Abhanga 2805
Mājhe pāya tujhī ḍōīm — my feet — your head; aise karīm gā — bhāka deī — do thus — give the bhāka (promise).
The verse
माझे पाय तुझी डोईं । ऐसें करिं गा भाक देई ॥१॥
पाहतां तंव उफराटें । घडे तईं भाग्य मोठें ॥ध्रु.॥
बहु साधन मोलाच । यासी जोडा दुजें कैचें ॥२॥
नका अनमानूं विठ्ठला । तुका म्हणे धडा जाला ॥३॥
Literal translation
Mājhe pāya tujhī ḍōīm — my feet — your head; aise karīm gā — bhāka deī — do thus — give the bhāka (promise). Pāhātām tanva upharāṭē — looking thus — upharāṭe (upside-down); ghaḍe taī bhāgya mōṭhe — happens then — great bhāgya (fortune). Bahu sādhana mōlāñca — many sādhana (paths) of mōla (price); yāsī jōḍā dujē kaiñce — how to join the dujē (second, another)? Tukā says: nakā anamānūm Viṭhṭhala — don't anamānūm (refuse, hesitate-and-decline), Viṭhṭhala; dhaḍā jālā — the dhaḍā (verdict, settled-thing) has been made.
What it means
A striking upside-down-relationship request-prayer. Mājhe pāya tujhī ḍōīm — aise karīm gā bhāka deī — my feet, your head — do thus — give the promise. The image is unusual: my-feet-(on)-your-head — the bhakta's-feet on the Lord's-head. This is the upside-down arrangement. The bhakta asks the Lord to give the bhāka (promise) of this arrangement.
The dhrūpada: pāhātām tanva upharāṭē — ghaḍe taī bhāgya mōṭhe — looking — (it appears) upside-down — happens then — great fortune. The acknowledgment: yes, this looks upside-down (conventionally, the bhakta's-head is at the Lord's-feet, not vice-versa). But when this upside-down arrangement happens, great-fortune occurs.
The second verse: bahu sādhana mōlāñca — yāsī jōḍā dujē kaiñce — there are many sādhana of price — how to join the second (to it)? The other-paths-of-spiritual-discipline are expensive (mōlāñca = costly). The bhakta asks: how would one even add the second (or, join one to another)? The bhakti-shortcut bypasses-the-cost.
The close: nakā anamānūm Viṭhṭhala — dhaḍā jālā — don't refuse-and-decline, Viṭhṭhala — the verdict has been made. Anamānūm (refuse, decline, demur). Dhaḍā — settled-decision, verdict, fixed-arrangement. The bhakta claims: the verdict is already-in; don't refuse it.
For someone today
A useful upside-down-request prayer. My feet, your head — do this; give the promise. Looking, it appears upside-down — yet then great fortune happens. Many sādhana are costly — how to join the second? Don't refuse, Viṭhṭhala — the verdict has been made. The verse permits an unusual-arrangement-request: the upside-down posture — which conventionally seems wrong — actually-produces great fortune in bhakti. The bhakta-feet-on-the-Lord's-head image is the bhakti-claim of Lord-bearing-the-bhakta-up-on-himself.
Where this applies
- The upside-down-relationship-prayer
- Recognizing that the upside-down arrangement produces great-fortune
- The don't-refuse-the-verdict covenant-claim
- The bhakti-shortcut bypassing the bahu-sādhana-mōlāñca (costly-multiplicity-of-paths)