokṣa-as-goal.
The second verse describes the time-experience: hākā arōḷiyā gītavādēm sukha-sohāḷē — jāya tē na kaḷē — kēvhā rajanī divasa — calls, shouts, song-instruments, joy-celebrations — they pass without one knowing when night and day come. Time-collapse inside kīrtana — the all-night to all-day flowing-together.
The close compresses Vārkarī geography-theology: tīrthī nāhīm chāḍa — na lagē jāvē vanāntarā — Hari-Hara-ātmaka chi prthuvī — no need for tīrtha (pilgrimage-water), no need to go to the forest — the whole earth is Hari-Hara-self. The whole prthuvī (earth) is the body of Hari-Hara; therefore no special-place is required. This is the Vārkarī rejection of pilgrimage-formalism and forest-asceticism in one breath — bhajan-in-place is the practice.
For someone today
If you have witnessed a real kīrtana — Vārkarī or otherwise — you know what mātalē means: people genuinely intoxicated with bhajan, time collapsing, distinctions between performers and audience dissolving, hands holding tāḷa or chipaḷī or each other. The verse hands you the theological frame: no need for mokṣa-as-elsewhere, no need for tīrtha-as-elsewhere, no need for forest-as-elsewhere — the whole earth is Hari-Hara-self. Bhakti is not a future-achievement; it is a present-tense saturation. Bhajanīm āvaḍī — love is in the bhajan — is the doctrinal seal.
Where this applies
- The Vārkarī kīrtana itself, as a still-living practice
- Resisting the temptation to defer bhakti to forest, pilgrimage, or post-mortem state
- Group-singing as the mātalē mode of love
- The Vārkarī rejection of mokṣa-as-goal in favor of bhajanīm-āvaḍī