Abhanga 2660

I saw my own death with my eye — that became an anupamya sōhaḷā (incomparable celebration).

The verse

Literal translation

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 the bhōga happened. 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 — the sūtaka of birth-and-death has been wiped; I have been distanced from my sankōcha (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 one-place-caught-by-ahankāra self. 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-out-the-public and keep-only-the-intimate. This is a usable post-death-celebration ethics.

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)

Related verses

• Abhanga 2448
• Abhanga 2464
• Abhanga 2477 — English: Unceasingly attached, drum-roll in courtyard — holding vaikharī in hand, bhāva sh
• Abhanga 2481