Abhanga 2647
Like at the upāsa (fast)'s end, meeting with food — let my embrace fall on the feet that way.
The verse
उपासा सेवटीं अन्नासवें भेटी । तैसी माझी मिठी पडो पायीं ॥१॥
पुरवीं वासना साच सर्वजाणा । आम्हां नारायणा अंकिताची ॥ध्रु.॥
बहुदिसां पुत्रामातेमध्यें भेटीं । तैसा दाटो पोटीं प्रीतिउभोड ॥२॥
तुका म्हणे धन कृपणा सोयरें । यापरि दुसरें नहो आतां ॥३॥
Literal translation
Like at the upāsa (fast)'s end, meeting with food — let my embrace fall on the feet that way. Fulfill the wish, truly, all-knower — we are ankitāñchī (the marked-ones, your-stamped-ones), Nārāyaṇa. After many days, between mother and son — let prīti-ubhōḍa (love-overflowing) pack the belly that way. Tukā says: wealth is the krpaṇa (miser)'s sōyarā (kinsman) — besides this, let no other be now.
What it means
A small reunion-triptych verse — three different kinds of total-meeting compressed into one prayer. Upāsā sēvaṭīm annāsavē bhēṭī — taisī mājhī miṭhī paḍō pāyīm — like at the fast's-end, meeting with food — let my embrace fall on the feet that way. The upavāsa-pāraṇā meeting — the first bite after a fast — is total: hunger and food meet without delay or restraint. The bhakta asks his foot-embrace to be this total.
The dhrūpada anchors the petition: puravīm vāsanā sācha sarvajñā — āmhām Nārāyaṇā ankitāñchī — fulfill the wish truly, all-knower — we are ankita (marked-ones, stamped-ones) of Nārāyaṇa. Ankita — marked, stamped, branded-as-belonging — the bhakta's ownership-claim. We have already been marked as yours; therefore fulfill the wish.
The second verse offers the second image: bahudisām putrāmātēmadhyē bhēṭī — taisā dāṭō pōṭīm prīti-ubhōḍa — after many days, mother and son meeting — let prīti-ubhōḍa (love-overflowing) pack the belly that way. The mother-son-after-long-absence meeting is the second image: belly-packed with overflowing-love.
The close offers the third image: dhana krpaṇā sōyarē — yāpari dusarē nahō ātām — wealth is the miser's kinsman — besides this (like this), let no other be now. The miser-and-wealth meeting is the third image: total recognition-of-kinship between two who are made-for-each-other. Sōyarā (kinsman by blood-or-by-marriage) — the strongest kinship-word. The miser sees wealth as sōyarā; the bhakta asks his meeting with the Lord to be that.
Three images of total-meeting layered: (1) physical hunger meeting food, (2) emotional mother meeting son, (3) constitutional miser meeting wealth. Each is a different kind of total — bodily, emotional, constitutional. The bhakta asks the foot-embrace to be all three at once.
For someone today
When you must articulate what kind of meeting you are asking for, this verse offers a useful triptych: (1) like the fast-end-meeting-food; (2) like mother-and-son after long absence; (3) like the miser meeting his wealth. The three images cover the bodily, the emotional, and the constitutional dimensions of total-meeting. Each names a different un-pretendable total. And the warrant is ankitāñchī — we are already your marked-ones. The asking is not from a stranger but from the already-stamped.
Where this applies
- A reunion-prayer that names the kind of meeting asked for
- The ankita (already-marked-as-yours) claim as the warrant for petition
- Triptych emotional-bodily-constitutional total-meeting
- Recognizing the sōyarā (kinsman) quality in the relationship to grace