Abhanga 2785
Strict austerity can secretly leave the mind in league with the senses, while simply chanting the Name openly offers one clear, undistorted essence to hold onto.
The verse
तपासी तें मन करूं पाहे घात । धरोनि सांगात इंद्रियांचा ॥१॥
म्हणोनि कीर्तन आवडलें मज । सांडोनियां लाज हें चि करी ॥ध्रु.॥
पाहातां आगमनिगमाचे ठाव । तेथें नाहीं भाव एकविध ॥२॥
तुका म्हणे येथें नाहीं वो विकार । नाम एक सार विठोबाचें ॥३॥
Literal translation
Tapāsī tē mana karūm pāhē ghāta — thetapas(austerity) mind tries toghāta(destroy, ruin); dharōnī sāngāta indriyāñcā — keeping thesāngāta(company) of theindriyas(senses). Mhaṇōnī kīrtana āvaḍale maja — therefore kīrtana has become dear to me; sāṇḍōniyām lāja hē chi karī — abandoninglāja(shame), this alone I do. Pāhātām āgama-nigamāñce ṭhāva — looking at theāgama-nigama(Vedic-textual-revelation-and-tradition) places; tēthē nāhī bhāva eka-vidha — there is noeka-vidha bhāva(one-fold feeling). Tukā says: yēthē nāhī vō vikāra — here there is novikāra(modification); nāma eka sāra Viṭhōbāñce — the Name is the onesāra(essence) of Viṭhoba.
What it means
A discipline-of-bhakti verse. Tapāsī tē mana karūm pāhē ghāta — dharōnī sāngāta indriyāñcā — the tapas-mind tries to destroy — keeping company with the senses. The diagnostic: the tapas-route — which seems-disciplined — actually keeps company with the senses and tries to destroy. The tapas-mind, by being focused on its tapasvi-task, is unguarded against sense-attractions; meanwhile its tapas-effort itself becomes ghāta-effort (destroying-effort).
The dhrūpada: mhaṇōnī kīrtana āvaḍale maja — sāṇḍōniyām lāja hē chi karī — therefore kīrtana has become dear to me — abandoning lāja (shame), this alone I do. Tukārām's-personal-preference: kīrtana over tapas. Sāṇḍōniyām lāja — abandoning the shame (kīrtana involves public-singing-and-dancing, which is lāja-worthy in formal-religious-decorum). But Tukārām chose this because tapas was destroying.
The second verse: pāhātām āgama-nigamāñce ṭhāva — tēthē nāhī bhāva eka-vidha — looking at the āgama-nigama places — there is no eka-vidha bhāva. Āgama-nigama — the Vedic-revelation and traditional-doctrine — the places-where-formal-religious-authority lives. Tukārām says: there is no one-fold-feeling there. The textual-tradition is multi-vidha (many-fold), not single-fold.
The close: yēthē nāhī vō vikāra — nāma eka sāra Viṭhōbāñce — here there is no vikāra — the Name is the one sāra of Viṭhoba. Yēthē (here, in kīrtana / in Name-practice) — no vikāra (modification). The Name is the one sāra (essence) — eka-sāra.
For someone today
A useful Tukārām-personal-preference statement. The tapas-mind tries to destroy — keeping company with the senses. Therefore kīrtana has become dear to me — abandoning shame, this alone I do. In āgama-nigama, no one-fold feeling. Here no vikāra — the Name is the one sāra of Viṭhoba. The choice is between tapas, which secretly keeps company with the senses and works toward its own destruction, and kīrtana, which costs public shame but carries one-fold devotion. Tukārām chose the latter, openly. The lāja-abandonment is the cost; the eka-vidha-bhāva and eka-sāra-Name is the gain.
मराठी: तुकारामांच्या वैयक्तिक निवडीचं एक उपयुक्त विधान. तपाचं मन नाश करू पाहतं — इंद्रियांची सोबत धरून. म्हणून मला कीर्तन आवडलं — लाज सोडून, हेच मी करतो. आगमनिगमाची ठिकाणं बघितली, तर तिथे एकविध भाव नाही. इथे कुठलाही विकार नाही — विठोबाचं नाम हेच एक सार आहे. निवड अशी आहे — तप, जे गुपचूप इंद्रियांची सोबत धरतं आणि स्वतःच्याच नाशाकडे नेतं, आणि कीर्तन, ज्यात लोकलज्जा जावी लागते पण एकविध भक्ती मिळते. तुकारामांनी दुसरा मार्ग उघडपणे निवडला. लाज सोडणं ही किंमत आहे; एकविध भाव आणि नामाचं एक सार हा फायदा आहे.
Where this applies
- Choosing kīrtana-over-tapas as safer-and-better
- Recognizing that tapas-mind keeps company with the senses and tries to destroy
- The here-no-vikāra-Name-is-eka-sāra canonical-claim
- Abandoning lāja for the public-kīrtana practice