Abhanga 2653
The verse offers a witness-stance model. After disengagement from worldly-intoxication, the right posture is not isolation but nirāḷā-watching — staying-apart but watching the kavataka (spectacle, delight) with the eye, making vinōda (playful-jest) of the rhythm. The diagnostic-sign of those still-inside samsāra is in the eye — mājirē (drunken-glazed). You can recognize this in others without contempt; the witness simply sees what is there. And the claim about māthā kōṇī nuchalī sarvathā — no one lifts my head — is a quiet declaration of autonomy from human-authority. The head, when it is lifted, is lifted by the protector, not by any social-positioning.
The verse
राहिलों निराळा । पाहों कवतुक डोळां ॥१॥
करूं जगाचा विनोद । डोळां पाहोनियां छंद ॥ध्रु.॥
भुललिया संसारें । आलें डोळ्यासी माजिरें ॥२॥
तुका म्हणे माथा । कोणी नुचली सर्वथा ॥३॥
Literal translation
I have stayed nirāḷā (apart, separate); let me watch kavataka (delight, spectacle) with the eye. Let us make a vinōda (jest) of the world — see the rhythm with the eye. Those bhulaliyā samsārēm (deluded by samsāra) — the mājirē (intoxicated, blunted-eyed) has come to their eye. Tukā says: nobody has nuchalī (lifted) my head — not at all.
What it means
A small witness-stance verse. Rāhilōm nirāḷā — I have stayed apart. The opening declares the position: nirāḷā — separate, detached, apart-from. From this position: pāhō kavataka ḍōḷām — let me watch the delight (kavataka = spectacle, wonder) with the eye. The world's events are watched, not entered into.
The dhrūpada extends: karūm jagāchā vinōda — ḍōḷām pāhōniyām chanda — let us make a vinōda (jest, playful-watching) of the world — see the rhythm (chanda) with the eye. Vinōda — playful-watching, amused-witnessing — is the right stance. The world is chanda — rhythmic, patterned, performative — and the witness sees the rhythm without joining the dance.
The second verse names what is happening to those who haven't stayed apart: bhulaliyā samsārēm — ālē ḍōḷyāsī mājirē — those deluded by samsāra — the mājirē (intoxicated-eye) has come to their eye. Mājirē — intoxicated, blunted, drunkenly-glazed. The somatic-symptom of samsāra-delusion shows in the eye — a mājirē glaze. The witness can see this.
The close is a striking line: māthā — kōṇī nuchalī sarvathā — my head — nobody has lifted (nuchalī) at all. Māthā uchalaṇē — lifting the head — is the gesture of being-honored, being-elevated by another. Tukārām's claim: no human authority has lifted my head. The bhakta's autonomy from human-authority is total. (Compare with 2598's baḷiyāñchīm āmhī bāḷēm — we are children of the Mighty One — the head-lifter, when there is one, is Pāṇḍuranga, not any human.)
For someone today
The verse offers a witness-stance model. After disengagement from worldly-intoxication, the right posture is not isolation but nirāḷā-watching — staying-apart but watching the kavataka (spectacle, delight) with the eye, making vinōda (playful-jest) of the rhythm. The diagnostic-sign of those still-inside samsāra is in the eye — mājirē (drunken-glazed). You can recognize this in others without contempt; the witness simply sees what is there. And the claim about māthā kōṇī nuchalī sarvathā — no one lifts my head — is a quiet declaration of autonomy from human-authority. The head, when it is lifted, is lifted by the protector, not by any social-positioning.
Where this applies
- The witness-stance after disengagement from worldly-intoxication
- Recognizing the mājirē-eye in those still-deluded, without contempt
- Vinōda-pāhaṇē — playful-watching of the world's rhythm
- The autonomy from human-authority for head-lifting