Abhanga 2716
You can renounce your grip on desire without leaving your home or your life, by letting each craving arrive and pass without holding onto it.
The verse
म्हणऊनि जालों क्षेत्रींचे संन्यासी । चत्ति आशापाशीं आवरूनि ॥१॥
कदापि ही नव्हे सीमा उल्लंघन । केलें विसर्जन आव्हानीं च ॥ध्रु.॥
पारिखा तो आतां जाला दुजा ठाव । दृढ केला भाव एकविध ॥२॥
तुका म्हणे कार्यकारणाचा हेवा । नाहीं जीव देवा समर्पिला ॥३॥
Literal translation
Therefore I have become a kṣetrīñce samnyāsī (place-renouncer); controlling the chitta from āśā-pāśa (desire-bonds). Never have I done sīmā ullanghana (boundary-crossing); the visarjana (dismissal) was done at the āvhāna (invocation) itself. The pārikhā (alien, stranger) — the other place — has now become the second. The bhāva (feeling-orientation) has been drḍha kelā ekavidha (made firm, one-fold). Tukā says: the kārya-kāraṇa hēvā (conflict-of-cause-and-effect) is gone; the jīva has been samarpilā (offered) to Deva.
What it means
A striking self-description verse. Mhaṇa'ūnī jālōm kṣetrīñce samnyāsī — chitta āśā-pāśīm āvarūnī — therefore I have become akṣetra-samnyāsī— controlling the chitta from desire-bonds. Kṣetra-samnyāsī is an unusual self-naming. Kṣetra (place, field) + samnyāsī (renouncer). Compare with the conventional samnyāsī who leaves the place (goes to forest); Tukārām's kṣetra-samnyāsī renounces in-place — at the kṣetra itself.
This is a major theological-positioning: the Vārkarī householder-bhakta is not a forest-renouncer but a place-renouncer — renouncing the desire-bonds while remaining in the kṣetra (which can mean the village, the Pandharī-region, or the bodily-field). The āśā-pāśīm āvarūnī (controlling-from-desire-bonds) is the samnyāsa; the kṣetra (place) is not abandoned.
The dhrūpada: kadāpi hī navhē sīmā ullanghana — kelē visarjana āvhānī chi — never have I crossed the boundary; the visarjana (dismissal-ceremony) was done at the āvhāna (invocation) itself. The image is from temple-ritual: āvhāna is the inviting of the deity into the mūrti at the start of pūjā; visarjana is the dismissing of the deity at the end. Tukārām claims a striking inversion: the visarjana was done at the very moment of āvhāna. Or, alternatively: the desires were invited-and-dismissed in the same breath — they came and went without crossing the sīmā (boundary).
The second verse: pārikhā tō ātām jālā dujā ṭhāva — drḍha kelā bhāva ekavidha — the other place (the alternative) has now become alien (the second); the bhāva has been made firm-one-fold. The alternative-place is pārikhā (alien); the bhakta has consolidated bhāva into ekavidha (one-fold).
The close: kārya-kāraṇa hēvā — nāhī jīva Devā samarpilā — the conflict-of-cause-and-effect (i.e., the action-result transactional anxiety) is gone — I have offered the jīva to Deva. The full samarpaṇa of the jīva ends the kārya-kāraṇa-anxiety.
For someone today
The verse offers a unique Vārkarī description of renunciation: I am a kṣetra-samnyāsī — one who renounces while staying in place. The renunciation is of the bonds of desire, not of the place itself. The boundary has not been crossed; the release of desires happens at the very moment they are invoked. The bhakta has made his devotion firm and single-minded, and has offered his whole being to Deva. This is the Vārkarī alternative to forest renunciation: stay in place, renounce the bonds of desire, and offer up the self. The verse is the theological foundation for the householder-bhakta vocation.
मराठी: हा अभंग वारकरी संन्यासाचं एक वेगळंच वर्णन देतो: 'मी क्षेत्र-संन्यासी आहे — जागा न सोडता संन्यास घेणारा'. हा त्याग जागेचा नसून वासनांच्या बंधनांचा आहे. मर्यादा कधीच ओलांडली गेली नाही; वासनांचं विसर्जन त्यांच्या आवाहनाच्या क्षणीच होतं. भक्तानं आपला भाव एकनिष्ठ आणि दृढ केला आहे, आणि आपला जीव देवाला समर्पित केला आहे. वनात जाऊन संन्यास घेण्याऐवजी वारकरी हा पर्याय स्वीकारतो: जागी राहावं, वासनांचे बंध सोडावेत, आणि जीव अर्पण करावा. हा अभंग गृहस्थ-भक्ताच्या जीवनपद्धतीचा तात्त्विक पाया आहे.
Where this applies
- The unique kṣetra-samnyāsī (place-renouncer) Vārkarī self-naming
- Combining householder-status with renouncer-discipline
- Āvhāna-visarjana-in-the-same-breath — desires invited-and-dismissed without crossing the boundary
- The jīva offered to Deva as the close of kārya-kāraṇa anxiety