Abhanga 2666
A useful post-effort-rest verse. No fear after the service has been done; the mind should hold firm-resolve; no break in contemplation; no one has been refused here; king and pauper are equal at the feet. The diagnostic-test for whether one is at the right address is in the verse: has anyone been refused here? If even yāchakas (askers) have been met by compassion, the place is genuine. And the rāyā-rankā-sarī (king-pauper-equal) claim is the deepest egalitarian-foundation: at the feet, the sarī (equality) is real, not rhetorical.
The verse
आतां भय नाहीं ऐसें वाटे जीवा । घडलिया सेवा समर्थाची ॥१॥
आतां माझ्या मनें धरावा निर्धार । चिंतनीं अंतर न पडावें ॥ध्रु.॥
येथें नाहीं जाली कोणांची निरास । आल्या याचकास कृपेविशीं ॥२॥
तुका म्हणे येथें नाहीं दुजी परी । राया रंका सरी देवा पायीं ॥३॥
Literal translation
Now no fear, it seems to the jīva — the Master's service has been done. Now let my mind hold nirdhāra (firm-resolve); let no antara (interval, break) fall in contemplation. Here no one's nirāsa (hope-ending-in-disappointment) has happened — for any yāchaka (asker), by way-of compassion. Tukā says: here there is no other mode — rāyā rankā sarī Devā pāyīm (king and pauper are equal at Deva's feet).
What it means
A small post-service-rest verse. Ātām bhaya nāhī aisē vāṭē jīvā — ghaḍaliyā sēvā samarthāñchī — now no fear, it seems to the jīva — the Master's service has been done. The bhakta has performed the samartha (powerful one's) sēvā (service); the fear-of-failure has settled. Aisē vāṭē — it seems thus — is honest: not a triumphant declaration but a settled-impression.
The dhrūpada: ātām mājhyā manē dharāvā nirdhāra — chintanīm antara na paḍāvē — now let my mind hold firm-resolve; let no break fall in contemplation. The maintenance-instruction: keep nirdhāra (firm-resolve) and let no antara (break) interrupt chintana (contemplation). The post-arrival mode is not no-effort; it is continuous-no-break.
The second verse: yēthē nāhī jālī kōṇāñchī nirāsa — āliyā yāchakāsa krpēvīśī — here no one's hope has been disappointed — to the comer-asker, by compassion. Nirāsa — disappointment, hope-falling-flat — has not happened to anyone here. Every yāchaka (asker) has been met by krpā (compassion).
The close has one of Tukārām's most-quoted egalitarian-lines: yēthē nāhī dujī parī — rāyā rankā sarī Devā pāyīm — here there is no other-mode; king and pauper are equal at Deva's feet. Rāyā rankā sarī — king and pauper are equal — has entered popular Marathi as a proverb. The single Devā pāyīm (at Deva's feet) is the equalizing-condition.
For someone today
A useful post-effort-rest verse. No fear after the service has been done; the mind should hold firm-resolve; no break in contemplation; no one has been refused here; king and pauper are equal at the feet. The diagnostic-test for whether one is at the right address is in the verse: has anyone been refused here? If even yāchakas (askers) have been met by compassion, the place is genuine. And the rāyā-rankā-sarī (king-pauper-equal) claim is the deepest egalitarian-foundation: at the feet, the sarī (equality) is real, not rhetorical.
Where this applies
- The post-service settled-mode of no-fear, hold-firm-resolve, no-break-in-contemplation
- Trusting that no asker has been refused at the right address
- The rāyā-rankā-sarī egalitarian claim — king-and-pauper equal at the feet
- The diagnostic for genuine refuge — yēthē nāhī jālī kōṇāñchī nirāsa