Abhanga 2828
Being wholly absorbed in beholding what you love can empty out ordinary self-consciousness, letting your body act on its own while your awareness rests entirely elsewhere.
The verse
मुख डोळां पाहे । तैशी च ते उभी राहे ॥१॥
केल्याविण नव्हे हातीं । धरोनि आरती परती ॥ध्रु.॥
न धरिती मनीं । कांहीं संकोच दाटणी ॥२॥
तुका म्हणें देवें । ओस केल्या देहभावें ॥३॥
Literal translation
Mukha ḍōḷām pāhe — (she) looks (at the child) from mouth-and-eyes; taiśī cha tē ubhī rāhe — (she) stands-still just-like-that. Kelyāviṇa navhe hātī — (her) hand is not-without-doing; dharōnī āratī paratī — holding theāratī— (she) doesn't-pause (paratī = doesn't-turn-away). Na dharitī manī — (they) do not hold in (their) mind; kāmhī sankochā dāṭaṇī — anysankochā(constriction, modesty)dāṭaṇī(pressure). Tukā says: Devē — ōsa kelyā deha-bhāvē — by Deva — (he) has madedeha-bhāva(body-consciousness)ōsa(deserted, emptied).
What it means
A continuation of the Krṣṇa-janma 5-abhang cluster (2826-2830). This is the 3rd-stanza of the cluster (after the birth-narrative at 2826 and the women's-akṣa-vāne welcoming at 2827). It captures the frozen-women's-gaze at the baby-Krṣṇa darśana.
Mukha ḍōḷām pāhe — taiśī cha tē ubhī rāhe — (she) looks from mouth-and-eyes — stands-still just-like-that. The Gokula-woman who-came-to-see-the-newborn is now frozen-in-place — looking from mukha-ḍōḷām (face-and-eyes) at the bāḷa-Krṣṇa, she stands-still in that very-position.
Kelyāviṇa navhe hātī — dharōnī āratī paratī — (her) hand is not-without-doing; holding theāratī— (she) doesn't-pause (turn-away). She is performing āratī (the lamp-circling-ritual) — but in the trance-of-darśana her hand continues mechanically; she does-not-pause (turn-away).
Na dharitī manī — kāmhī sankochā dāṭaṇī — (they) don't hold any sankochā (modesty-constriction) pressure in mind. In the trance-of-bhāva, the social-modesty-pressure (sankochā) is abolished — they do not hold-it-back.
Tukā mhaṇe Devē — ōsa kelyā deha-bhāvē — Tukā: by Deva — (he) has madedeha-bhāva(body-consciousness) ōsa (deserted, emptied). The diagnostic-close: Deva has emptied-out their body-consciousness. Ōsa kelyā (made-deserted) — the body-consciousness is evacuated; only darśana-trance remains.
For someone today
This verse, part of Tukaram's cluster of poems on Krishna's birth, captures the frozen gaze of a woman lost in the sight of the newborn Krishna. She stands utterly still, eyes fixed on his face, even as her hand keeps circling the ceremonial lamp almost on its own, without pausing. In that trance of adoration, all the usual self-consciousness and modesty simply falls away, no one holds back or feels awkward. Tukaram closes with the deeper point: God himself has emptied out their ordinary sense of body and self. The lesson is that being wholly absorbed in beholding what you love can empty out ordinary self-consciousness, letting your body carry on almost by itself while your awareness rests entirely somewhere else.
मराठी: कृष्णजन्माच्या तुकारामांच्या अभंगमालिकेतील हा एक भाग आहे, ज्यात नवजात कृष्णाच्या दर्शनात हरवलेल्या स्त्रीची स्तब्ध नजर टिपली आहे. ती पूर्णपणे स्थिर उभी आहे, डोळे त्याच्या मुखावर खिळलेले आहेत, तरीही तिचा हात जणू स्वतःहूनच आरती ओवाळत राहतो, न थांबता. त्या भक्तिमय समाधीत नेहमीची लाजाळूपणा आणि आत्मभान पूर्णपणे विरून जाते, कोणीही अवघडलेपणा किंवा संकोच बाळगत नाही. तुकाराम शेवटी एक खोलवरचा मुद्दा मांडतात — देवानेच त्यांचे देहभान रिते करून टाकले आहे. यातून हेच शिकायला मिळते की जे आवडते त्यात पूर्णपणे बुडून जाणे नेहमीचे आत्मभान संपवून टाकते, आणि शरीर जणू स्वतःहूनच चालत राहते, तर मन कुठेतरी वेगळीकडेच गुंतलेले असते.
Where this applies
- The Janmāṣṭamī cluster continuation (2826-2830, 3rd verse)
- Recognizing the Krṣṇa-darśana suspends-deha-bhāva canonical image
- Women's-frozen-gaze at the baby-Krṣṇa darśana
- The bhakti-claim: the Lord empties body-consciousness in darśana-trance