Absorption, one hue over the mind
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
आसन शयन भोजन गोविंदें । भरलें आनंदें त्रिभुवन॥1॥
अवघियां केली काळें तडातोडी । अवश्वरु घडी पुरों नये ॥ध्रु.॥
वांटणी घातले शरीराचे भाग । दुजियाचा लाग खंडियेला॥2॥
आवडीच्या आलें आहारासी रूप । पृथक संकल्प मावळले ॥3॥
काम तरी क्रोध बुिद्ध मन नासे । भ्रमाचे वोळसे गििळले शांती ॥4॥
तुका ह्मणे मना श्रीरंगाचा रंग । बैसला अभंग एकविध ॥5॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
Sitting, sleeping, eating, all is Govinda now. The three worlds are filled with His bliss. Time has severed all other ties at once; not a single fleeting moment should be wasted. The shares of the body have been parceled out, and the pull of duality has been cut away. Love itself has taken the shape of nourishment; all separate intentions have dissolved. When desire goes, anger and intellect and mind all cease; peace has swallowed the phantom coils of illusion. Says Tuka, the hue of Lord Ranganatha has settled upon the mind, unbroken and single-pointed.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
Sitting, sleeping, eating, all of it is Govinda now. The three worlds are filled with his bliss. Time has cut away every other tie at once. Not one moment is to be wasted. The shares of the body have been parceled out. The pull of the other thing, of duality, has been cut. Love itself has become my food. Every separate plan has melted away. When desire goes, anger and intellect and mind all cease. Peace has swallowed the coils of illusion. Tuka says: the color of Shriranga has settled on my mind, unbroken, one and the same throughout.
What it means
This abhanga describes total absorption, where ordinary acts have stopped being ordinary: sitting, sleeping, eating are now done as and toward Govinda. Tukaram says time itself has severed his other attachments, so that no moment is left over for anything else. As desire dissolves, its whole train follows, anger, scheming intellect, the restless mind, and what remains is a peace that simply absorbs the tangled coils of illusion rather than fighting them. He ends with the image that holds the rest: the mind has taken on a single color, the hue of Shriranga, dyed through evenly with no break.
Ecstasy and Joy
Triumphant happiness: poems written from the far side of the struggle.
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