Abhanga 3870
The verse
झाडा वरपोनि खाऊनियां पाला । आठवी विठ्ठला वेळोवेळां ॥१॥
वल्कलें नेसुनि ठुंगा गुंडाळुनी । सांडी देहभान जवळुनी ॥ध्रु.॥
लोकमान वमनासमान मानणें । एकांतीं राहणें विठोसाटीं ॥२॥
सहसा करूं नये प्रपंचीं सौजन्य । सेवावें अरण्य एकांतवास ॥३॥
ऐसा हा निर्धार करी जो मनाचा । तुका म्हणे त्याचा पांग फिटे ॥४॥
Literal translation
Climb-tree-eat-pāla — remember-Viṭṭhal. Bark-cloth-loincloth — cast-deha-bhāna. Lōka-māna-equal-to-vomit — ēkānta-for-Viṭhō. Don't-do-prapancha-saujanya — serve-araṇya-ēkānta-vāsa. Tukā: such-mind-nirdhāra — pānga-falls-away.
What it means
★ A 4-verse extreme-renunciate prescription. Climb the tree, eat its leaves — remember Viṭṭhal time and again. Wear bark-cloth, tie a loincloth, cast aside body-consciousness. Treat people's respect as equivalent to vomit; stay alone for Viṭhō. Never do worldly-courtesy in the household — serve the forest, the solitary-life. One who makes such a resolve in his mind — his sorrows fall away. Tukārām's most extreme forest-renunciation prescription — striking because Tukārām himself was largely a householder-bhakta (cf. 2944-2945 simple-life biographical). This may be a counsel for a particular interlocutor, or the highest-tier call for those drawn to vairāgya.
For someone today
Tukārām: climb-trees-eat-leaves-bark-cloth-loincloth — treat-people's-respect-as-vomit — live-in-the-forest.
Where this applies
- ★ Tukārām's extreme-renunciate prescription
- lōka-māna-equal-to-vomit drastic image
- Contrast with 2944-2945 (Tukārām's-own simple-householder life)