Abhanga 3193
The deepest relations skip protocol. Love-embrace first, formal-bow later. Don't always make yourself explain your fatigue — there are some relationships where it is known, and food arrives unasked.
The verse
प्रेमभेटी आळिंगण । मग चरण वंदावे ॥१॥
ऐसामाझा भोळा बाप । हरी ताप कवळोनि ॥ध्रु.॥
न संगतां सीण भाग । पांडुरंग जाणतसे ॥२॥
तुका म्हणे कृपावंतें । द्यावें, भातें न मागतां ॥३॥
Literal translation
Prēmabhēṭī āḷingaṇa — maga charaṇa vandāvem — first prema-bhēṭī, āḷingana — then bow the feet. Aisā mājhā bhōḷā bāpa — Harī tāpa kavaḷōnī — such (is) my bhōḷā bāpa — Hari, by clasping-down tāpa. Na samgatām sīṇa-bhāga — Pāṇḍuranga jāṇatasē — without telling, the sīṇa-bhāga — Pāṇḍuranga knows. Tukā mhaṇe krpāvantēm — dyāvem, bhātēm na māgatām — Tukā says: by the krpāvanta — let (it) be given — bhāte (food) without asking.
What it means
A 4-verse text that deliberately reverses ritual order. Standard protocol is to bow the feet first, then perhaps be embraced. Tukārām: prema-bhēṭī and āḷingana first — then the feet-bow. Why? Because his Lord is a bhōḷā bāpa — an innocent / open / unguarded father — who, the moment he sees the child, clasps the heat (tāpa) of samsāra down by embrace. The line na samgatām Pāṇḍuranga jāṇatasē (without telling, he knows) and the close give the food without (my) asking complete the picture: this is family, not court.
For someone today
The deepest relations skip protocol. Love-embrace first, formal-bow later. Don't always make yourself explain your fatigue — there are some relationships where it is known, and food arrives unasked.
Where this applies
- Tukārām's bhōḷā-bāpa-Hari; embrace-before-bow; food-without-asking canonical
- Companion to 2597 (tūm-mājhī-māulī) and 2891 (reciprocal family-relation)