72B  post Englishझाली होती काया । बहुत मळीण
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झाली होती काया । बहुत मळीण देवराया ।

तुझ्या उजळली नांमें । चित्त प्रक्षाळिले प्रेमें ॥ १ ॥

अनुतापें झाला झाडा । प्रारब्धाचा नितोडा । नितोडा == संबंध तुटणे

तुका म्हणें देह पायीं । ठेवुनि झालो उतराई ॥ २॥

Verbatim Translation :-

O'God, My body had become very dirty. It shined because of clensing of my heart by Love and recitation of your holy Name. || 1 ||

Because of Repentance , all effects of my previous actions are nullified.

I have surrendered myself to you and have thus cleared your debt. ||2||

Background Information to understand the meaning of the Abhanga:-

The preachings from the Saints are like the rain water.. The rainwater falls everywhere but only at the places where the soil is fertile and is capable of giving out crops ; will beget us the healthy crop.

The Preachings of the Saints are for the welfare of the whole mankind , without any discrimination about the quality of the persons( good or Bad)

Whosoever has a pure heart, gets the benefits of these preachings and such person gets elevated in the life. He receives the grace from the Teacher and thus gets liberated in this very birth as a human being.

Lord Krisna and all the saints have told it clearly that “only in this Human form can one attain the Liberation.”

Thus it is very unique opportunity given to us , since all of us are born as Humans.

From the description in this abhanga, we get a glimpse of the mental state/ condition of such a liberated soul.

How does the Sugar taste? Answer is “Sweet”. However the real meaning of the Sweetness can not be understood by any description , all one needs to have is the experience of eating the Sugar. Then only one can understand the meaning of it's sweetness.

Similarly the words are merely the vehicles of an idea , and give us at the most get some information about the liberated state. Ultimately the experience is only important.

One fact is true and clear that “ the Liberated Ones are experiencing Happiness and state of Satisfaction without break continuously. They do not suffer and always live in the state of perpetual Bliss.”

All of us are continuously putting all our efforts for attaining a continuous state of Happiness. (however it keeps on eluding us. )

The Abhanga describes to us in detail about how one can advance to reach this desired state of permanent Bliss.

In the very line of the first stanza Tukaram Maharaj is saying that his body had become dirty. Here we can easily understand that he is referring to his mind ; though he has used the word “body:.

We can take a bath and clean our external body but what about our mind?.

If the mind is occupied with worldly objects and the pleasures received from these object, if it is continuously scheaming about the ways and methods to get these pleasures ; or worries on the issues where one does not have any controls etc; then certainly the mind is not clean.

It is well known that the Soul (Jeeva) has to go-through a number of cycles of births and deaths, only because of unfulfilled desires (for the worldly pleasures , or some other desires such as desire to take revenge, etc.)

If our mind if occupied as described above then our body is definitely not clean.

In the second line of the stanza 1, Tukarama Maharaj is saying that by recitation of the Holy name of the Lord wth Love; his mind has become clean and pure.

The quality of this love for the lord has been described by Sri. Ramakrishna Paramahansa .

Paramahansa says that “ take an example of Mother's love for her child and vice verse., and the love of the Wife of her Husband and vice verse and the love with which a greedy man coveates the wealth. If we combine all these and-and multiply many fold, then one gets an understanding of the idea of the love for God. A real disciple who loves God, loves Him without any expectations of any kind of Returns.

It is this kind and quality of love with which Tukaram Maharaj is referring to ;in this first verse.

Another Saint By Name Sri. Gondavalekar Maharaj says that “ if we remember Him and his actions , in all the aspects of our life then , after some time one automatically experiences this kind of love in his own heart “

For this purpose all we have to do is to repent for wasting our past time of life in running behind bodily pleasures and forgetting that actually only the God/Lord is the real doer of everything . Therefore surrendering to Him totally is the best action one can do. This action nullifies all our previous deeds and thus we no more have to suffer for thedeeds done by us.

This is the meaning we get from the Third line of this abhanga.

In the second stanza of the abganga, Tukaram Maharaj confirming says that he that he is living doing all such actions. ( Repenting for wasting the time by runn8ing behind worldly pleasures for the sake of this body, Reciting His holy name and remembering that Lord is the real doer ;and totally surrendering tioHim) .

He also describes the advantages , gains he received because of such living in the last stanza of the abhanga. These gains or benefits are as listed below.

He is no more bonded by the actions and thus is free from the fruits of his past actions which otherwise he would have to experienxe.

Therefore he has no need to take birth again. He is liberated.

This statement also indicates to us that The “I” “the Ego is fully melted away in the case of Sant Tukarama Maharaj. If we study his biography , it very clearly confirms that Maharaj has no more Ego.

Such a person is called Jeenmukta or Liberated soul. This state is attained during the lifetime itself and actually such person has transgressed the Death and has become Immortal.

In the Dasabodha Chapter 9 sub chapter 3 Shri samarth Ramadas has described the state of such a liberated soul in very simple terms. Like Tukaram Maharaj his words are written based on the experience only.

He says that such a person is Non-enjoyer ( अभोक्ता) ,Non-doer( अकर्ता) , and Not attached( अलिप्त) He is aware of his own internal state a nd still he lives in the world like any other beings.

But his living in the world is for the welfare of the mankind only. He is not affected by the pleasure or pains the physical body gets while living in the world. He never gets disturbed by any external factors since he is living in the state of experiencing the pure Bliss.

A question may be raised that “Is this all theoretical or were there any such souls in this century?” Answer is positively yes only. Lokamanya Tilak, Sri.Gajanana Maharaja of Sheoaon, Shirdi Saibaba, Ramana Maharshi , swami Vivekananda are some of the names that come to our mind.

Teachings of this Abhanga :-

Next Question that arises is :- Can we really reach this kind of state? And is it really necessary to reach this state of being?

The answer is “Yes. It is necessary since that is the purpose of us born as a Human being”.

We can at least put our best efforts. We have to put effort of lying in the bed, and The sleep definitely comes though . We can not say an exact moment as when we will fall asleep.

But knowing that He is the doer and all will happen as per his wish ; we have a chance. We should not give up this hope.

I think that this is the message of this abhanga for us.

Next post will be another Abhanaga describing what to do. In the meanwhile kindly let me have your opinions and feed back.

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