Abhanga 3581
Once you truly let go of clinging to your old identity and cravings, whatever happens to that old self no longer has the power to touch you.
The verse
चक्रफेरीं गळीं गळा । होता गोवियेला माळा ॥१॥
फुटोनियां गेला कुंभ । जालों निष्काम स्वयंभ ॥ध्रु.॥
धरित चि नाहीं थारा । वेठी भ्रमण खोंकरा ॥२॥
तुका म्हणे कौतुक कोडें । आगी काय जाणे मढें ॥३॥
Literal translation
Chakrapherīm gaḷīm gaḷā — in chakra-pherī, neck-to-neck; hōtā gōviyelā māḷā — the garland was being intertwined. Phuṭōnīyām gelā kumbha — the kumbha has burst and gone; jālōm niṣkāma svayambha — I have become niṣkāma-svayambha. Dharita chi nāhīm thārā — holds no thāra; veṭhī bhramaṇa khōmkarā — corvée-wandering-mockery. Tukā mhaṇe kautuka kōḍe — Tukā says: marvel-and-riddle; āgī kāya jāṇe maḍhe — does the corpse know fire.
What it means
A 3-verse rebirth-burst metaphysical text. Births-after-births were-being-strung-as-a-garland-around-the-neck on-the-wheel-of-rebirth; the-kumbha-burst, I-became niṣkāma-svayambhū (desireless-self-existent); now-no-settled-place — the-forced-corvée-wandering is-mockery; Tukā: marvel and riddle — does the corpse know fire? The final image: once you've-died-to-the-old, the body's-burning is no concern of yours.
For someone today
Tukārām describes the pot of desire finally breaking open, leaving him desireless and self-abiding, no longer strung along the wheel of rebirth like beads on a garland. Once that happens, no single place holds him anymore, yet in a sense every place does — the old compulsory wandering through birth after birth becomes almost laughable. It's a marvel and a riddle, he says: does a corpse feel the fire that burns it? Once you've truly let go of your old identity, what happens to it can no longer touch you.
मराठी: तुकाराम इथे सांगतात की इच्छांचा घडा शेवटी फुटतो, आणि माणूस निष्काम, स्वयंभ होतो — जन्मामागून जन्म गळ्यात माळेसारखे गुंफले जाणे थांबते. एकदा असे झाले की कोणतेही एक ठिकाण त्याला बांधून ठेवत नाही, आणि एका अर्थाने प्रत्येक ठिकाण त्याचेच होते — जन्ममरणाची सक्तीची भटकंती जवळजवळ हास्यास्पद वाटू लागते. तुकाराम म्हणतात, हे एक कौतुक आणि कोडेच आहे — प्रेताला अग्नीची जाणीव तरी असते का? एकदा जुनी ओळख खरोखर सुटली, की तिच्यावर काय होते याचा तुम्हाला काहीच स्पर्श होत नाही.
Where this applies
- Tukārām's metaphysical kumbha-burst; niṣkāma-svayambhū; corpse-doesn't-know-fire text
- Companion to 2937 (deha-atīta) and 2922 (karma-became-Nārāyaṇa)