Abhanga 2663
Vitthal is like a mother forever overflowing with milk, never checking the time, never weighing your effort, and never harsh, so love is available the instant you come close.
The verse
सरलें आतां नाहीं । न म्हणे वेळकाळ कांहीं ॥१॥
विठ्ठल कृपाळु माउली । सदा प्रेमें पान्हायेली ॥ध्रु.॥
सीण न विचारी भाग । नव्हे निष्ठ नाहीं राग ॥२॥
भेदाभेद नाहीं । तुका म्हणे तिच्याठायीं ॥३॥
Literal translation
Saralē ātām nāhī — nothing has now run-out; he does not say vēḷa-kāḷa kāmhī (anything about time-or-occasion-being-wrong). Viṭṭhala is the compassionate māulī (mother) — sadā prēmē pānhāyelī (always-overflowing-with-milk in love). No sīṇa (struggle, weariness) does he weigh, no bhāga (toil-section); not niṣṭhura (harsh), no rāga (anger). Bhedābhēda nāhī — no distinction-and-non-distinction — Tukā says — in her place.
What it means
A small Viṭṭhala-as-māulī verse. Saralē ātām nāhī — na mhaṇē veḷa-kāḷa kāmhī — now nothing has run-out; he does not say anything about wrong-time or wrong-occasion. The double claim: supply never depletes, and the timing-rule is never invoked as refusal.
The dhrūpada offers the canonical Vārkarī figure: Viṭhṭhala krpāḷu māulī — sadā prēmē pānhāyelī — Viṭhṭhala is the compassionate māulī — forever-overflowing-with-milk in love. Pānhāyelī — the breast-overflow at nursing — applied to Viṭhṭhala as māulī. The image is unforgettable: the Lord is forever in the milk-letdown state of a nursing-mother, with love as the pānhā (milk).
The second verse: sīṇa na vichārī bhāga — navhe niṣṭhura nāhī rāga — he doesn't weigh the struggle-portion; not harsh, no anger. Three not-properties: no auditing-of-effort, no harshness, no anger. The asker is never asked how much have you worked; the answer-criterion has nothing to do with merit-accumulation.
The close: bhedābhēda nāhī — tichyāṭhāyīm — no bhedābhēda — in her place. The Marathi tichyā-ṭhāyī (in her place, in her-position) names Viṭhṭhala-as-māulī. Bhedābhēda (distinction-and-non-distinction, the technical Vedānta-vocabulary for variations-in-difference-or-identity) does not apply in her place. The mother's-place is beyond the philosophical-distinction-business.
For someone today
The verse offers an unusually generous portrait of the protector: never runs out, never sayswrong-time, forever in milk-letdown, weighs no effort, holds no harshness, holds no anger, does not maintain bhēda. If your image of the protector has been more conditional, harsher, or anger-prone, this verse offers a corrective. The māulī figure is the deep Vārkarī foundation; it makes asking-without-fear possible. Notice especially: sīṇa na vichārī bhāga — he does not weigh the toil-effort. Coming to Viṭhṭhala does not require having-worked-enough; the milk is in letdown regardless.
Where this applies
- A protector-image that is never time-conditional, never effort-conditional
- The Vārkarī māulī-pānhāyelī (mother-overflowing-with-milk) foundation
- Resting from the merit-accumulation anxious-frame
- The mother's-place where bhedābhēda doesn't apply