संत साहित्य · Tukārām · Abhanga 3593 of 4582

Abhanga 3593

True devotion is a vow to protect your longing for the divine so completely that nothing else matters, even without fully understanding its mystery.

When you feel yourself merging so deeply into a practice or relationship that little else holds your attention

When you want to guard a private vow or resolve from slipping, even without knowing exactly why it matters so much

When a simple daily practice, like repeating a name or a prayer, has quietly become the center of your life

The verse

आम्ही पाहा कैसीं एकतत्व जालों । राखणे लागलों वासनेसी ॥१॥ तुम्हांविण कांहीं नावडावें जीवा । केला तो चि देवा केला पण ॥ध्रु.॥ वर्म नेणों परि वृत्ती भंगों नेदुं । वंदिलें चि वंदूं आवडीनें ॥२॥ तुका म्हणे कळे नामाचें जीवन । वारता ही भिन्न नेणों आतां ॥३॥

Literal translation

Become-ēka-tatva — guarding-vāsanā. Apart-from-you-nothing-should-be-loved — what-you-made-paṇa. Don't-know-varma-but-won't-let-vrtti-break — bow-to-bowed-with-love. Tukā: Nāma-is-jīvana — no-different-talk-known-now.

What it means

A 3-verse one-essence-resolution text. Look — we've become one-essence; guarding the desire. Nothing apart from you should be loved; I don't know the secret-point but I won't let the steady-state break; the Name is the very-water-of-life — no other talk is known.

For someone today

This verse describes what real devotion feels like: a merging so complete that you become one with what you love, and you carefully protect that longing instead of letting it fade. Tukārām vows that nothing outside of God will hold his heart anymore, that is the promise he made. He admits he does not know the deeper secret of it, but he refuses to let his settled inner state break, and he will keep bowing to what he already bows to, out of pure fondness. In the end, he says, chanting the Name has become his very life, and no other conversation makes sense to him now.

मराठी: ही ओवी खऱ्या भक्तीचा अनुभव सांगते, इतकं एकरूप होणं की तू ज्यावर प्रेम करतोस त्याच्याशी एक होऊन जातोस, आणि ती ओढ विझू न देता जपत राहतोस. तुकाराम प्रतिज्ञा करतात की देवाशिवाय आता काहीही त्यांच्या मनाला प्रिय वाटणार नाही, हाच त्यांनी केलेला पण आहे. त्यांना याचं खोल रहस्य माहीत नाही असं ते कबूल करतात, पण आपली स्थिर वृत्ती भंग होऊ देणार नाहीत, आणि ज्याला वंदन केलं त्यालाच प्रेमाने वंदन करत राहतील. शेवटी ते म्हणतात, नामस्मरण हेच त्यांचं जीवन झालं आहे, आणि आता दुसरं कोणतंही बोलणं त्यांना कळत नाही.

Where this applies

When you sense your devotion or love deepening into something you don't fully understand but don't want to lose
When you've made a private vow to keep your heart fixed on one thing and worry about wavering
When you don't know the deeper reasoning behind a practice but keep doing it faithfully anyway
When a repeated practice, like a chant or a prayer, has become so central that everything else feels like noise

Nāma (the Name) Autobiographical