Abhanga 4204
Say-Deva-is — experience-Deva-isn't.
The verse
आहे ऐसा देव वदवावी वाणी । नाहीं ऐसा मनीं अनुभवावा ॥१॥
आवडी आवडी कळिवराकळिवरी । वरिली अंतरी ताळी पडे ॥ध्रु.॥
अपूर्व दर्शन मातेपुत्रा भेटी । रडूं मागे तुटी हर्षयोगें ॥२॥
तुका म्हणे एकें कळतें दुसरें । बरियानें बरें आहाचाचें आहाच ॥३॥
Literal translation
Say-Deva-is — experience-Deva-isn't. Āvaḍī-pebble-by-pebble — antar-tāḷī-fits. Apūrva-darśana-mother-son-meeting — crying-retreats-by-harṣa-yoga. Tukā: by-one-other-known — by-bariyā-bariyā — āhāch-āhāch.
What it means
★★ THE canonical 3-verse paradoxical bhāva-and-vichāra-simultaneous text. Let the voice utter: there is such a Deva. Let the mind experience: there is not such. Love-and-love, pebble by pebble — picked up, in the heart the tāḷī (sense-match) falls together. Like an unprecedented mother-son meeting: crying retreats by the burst-of-joy. Tukā says: by one, the other is known; by the firm, the firm; by the slack, the slack. The doctrine: bhakti requires holding two opposites simultaneously — affirmation by voice (āhē-aisā-dēva) and negation by mana-experience (nāhīm-aisā). Out of the pebble-by-pebble āvaḍī, the inner-match (tāḷī) falls together; like the mother-son-reunion's tear-to-joy transformation. Each-knows-its-own. Among Tukārām's most-philosophically-compact statements.
For someone today
Tukārām: say-there-is-such-a-Deva with-mouth-but-experience-there-isn't-such-in-mind; love-fits-pebble-by-pebble; like-mother-son-reunion-crying-becomes-joy.
Where this applies
- ★★ Tukārām's THE bhāva-and-vichāra-simultaneous paradox canonical