Abhanga 3916
The verse
कैसी करूं आतां सांग तुझी सेवा । शब्दज्ञानें देवा नाश केला ॥१॥
आतां तुझें वर्म न कळे अनंता । तुज न संगतां बुडूं पाहें ॥ध्रु.॥
संध्या स्नान केली आचाराची नासी । काय तयापासीं म्हणती एक ॥२॥
बुडविली भक्ती म्हणीते पाषाण । पिंडाचें पाळण स्थापुनियां ॥३॥
न करावी कथा म्हणती एकादशी । भजनाची नासी मांडियेली ॥४॥
न जावें देउळा म्हणती देवघरीं । बुडविलें या परी तुका म्हणे ॥५॥
Literal translation
How-to-do-sevā — śabda-jñāna-destroyed. Varma-not-known-Anantā — without-telling-you-drown. Sandhyā-snāna-they-say-āchāra-nāśa. Image-just-pāṣāṇa-piṇḍa-pāḷaṇa-buries-bhakti. No-kathā-on-Ekādaśī-they-say — bhajana-nāśa. Don't-go-to-dēuḷa — keep-at-home. Tukā: drowned-in-this-way.
What it means
★★ THE canonical 5-verse lament against confused-reformist over-reaches. How do I do your service now — word-knowledge has destroyed it. Your essence is not known, Ananta — without telling you, I might drown. (Some) say: doing sandhyā-snāna destroys dharma; what's the use in it, they say. (Some) drown bhakti by calling the image just-stone — establishing only body-nourishment. (Some) say don't do kathā on Ekādaśī — they've set up the destruction of bhajana. (Some) say don't go to the temple — keep god at home. Tukā says: bhakti has been drowned this way. Striking direct critique of 17th-c. anti-ritualist reformist over-reaches that Tukārām saw as themselves destroying bhakti: rejecting sandhyā, calling idol just-stone, refusing temple-going, refusing Ekādaśī-kathā. Tukārām's middle-way: keep the practices, but with bhāva. Pair with 2881 (canonical Ekādaśī-vrata), 2864 (clap-hands kīrtana).
For someone today
Tukārām: don't-let-clever-word-knowledge-destroy-sevā — sandhyā, image, Ekādaśī-kathā, temple — all-needed-with-bhāva.
Where this applies
- ★★ Tukārām's anti-confused-reformist-advisor canonical
- Pair with 2881 (Ekādaśī-vrata), 2864 (clap-hands kīrtana)
- Rare-Tukārām moderate-stance against over-reach in both directions