Abhanga 2660
Letting the small, self-important ego die can feel like a celebration rather than a loss, freeing you from shrinking self-consciousness and settling you at home in the divine.
The verse
आपुलें मरण पाहिलें म्यां डोळां । तो जाला सोहळा अनुपम्य ॥१॥
आनंदे दाटलीं तिन्ही त्रिभुवनें । सर्वात्मकपणें भोग जाला ॥ध्रु.॥
एकदेशीं होतों अहंकारें आथिला । त्याच्या त्यागें जाला सुकाळ हा ॥२॥
फिटलें सुतक जन्ममरणाचें । मी माझ्या संकोचें दुरी जालों ॥३॥
नारायणें दिला वस्तीस ठाव । ठेवूनियां भाव ठेलों पायीं ॥४॥
तुका म्हणे दिलें उमटूनि जगीं । घेतलें तें अंगीं लावूनियां ॥५॥
Literal translation
I saw my own death with my eye — that became an anupamya sōhaḷā (incomparable celebration). Joy filled the three worlds; by sarvātmaka-paṇē (being-all-self) the bhōga (experience-enjoyment) happened. I was at eka-dēśī (one-place) — āthilā (caught) by ahankāra; by its renunciation, this sukāḷa (fullness, prosperity-time) has come. The sūtaka (birth-and-death pollution-period) has been wiped; I have been distanced from my sankōcha (shrinking-shyness). Nārāyaṇa has given a place of vasati (residence); placing the bhāva, I stayed at the feet. Tukā says: I gave what was umaṭūnī (manifested-out) in the world; I took what was angīm lāvūnī (applied-to-the-body).
What it means
This is the climactic abhang of the 4-verse self-cremation sequence — Tukārām's most-quoted line in this register: āpulēm maraṇa pāhilēm myām ḍōḷām — tō jālā sōhaḷā anupamya — I saw my own death with my eye — and it became an incomparable celebration. The death-witnessed-by-the-living-bhakta is not a horror but a sōhaḷā — a celebration, a festival, a wedding-day. Anupamya — incomparable.
The dhrūpada: ānandē dāṭalīm tinhīm tribhuvanē — sarvātmaka-paṇē bhōga jālā — joy filled the three worlds; by being-all-self thebhōgahappened. The bhōga (experience-enjoyment) is no longer single-located in the bhakta's body; it is sarvātmaka-paṇē — by being-all-self — distributed across all three worlds. The death of the one-place-bhakta released the all-self bhōga.
The second verse names the cause: eka-dēśī hōtōm ahankārē āthilā — tyāñchyā tyāgēm jālā sukāḷa hā — I was at one-place, caught by ahankāra; by its renunciation, this fullness has come. The one-place-ness of ahankāra-caught-self was the problem. Once released, the sukāḷa (prosperity-time, fullness) arrived.
The third verse: fiṭalēm sūtaka janma-maraṇāñchē — mī mājhyā sankōchē durī jālōm — thesūtakaof birth-and-death has been wiped; I have been distanced from mysankōcha(shrinking-shyness). Sūtaka is the ritual-pollution-period that follows a birth or a death in the family. The bhakta has wiped the sūtaka of his own birth-and-death — by performing his own anta-karma while living. Sankōcha — the shrinking-shyness of the small-self — has been left behind.
The fourth verse: Nārāyaṇē dilā vasatīsa ṭhāva — ṭhēvūniyām bhāva ṭhēlōm pāyī — Nārāyaṇa gave a place of residence; placing the bhāva, I stayed at the feet. The bhakta who has died-to-himself is given a vasati (residence) by Nārāyaṇa — the new-home is the feet, with bhāva placed there.
The close: dilēm umaṭūnī jagī — ghētalē tē angīm lāvūniyām — I gave what was manifested in the world — I took what was applied to the body. The economy of the new-life: I give what was umaṭūnī (manifested-out) in the world; I take what was angīm lāvūniyā (applied-to-the-body, anointed). A complete reversal of ordinary commerce — give the public-manifestation, take only the intimate-application.
For someone today
The verse offers the most-quoted line in this register: I saw my own death with my eye — and it became an incomparable celebration. The celebration is not over a different person's death; it is over the death of the self that was caught in one place by ahankāra. By that death, joy fills the three worlds — not the small self alone. The diagnostic-sign of this state is named: I have been distanced from my own sankōcha — shrinking-shyness. The sūtaka of birth-and-death (the ritual-pollution that we normally observe for relatives) has been wiped for one's own birth-and-death — meaning, the bhakta is no longer in any sūtaka of these events.
The final-line economy is striking: give what is manifested in the world; take only what is applied to the body. The new-life's commerce is to give away what is public and keep only what is intimate. This is a usable post-death-celebration ethics.
मराठी: हा अभंग या नोंदीतील सर्वाधिक उद्धृत ओळ देतो: मी माझे स्वतःचे मरण डोळ्यांनी पाहिले — आणि ते एक अनुपम्य सोहळा झाला. हा सोहळा दुसऱ्या कोणाच्या मरणाचा नाही; तो अहंकाराने एका जागी अडकलेल्या स्वतःच्या मरणाचा आहे. त्या मरणाने तिन्ही त्रिभुवनांत आनंद दाटतो — केवळ लहान अहंकारी स्वतःपुरता नाही. या अवस्थेचे लक्षण असे सांगितले आहे: मी माझ्या संकोचापासून दूर झालो — म्हणजे संकोच, लाजाळू लहानपणा. जन्म-मरणाचे सुतक (जे आपण नातेवाइकांसाठी नेहमी पाळतो) स्वतःच्या जन्म-मरणासाठी फिटले आहे — म्हणजे भक्त आता या घटनांच्या कोणत्याही सुतकात राहत नाही.
शेवटच्या ओळीतील हिशेब लक्षणीय आहे: जगात जे प्रकट झाले ते दिले; जे अंगाला लावले तेच घेतले. नव्या जीवनाचा व्यवहार असा आहे — जे सार्वजनिक आहे ते द्यावे आणि जे आंतरिक, जिव्हाळ्याचे आहे तेवढेच स्वतःजवळ ठेवावे. मृत्यूनंतरच्या या सोहळ्याची ही एक उपयोगी नीती आहे.
Where this applies
- The mystical-recognition of seeing one's own death and finding it incomparable celebration
- Realizing that the one-place-ahankāra-self was the locus of all the sankōcha
- The post-rebirth ethics: give-the-public, take-only-the-intimate
- The climactic statement of the 4-verse self-cremation sequence (2659-2662)