Abhanga 4279
Just as a fruit's bitterness disappears as it ripens, devotion slowly dissolves desire, anger, and greed until only joy and God's presence remain, and that transformation is the true purpose of being born.
The verse
पिकलिये सेंदे कडुपण गेलें । तैसें आम्हां केलें पांडुरंगें ॥१॥
काम क्रोध लोभ निमाले ठायीं चि । सर्व आनंदाची सृष्टि जाली ॥ध्रु.॥
आठव नाठव गेले भावाभाव । जाला स्वयमेव पांडुरंग ॥२॥
तुका म्हणे भाग्य या नांवें म्हणीजे । संसारीं जन्मीजे या चि लागीं ॥३॥
Literal translation
Ripened-sēndha-bitter-gone — Pāṇḍuranga-made-us-so. Kāma-krōdha-lōbha-died-in-place — sarva-ānanda-srṣṭi. Āṭhava-nāṭhava-bhāva-abhāva-gone — Pāṇḍuranga-svayameva. Tukā: bhāgya — take-birth-in-samsāra-for-this.
What it means
THE canonical 3-verse jīvanmukta-state text. Like a ripened-sēndha whose bitterness has gone — Pāṇḍuranga has made us so. Desire, anger, greed have died in place; the whole universe has become of bliss. Remembering and not-remembering, presence and absence have gone; Pāṇḍuranga has become himself (alone). Tukā says: this is what should be called fortune — for this one should be born in samsāra. The image: sēndha-ripening transforms bitter to sweet without removal of the fruit — similarly Pāṇḍuranga ripens-the-bhakta in place, removing kāma-krōdha-lōbha and the dualities of remembering/forgetting and presence/absence. The closing — for-this-birth-is-worth-taking — is striking. Pair with 4240 (agni-rūpa-pāpa-puṇya-doesn't-touch), 4247 (jaggery-without-cane), 2922 (karma-became-Nārāyaṇa).
For someone today
Tukaram compares inner transformation to a fruit ripening: just as bitterness naturally disappears as the fruit sweetens, without anything being cut away, Pandurang has quietly ripened him in the same way. Desire, anger, and greed have simply died out where they stood, and the whole world now feels filled with joy. Even the back-and-forth of remembering and forgetting, of feeling God's presence and absence, has dissolved, leaving only Pandurang himself. Tukaram calls this true good fortune, and says this very transformation is the whole reason for being born into this life.
मराठी: तुकाराम आंतरिक बदलाची तुलना फळ पिकण्याशी करतात: जसे फळ पिकताना त्याचा कडूपणा आपोआप जातो, काहीही कापून काढावे न लागता, तसेच पांडुरंगाने त्यांना हळूहळू पिकवले आहे. काम, क्रोध, लोभ जिथल्या तिथे विरून गेले आहेत, आणि सारी सृष्टी आनंदमय झाली आहे. आठवण-विसर, असणे-नसणे हे द्वंद्वही मिटून गेले आहे, फक्त पांडुरंगच उरला आहे. तुकाराम याला खरे भाग्य म्हणतात, आणि सांगतात की याच गोष्टीसाठी या संसारात जन्म घेण्यासारखे आहे.
Where this applies
- When you notice old habits of anger or craving quietly losing their grip on you over time, without your forcing it
- When you're impatient for spiritual growth and need to trust that change ripens gradually, like fruit sweetening on its own
- When you feel the constant swing between feeling close to God and feeling far away, and long for that struggle to settle
- When you wonder what the point of your life really is and need a picture of what genuine fulfillment looks like