Abhanga 2759
True surrender means giving up everything you cling to, and in return, peace, forgiveness, and compassion arrive as gifts, not achievements.
The verse
सर्वस्वा मुकावें तेणें हरीसी जिंकावें । अर्थ प्राण जीवें देहत्याग ॥१॥
मोह ममता माया चाड नाहीं चिंता । विषयकंदुवेथा जाळूनियां ॥ध्रु.॥
लोकलज्जा दंभ आणि अहंकार । करूनि मत्सर देशधडी ॥२॥
शांति क्षमा दया सखिया विनउनी । मूळ चक्रपाणी धाडी त्यांसी ॥३॥
तुका म्हणे याती अक्षरें अभिमान । सांडोनिया शरण रिघें संतां ॥४॥
Literal translation
Sarvasvā mukāve teṇē Harīsī jiñkāve — bymukāve sarvasvā(giving-up everything), onejiñkāve Harīsī(wins Hari); artha prāṇa jīvē dehatyāga — wealth, breath, jīva, body-abandonment. Mōha mamatā māyā chāḍa nāhī chintā — attachment, possessiveness, illusion — no concern, no worry; viṣaya-kandu-vethā jāḷūniyā — burning theviṣaya-kandu-vethā(sense-itch-pain). Loka-lajjā dambha āṇi ahankāra — worldly-shame, religious-pride, and ego; karūnī matsara dēśa-dhaḍī — also matsara (envy) — making (them)dēśa-dhaḍī(exiled from the land). Śānti kṣamā dayā sakhiyā vinaunī — peace, forgiveness, compassion — invoking (these) assakhī(girlfriends); mūḷa Chakrapāṇī dhāḍī tyāmsī — Chakrapāṇi sends them as messengers. Tukā says: yātī akṣarē abhimāna — yātī-akṣara-pride (pride in caste-and-scripture); sāṇḍōnīyā śaraṇa righem santām — abandoning, take refuge in the sants.
What it means
A 5-verse full-stakes prayer. Sarvasvā mukāve teṇē Harīsī jiñkāve — artha prāṇa jīvē dehatyāga — by giving-up everything, one conquers Hari — wealth, breath, jīva, body-abandonment. The opening covenant: jiñkāve Harīsī — to win Hari — requires mukāve sarvasvā — giving-up everything. The verb jiñkāve (win, conquer) is striking — one wins Hari by full-relinquishment. The list of four: artha (wealth), prāṇa (breath), jīva (life-essence), deha-tyāga (body-abandonment).
The dhrūpada extends the burn-list: mōha mamatā māyā chāḍa nāhī chintā — viṣaya-kandu-vethā jāḷūniyā — attachment, possessiveness, illusion — no concern, no worry; burning the viṣaya-itch. Viṣaya-kandu — the sense-itch — is vethā — pain. Burn it.
The second verse names the exile-list: loka-lajjā dambha āṇi ahankāra — karūnī matsara dēśa-dhaḍī — worldly-shame, religious-pride, and ego — also matsara — exile them from the land. Dēśa-dhaḍī — exile from the land — the technical word for banishment. Four enemies named: loka-lajjā (worldly-shame), dambha (religious-pride), ahankāra (ego), matsara (envy).
The third verse describes the replacements: śānti kṣamā dayā sakhiyā vinaunī — mūḷa Chakrapāṇī dhāḍī tyāmsī — peace, forgiveness, compassion — invoking (these) as girlfriends; Chakrapāṇi sends them as messengers. The three replacements — śānti, kṣamā, dayā — are named as sakhī (girlfriends, close-companions). And the agent of their arrival is Chakrapāṇi — the Lord himself sends them as messengers (mūḷa = source, root, here = origin-messenger).
The close: yātī akṣarē abhimāna — sāṇḍōnīyā śaraṇa righem santām — yātī-akṣara-pride — abandoning, take refuge in the sants. The final-removal-item: yātī-akṣara-abhimāna — pride in caste-and-scripture-eligibility. (Compare 2755's śūdra-vamśī mōkalilōm dambhē — released from religious-pride by being śūdra-vamśī.) The action: refuge in the sants.
For someone today
A useful full-stakes covenant-prayer. By giving-up everything (wealth, breath, jīva, body-abandonment), one wins Hari. Burn the mōha-mamatā-māyā, the viṣaya-itch. Exile from the land: worldly-shame, religious-pride, ego, envy. Invoke śānti, kṣamā, dayā as girlfriends — Chakrapāṇi sends them. Abandon yātī-akṣara-pride — take refuge in the sants. The structure: give-up-list + burn-list + exile-list + invoke-list + refuge. The bhakti-economy is sharp: the replacements come from the Lord, not from self-cultivation; one only does the abandonment.
Where this applies
- When you're clinging to wealth or status as if letting go would cost you everything
- When jealousy or ego keeps creeping into your devotion or your relationships
- When you worry more about what people think of your faith than about the faith itself
- When you feel proud of your birth, caste, or scriptural knowledge and it's getting in the way of humility