Abhanga 3905
For Tukaram the true festival is meeting fellow devotees, a joy so great that the only way to repay it is to place his whole life at their feet.
The verse
दसरा दिवाळी तो चि आम्हां सन । सखे संतजन भेटतील ॥१॥
आमुप जोडल्या सुखाचिया राशी । पार या भाग्यासी न दिसे आतां ॥ध्रु.॥
धन्य दिवस आजि जाला सोनियाचा । पिकली हे वाचा रामनामें ॥२॥
तुका म्हणे काय होऊं उतराई । जीव ठेऊं पांयीं संतांचिये ॥३॥
Literal translation
Dasarā-Dīvāḷī-only-for-us-festival — santas-will-meet. Abundant-sukha-rāśī-joined — no-pāra-to-bhāgya. Dhanya-sōniyā-day — vāchā-pikalī-Rāma-Nāma. Tukā: how-to-uttārāī — jīva-at-santas'-feet.
What it means
A 3-verse sant-sanga-festival text. Dasarā-Dīvāḷī — that alone is our festival — when our friend-santas will meet us. Mounds of joy have been gathered in abundance; no limit is seen to this fortune. Today has become a blessed golden-day; my tongue has ripened with the Rāma-Name. How can I sufficiently repay? — let me keep my life at the santas' feet. The bhakta's only real festival is the meeting of santas — Dasarā and Dīvāḷī, the great Marathi festivals, are recoded as sant-sanga-occasions. The line pikalī hē vāchā Rāma-nāmēm (the tongue has ripened with Rāma-Name) is a striking fruit-metaphor — speech bearing fruit like a ripening crop.
For someone today
For Tukaram, the real Dasara and Diwali is not a date on the calendar but the day he gets to meet fellow devotees, the sants who are his true friends. That meeting brings more joy than he can measure, and he calls the day a golden day, saying his own speech has finally ripened, like a crop bearing fruit, because it has been filled with the Rama Name. He ends by asking how he could ever repay such a gift, and answers that the only way is to place his whole life at the feet of these companions.
मराठी: तुकारामांसाठी खरी दसरा-दिवाळी म्हणजे पंचांगातली तारीख नाही, तर तो दिवस जेव्हा त्यांना संतांची, त्यांच्या खऱ्या मित्रांची भेट होते. ती भेट मोजता येणार नाही इतका आनंद देते, आणि ते त्या दिवसाला सोन्याचा दिवस म्हणतात, आणि म्हणतात की त्यांची वाणी रामनामाने भरून जाऊन जणू पीक पिकल्यासारखी फळाला आली आहे. शेवटी ते विचारतात की अशा देणगीची परतफेड कशी करावी, आणि उत्तर देतात की एकच मार्ग आहे, आपले संपूर्ण आयुष्य या सोबत्यांच्या पायाशी ठेवणे.
Where this applies
- When a holiday feels meaningful only because of the people you get to be with, not the calendar date
- When time spent with people who share your values feels richer than any material celebration
- When you notice your own words or habits slowly changing for the better through good company
- When you wonder how to properly thank someone whose presence has changed your life