संत साहित्य
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संत साहित्य · Tukārām · Abhanga 2835 of 4582

Abhanga 2835

Anubhave ālē angā — what experience has come to (my) anga (body, self); te yā jagā detasē — that I give to this world.

The canonical my-words-come-from-anubhava poetics statement
Recognizing Tukārām's-words-are-not-hand-touched-perfunctory
Shuddha-rasa — the test of authentic bhakti-utterance

The verse

अनुभवें आलें अंगा । तें या जगा देतसें ॥१॥ नव्हती हाततुके बोल । मूळ ओल अंतरिंची ॥ध्रु.॥ उतरूनि दिलें कशीं । शुद्धरसीं सरे तें ॥२॥ तुका म्हणे दुसरें नाहीं । ऐसी ग्वाही गुजरली ॥३॥

Literal translation

Anubhave ālē angāwhat experience has come to (my) anga (body, self); te yā jagā detasēthat I give to this world. Navhati hāta-tuke bōla(these are) not hāta-tuke (hand-touched, perfunctory) words; mūḷa ōla antarīñcīthe mūḷa (root) of (their) ōla (moisture, sap) is antarīñcī (inner). Utarūnī dile kaśīmuttered-down/put-through the kaśīm (comb, sieve); śuddha-rasīm sare tewith pure-rasa, it works (sare). Tukā says: dusare nāhīthere is no other (like this); aiśī gvāhī gujaralīsuch gvāhī (witness, testimony) has been uttered (gujaralī).

What it means

A short Tukārām-poetics statement. Anubhave ālē angā — te yā jagā detasēwhat experience has come to (my) body — that I give to the world. The foundational-claim: I give what I have experienced; nothing else. (The standard Tukārām self-description; compare anubhava-vāṇathe lance of experience.)

Navhati hāta-tuke bōla — mūḷa ōla antarīñcīnot hand-touched (perfunctory) words; the root of moisture is inner. Hāta-tuketouched-by-handperfunctory, formal, surface-only. His words are not surface-only; their ōla (moisture, sap) has its root inside (antarī).

Utarūnī dile kaśīm — śuddha-rasīm sare teuttered-down through the comb/sieve — with pure-rasa, it works. Kaśīm — perhaps a sieve, comb, or filter. The image: the inner-experience is uttered-down (utarūnī) through a sieve, leaving only the śuddha-rasa (pure-essence). The sieved-essence is what works (sare).

Tukā mhaṇe dusare nāhī — aiśī gvāhī gujaralīTukā: there is no other; such witness has been uttered. The bhakta's-claim: no other-such-testimony exists; this is the genuine-uttered-witness. (Tukārām's-self-witness of his own anubhava.)

For someone today

A canonical Tukārām-poetics statement. Experience has come to (my) body — that I give to the world. (These are) not hand-touched (perfunctory) words — the root of (their) moisture is inner. Uttered-down through the sieve — with pure-rasa, it works. There is no other (such witness) — such testimony has been uttered. Two operative-claims: (1) my words come from anubhava, not from second-hand-knowledge; (2) the sieved śuddha-rasa is what works — not formal-language. This is the anti-paṇḍita anti-fake-guru foundation of Tukārām's bhakti-poetics. (Compare 2833's anubhava-needed; śabdāñce-gauravā-kāmā-naye.) The verse asserts that Tukārām's-words themselves pass-the-test that 2833 demands of others.

Where this applies

Related verses