Abhanga 4478
Tukaram teaches that love for God should burn with the same total intensity as a starving person's hunger or a lover's passion, and that such all-consuming longing carries a person beyond rebirth.
The verse
कामिनीसी जैसा आवडे भ्रतार । इच्छीत चकोर चंद्र जैसा ॥१॥
तैसी हे आवडी विठ्ठलाचे पायीं । लागलिया नाहीं गर्भवास ॥ध्रु.॥
दुष्काळें पीडिल्या आवडे भोजन । आणिक जीवन तृषाक्रांता ॥२॥
कामातुर जैसा भय लज्जा सांडोनि । आवडे कामिनी सर्वभावें ॥३॥
तुका म्हणे तैसी राहिली आवडी । पांडुरंग थडी पाववील ॥४॥
Literal translation
Kāmini-bhartāra / chakora-chandra — let-āvaḍī-stay-at-Viṭhṭhal-feet — no-garbha-vāsa. Famine-tortured-food / thirsty-water / kāmātura-no-shame-no-fear-kāminī-sarva-bhāva. Tukā: such-āvaḍī-stayed — Pāṇḍuranga-takes-to-shore.
What it means
A 4-verse 4-image love-analogy text. As the passionate-woman loves her husband — as the rain-bird yearns for the moon — so let this longing-love stay at the feet of Viṭhṭhal — if it is set there, there is no re-birth in the womb. As one tortured by famine loves food — and the thirsty-afflicted loves water — as the passion-burning man abandons fear and shame and loves the woman with every feeling of his being — so, Tukā says, let such longing remain — Pāṇḍuranga will reach you to the shore. The 4 analogies escalate in intensity: (1) wife-loves-husband (steady), (2) chakora-yearns-moon (rain-bird-mythic-yearning), (3) starving-loves-food + thirsty-loves-water (survival-need), (4) passion-burner abandons-fear-and-shame, loves-with-all-bhāva (most-intense). Such āvaḍī = no-garbha-vāsa. Pair with 2811 (bhēṭīlāgīm-jīva-lāgalīse-āsa).
For someone today
Tukaram describes four kinds of longing to show what real love for God should feel like: the steady love of a wife for her husband, the aching yearning of the mythical bird for the moon, the desperate hunger of someone starving for food and the desperate thirst of someone parched for water, and finally the total abandon of a person consumed by passion who forgets fear and shame completely. He says if your longing for the divine reaches that same intensity and stays there, it carries you safely across, no more being born again and again. This is not gentle, occasional interest, it is love that consumes your whole attention.
मराठी: तुकाराम चार प्रकारच्या ओढीतून खरी देवावरची प्रेमभावना कशी असावी हे सांगतात: पत्नीचे पतीवरील स्थिर प्रेम, चातक पक्ष्याची चंद्रासाठीची तळमळ, दुष्काळात अन्नासाठी आणि तहानेने पाण्यासाठी झालेली हतबल ओढ, आणि शेवटी भीती व लाज विसरून पूर्णपणे व्यापून टाकणारी प्रेमभावना. ते म्हणतात, जर देवावरची तुमची ओढ अशीच तीव्र राहिली, तर ती तुम्हाला सुरक्षित पैलतीरी घेऊन जाते, आणि पुन्हा पुन्हा जन्म घ्यावा लागत नाही. हे साधे, अधूनमधूनचे प्रेम नाही, तर संपूर्ण मन व्यापणारी ओढ आहे.
Where this applies
- Tukārām's 4-image escalating-love-analogy + no-garbha-vāsa canonical