Abhanga 3565
Some devotees don't seek to merge completely with the divine and disappear, they treasure the ongoing bond of loving service itself, because love and service are the same essential thing.
The verse
आत्मस्थिति मज नको हा विचार । देईं निरंतर चरणसेवा ॥१॥
जन्मोजन्मीं तुझा दास पुरुषोत्तमा । हे चि गोडी माझ्या देई जीवा ॥ध्रु.॥
काय सायुज्यता मुक्ति हे चि गोड । देव भक्त कोड तेथें नाहीं ॥२॥
काय तें निर्गुण पाहों कैशा परी । वर्णू तुझी हरी कीर्ती कैसी ॥३॥
गोड चरणसेवा देवभक्तपण । मज देवा झणें दुराविसी ॥४॥
जाणिवेपासूनि सोडवीं माझ्या जीवा । देईं चरणसेवा निरंतर ॥५॥
तुका म्हणे गोडा गोड न लगे प्रीतिकर । प्रीति ते ही सार सेवा हे रे ॥६॥
Literal translation
Ātmasthiti maja nakō hā vichāra — I don't want this ātma-sthiti vichāra; deīm nirantara charaṇasevā — give nirantara charaṇa-sevā. Janmōjanmīm tujhā dāsa puruṣōttamā — birth-after-birth your dāsa, Puruṣōttama; he chi gōḍī mājhyā deī jīvā — give this very sweetness to my jīva. Kāya sāyujyatā mukti he chi gōḍa — what — is sāyujya-mukti itself sweet; deva bhakta kōḍa tethe nāhīm — Deva-bhakta-bond not there. Kāya te nirguṇa pāhōm kaiśā parī — how to look at the nirguṇa; varṇū tujhī harī kīrtī kaisī — how to describe your kīrti, Hari. Gōḍa charaṇasevā devabhaktapaṇa — sweet is charaṇa-sevā, the Deva-bhakta-pana; maja devā jhaṇe durāvisī — don't distance (me), O Deva. Jāṇivepāsūnī sōḍavīm mājhyā jīvā — release my jīva from jāṇīva; deīm charaṇasevā nirantara — give nirantara charaṇa-sevā. Tukā mhaṇe gōḍā gōḍa na lage prītikara — Tukā says: sweet (taken) for its sweetness isn't prīti-bearing; prīti te hī sāra sevā he re — prīti itself is the sāra — sevā, this!
What it means
A 6-verse bhakti-supremacy text. Don't-give-me-ātma-vichāra; give-me-foot-service for-birth-after-birth; sāyujya-mukti is not sweet — for the Deva-bhakta-bond is absent there; how-can-I-even-describe nirguṇa or your kīrti; sweet is the Deva-bhakta-pana of charaṇa-sevā; release-me-from jāṇīva (jñāna-conceit); prīti-itself is sevā — that's the essence.
For someone today
Tukārām says he doesn't want abstract self-realization or even final liberation through merger — what he wants, birth after birth, is simply to keep serving at God's feet. Even mukti loses its sweetness for him if it means dissolving the bond between devotee and Lord, because it's that living relationship itself, not some final absorbed state, that he treasures. He asks to be freed from clever spiritual knowledge and given, instead, unbroken service — because, as he puts it, real love and real service are one and the same thing.
मराठी: तुकाराम म्हणतात, मला आत्मस्थितीचा किंवा अगदी सायुज्य मुक्तीचाही विचार नको — मला हवी आहे ती जन्मोजन्मी अखंड चरणसेवा. मुक्तीसुद्धा गोड वाटत नाही, कारण त्यात देव-भक्त हे नातेच उरत नाही; तेच नाते, तोच स्नेहबंध, त्यांना खरी गोडी वाटते, अंतिम विलीनीकरण नव्हे. ते देवाकडे मागतात — मला ज्ञानाच्या अहंकारातून सोडव आणि अखंड चरणसेवा दे, कारण खरे प्रेम आणि खरी सेवा या एकच गोष्टी आहेत.
Where this applies
- When you value an ongoing relationship or practice more than reaching some final, complete state
- When you'd rather keep a bond of love intact than dissolve into a oneness that erases it
- When knowledge or theory starts to feel less important to you than simple, sincere service
- When you realize that love and service, for you, are really the same act