संत साहित्य · Tukārām · Abhanga 3623 of 4582

Abhanga 3623

Unlike ordinary desires that quiet down once satisfied, love and longing for God only keep growing the more they are fed.

When you find that repeating something you love, like a devotional practice, never grows stale

When your worldly wants get satisfied but a deeper hunger still remains underneath

When you want to understand why real devotion never reaches a point of feeling like enough

The verse

खादलें च खावें वाटे । भेटलें भेटे आवडी ॥१॥ वीट नाहीं पांडुरंगीं । वाढे अंगीं आर्त तें ॥ध्रु.॥ इंिद्रयांची हांव पुरे। परि हें उरे चिंतन ॥२॥ तुका म्हणे पोट भरे । परि ते उरे भूक पुढें ॥३॥

Literal translation

What's-eaten-feels-good-to-eat — what's-met-wants-meet-with-āvaḍī. No-vīṭa-at-Pāṇḍurangī — ārta-grows-in-anga. Indriyas-hāmva-fulfilled — but-chintana-remains. Tukā: pōṭa-fills — bhūka-remains-ahead.

What it means

A beautiful 3-verse insatiability text. What's been eaten you want to eat again; whom you've met you want to meet again with love; no revulsion at Pāṇḍurangī, the longing only grows; sense-desires fill up but this chintana doesn't end; the belly fills but hunger remains-ahead. Tukārām's bhakti-doctrine of the more-you-have-the-more-you-want.

For someone today

Tukaram notices something strange and wonderful about love for God: food you already ate still tempts you to eat again, and someone you have met and loved makes you want to meet them again just as eagerly. Ordinary desires, once satisfied, quiet down for a while. But there is never any weariness or satiety with Vitthal; the longing for him only keeps growing. Your body's hungers get fed and settle, but this deeper hunger of the heart never fully closes, no matter how much of it is fed.

मराठी: तुकारामांना देवावरील प्रेमाबद्दल एक विलक्षण आणि सुंदर गोष्ट जाणवते: जे अन्न आधीच खाल्ले आहे, तेच पुन्हा खावेसे वाटते, आणि ज्याला भेटून प्रेम केले आहे, त्यालाच पुन्हा तितक्याच ओढीने भेटावेसे वाटते. सामान्य इच्छा एकदा पूर्ण झाल्या की काही काळ शांत होतात. पण पांडुरंगाबद्दल कधीच कंटाळा किंवा तृप्ती येत नाही, उलट ओढ अधिकच वाढत जाते. शरीराच्या भुका भागतात आणि शमतात, पण मनाची ही खोल भूक कितीही भागवली तरी पूर्ण संपत नाही.

Where this applies

When you notice that love, unlike ordinary appetite, only grows the more it is fed
When you keep returning to the same devotional practice or person and it never feels stale
When worldly desires get satisfied but you still feel an unnamed hunger underneath
When you want language for why devotion never reaches a point of being enough

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