Abhanga 2638
See how many have come for refuge — he has treated them equal; he did not weigh anyone's guṇa-dōṣa (qualities-faults).
The verse
पाहा किती आले शरण समान चि केले । नाहीं विचारिले गुण दोष कोणांचे ॥१॥
मज सेवटींसा द्यावा ठाव तयांचिये देवा । नाहीं करीत हेवा कांहीं थोरपणाचा ॥ध्रु.॥
नाहीं पाहिला आचार कुळगोत्रांचा विचार । फेडूं आला भार मग न म्हणे दगड ॥२॥
तुका म्हणे सर्वजाणा तुझ्या आल्यावरि मना । केला तो उगाणा घडल्या दोषांच्या ॥३॥
Literal translation
See how many have come for refuge — he has treated them equal; he did not weigh anyone's guṇa-dōṣa (qualities-faults). Give me too a place at the end of them, Deva — he holds no envy of thōrapaṇa (greatness, status). He did not look at āchāra (conduct), did not consider kuḷa-gotra (lineage); one who has come to lift the burden does not then say dagaḍa (stone). Tukā says: all-knowing one, when you come to mind, the committed sins are ugāṇā (loosened, redeemed).
What it means
A direct statement of Vārkarī egalitarian-theology. Pāhā kitī ālē śaraṇa — samāna chi kēlē — nāhīm vichāriliyā guṇa dōṣa kōṇāñchē — see how many have come for refuge — he has treated them all equal; he did not weigh anyone's qualities-and-faults. The intake-criterion is refuge-taking; the Lord does not screen at the door.
The dhrūpada makes the petition modest: maja sēvaṭīmsā dyāvā ṭhāva tayāñchiyē Devā — give me too a place — even at the very end of them. The asker doesn't claim a high seat. Nāhīm karīta hēvā kāmhī thōrapaṇāchā — he holds no envy of greatness — Deva himself has no preference for status.
The second verse names two specific not-criteria: nāhīm pāhilā āchāra — kuḷa-gotrāñchā vichāra — he did not look at conduct, nor at kula-gotra (caste-and-lineage). The egalitarian statement is specific: even āchāra (conduct, behavioral-history) is not the screening-criterion. Then the wonderful image: phēḍūm ālā bhāra mag na mhaṇē dagaḍa — the one who has come to lift the burden does not then say 'stone'. Once the Lord-as-burden-lifter takes on the bhakta, the bhakta's heaviness is not held against him by the lifter. Calling-the-burden-stone after taking it would defeat the lifting.
The close: sarva-jñātā tujhyā ālyāvari manā — kelā tō ugāṇā ghaḍalyā dōṣāñchyā — all-knowing one, when you come to mind, the ugāṇā (untying, loosening, redeeming) of committed sins is done. Ugāṇā — to loosen, to untie, to remit — the sins are not destroyed in some violent transaction; they are loosened from the bhakta's account.
For someone today
If you have ever hesitated to approach a refuge because you thought your guṇa-dōṣa would be weighed, your kula-gotra questioned, your āchāra audited — Tukārām's verse is the explicit Vārkarī corrective. Samāna chi kelē — all are treated equal. And the lifter-does-not-call-the-burden-stone image is precise: once you have been taken in, the heaviness you brought will not be used against you by the one who took you. The mechanism of relief is also gentle — ugāṇā (loosening) rather than violent erasure.
Where this applies
- The Vārkarī claim against social-screening at the door of grace
- Asking even for the last place — sēvaṭīmsā dyāvā ṭhāva — without status-claiming
- Trusting that the lifter does not later call the burden a stone
- Coming-to-mind as the loosening of accumulated sins