Abhanga 2661

I have bōḷavilā (sent off, escorted-out) the body by my own hand — the bhūtas (the five elements) have been offered (hutāśilīm) into the brahmāgni (brahma-fire).

The verse

Literal translation

What it means

The third abhang of the 4-verse self-cremation sequence continues with the post-cremation rituals. Bōḷavilā deha āpulēnī hātē — hutāśilīm bhūtē brahmāgnīsī — I sent off the body by my own hand — the bhūtas (five-elements) were offered into the brahma-fire. The bhūtas are the five elements that constitute the body (earth, water, fire, air, ether); in real funeral-rites, each element returns to its source. Here, the bhakta offers all five into brahmāgni (the fire-of-brahma) — they go directly to brahma, not to their separate elemental sources.

The dhrūpada: ekā-vēḷē jālēm sakaḷa kāraṇa — ātām Nārāyaṇa Nārāyaṇa — at one-time the entire cause has been done — now Nārāyaṇa, Nārāyaṇa. Sakaḷa kāraṇa (the whole cause-of-samsāra) has been resolved at one-stroke (ekā-vēḷē). All that remains is the Name — said twice for emphasis.

The second verse: amrta-samjīvanī nivavilī khāī — angē tayē ṭhāyī hārapalīm — the immortality-samjīvanī (resurrecting-elixir) cooled the cremation-pit; the body-parts disappeared in that place. Amrta-samjīvanī — the legendary herb that revives the dead — has cooled the khāī (cremation-trench). The body-parts have not been burned-away; they have hārapalī (disappeared) into the immortality-cool.

The third verse names the calendar: Ekādaśī-vidhi jāgaraṇa upavāsa — bārāvā divasa bhōjanāchā — the Ekādaśī-vidhi vigil-fast; the 12th day is the feast. In Vārkarī observance, Ekādaśī (the 11th lunar day) is the canonical-fast-day; the 12th day breaks the fast with food. Tukārām maps the post-funeral ritual-calendar onto this Vārkarī observance: the 11th day's vigil-fast and the 12th day's feast.

The fourth verse: avaghīm karmē jālīm ghaṭa-spōṭāpāśī — sambandha ēkē sī uralā nāmīm — all karmas have been done near the pot-bursting; the one-relationship that remains is in the Name. The ghaṭa-spōṭa (pot-bursting, from 2659) was the moment of release; from that moment, only the Name-relationship remains.

The close: ānandīm ānandu — Govindīm Govindu vistāralā — bliss in bliss; Govinda has spread in Govinda. The final-state is the recursion of bliss-in-bliss, Govinda-in-Govinda — no separation, no distance, only the spreading-out of the same into itself.

For someone today

This verse hands you a striking image: all five elements of the body offered into brahma-fire, the immortality-samjīvanī cools the cremation-pit, the body disappears (doesn't burn-into-ashes), and Govinda spreads in Govinda. The contemplative-conclusion is that the bhakta who performs his own anta-karma is not annihilated; he is amrta-samjīvanī-cooled — the elements are not destroyed but returned-to-brahma-fire, which is the source. The mapping onto Ekādaśī-vidhi grounds the symbolic-funeral in the Vārkarī's actual practice: the fast-and-vigil is the inner-equivalent of the post-funeral 11th-day rite. Sambandha ēkēsī uralā nāmīm — the one-relationship that remains is in the Name — names what survives the symbolic-cremation.

Where this applies

• The post-cremation phase of the inner-funeral vision
• Mapping the Ekādaśī-vidhi vigil-fast onto symbolic anta-karma
• Govinda spreading in Govinda as the final-state recursion
• Recognizing that the one-relationship-that-remains is the Name-relationship

Related verses

• Abhanga 2659 — This is not a meditation-on-mortality in the conventional sense. It is the more radical cl
• Abhanga 2374
• Abhanga 2377 — English: Gentle, sweet bāla-rūpa — that form from Kāḷī-time.
• Abhanga 2387