Abhanga 3811
The verse
कळों आला भाव माझा मज देवा । वांयांविण जीवा आठविलें ॥१॥
जोडूनि अक्षरें केलीं तोंडपिटी । न लगे सेवटीं हातीं कांहीं ॥२॥
तुका म्हणे माझे गेले दोन्ही ठाय । सवसार ना पाय तुझे मज ॥३॥
Literal translation
My-bhāva-came-to-light-O-Deva — jīva-remembered-in-vain. Made-akṣaras-tōnḍa-piṭi — nothing-in-hand-at-end. Tukā: both-places-lost — neither-samsāra-nor-your-feet.
What it means
A 3-verse self-recognition-failure text. O Deva, my own (inner) state has been revealed to me — I had remembered (you for) my jīva only in vain. Stringing words together, I made only mouth-noise — at the end, nothing came to hand. Both my places (here-and-there) are lost — I have neither the world, nor your feet. The both-places-lost (savasāra-nor-pāya) is the bhakta's most existentially-precarious confession — the līmbū-paṇī (between two stools) state, a recurrent Tukārām theme.
For someone today
Tukārām: my-own-bhāva-revealed-to-me — I-made-mouth-noise-with-words — both-places-lost.
Where this applies
- Tukārām's both-ṭhāya-lost-savasāra-nor-pāya canonical between-two-stools
- akṣara-tōnḍa-piṭi-yields-nothing anti-mere-poetry diagnosis