Abhanga 2633
The beloved-meal in many varieties — differently-different sweetness in one rasa. In the eating-row I got the prasāda — they kept no distinctions. Cooking-perfected by own-hand-application, favorite portions were ready. Tukā: the leftover-prasāda came — and this is the bliss for my jīva.
The verse
आवडीभोजन प्रकार परवडी । भिन्नाभिन्न गोडी एक रसा ॥१॥
भोगित्या पंगती लाधलों प्रसाद । तिंहीं नाहीं भेद राखियेला ॥ध्रु.॥
पाकसिद्धि स्वहस्तकें विनियोग। आवडीचे भाग सिद्ध केले ॥२॥
तुका म्हणे आला उच्छिष्ट प्रसाद । तेणें हा आनंद माझ्या जीवा ॥३॥
Literal translation
A beloved-meal in many varieties — differently-different sweetness in one rasa. In the eating-row I received the prasāda — they kept no distinctions. Cooking-perfected by own-hand application — favorite-portions were ready. Tukā says: the ucchiṣṭa (leftover) prasāda came — and that is the bliss in my jīva.
What it means
A verse celebrating the bhakti-feast in its specific register of humility-joy. Āvaḍī-bhōjana prakāra paravaḍī — bhinnābhinna gōḍī ēka rasā — the beloved-meal in many varieties — differently-different sweetness in one rasa. Paravaḍī — the choice-portion, the fine-array. Bhinnābhinna gōḍī ēka rasā — differently-different sweetness in one rasa — the dishes are many but the underlying rasa (essence-taste) is one. This is also a theological claim — many-bhakti-forms, one-essence.
The dhrūpada: bhōgityā pangatī lādhalōm prasāda — tihīm nāhī bhēda rākhiyalā — in the eating-row (pankti) I got prasāda; they kept no distinctions (bhēda). The pankti-bhōjana (row-meal) is a major Vārkarī-egalitarian practice — everyone sits in a row, everyone is served the same; no caste-distinctions are maintained. Tihīm nāhī bhēda — they did not maintain distinctions — is the egalitarian claim explicit.
The second verse describes the cooking: pāka-siddhi sva-hastakēm viniyōga — āvaḍīche bhāga siddha kēlē — cooking-perfected (pāka-siddhi) by own-hand application; favorite-portions were ready. The Lord-as-cook image: the prasāda was prepared by sva-hasta — his own hand — and the favorite-portions were siddha — readied.
The close is the humility-joy seal: ālā ucchiṣṭa prasāda — tēṇē hā ānanda mājhyā jīvā — the ucchiṣṭa (leftover) prasāda came — and that is the bliss for my jīva. Ucchiṣṭa — leftover, what-was-eaten-from, second-hand — is technically the leftover from the Lord's own meal. In the bhakti-tradition, ucchiṣṭa-prasāda is the most-cherished form of prasāda — what the Lord himself ate first and left for the bhakta. The bhakta does not feel demoted by getting the leftover; the ucchiṣṭa is the bliss.
For someone today
There are particular kinds of receipt that the ucchiṣṭa-prasāda register names: getting what the master ate from, getting what the elder used, getting the seat someone already sat in, getting the love-after-someone-else-was-loved. Conventional pride resists these as demoted offerings. The bhakti-joy reads them oppositely: the leftover is the bliss. The verse also offers the egalitarian frame — the pankti kept no distinctions — eating in a row where everyone gets the same, no separations by caste or rank. The combination of no-distinctions-eating-row and bliss-in-the-leftover is a complete bhakti meal-theology.
Where this applies
- Receiving leftover-prasāda as the chosen share, not the demoted share
- The pankti-bhōjana practice and its no-distinction-kept egalitarianism
- The Lord-as-cook image — the cook who readies the favorite-portions by his own hand
- Recognizing the bhakti-joy in bhinnābhinna gōḍī ēka rasā