76 th post रात्री दिवस आम्हा युद्धाचा प्रसंग
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Main Abhanga of Tukaram Maharaj :-

रात्री दिवस आम्हा युद्धाचा प्रसंग । अंतर्बाह्य जग आणि मन ॥१ ॥

जीवाही अगोज पडती अघात । येऊनिया नित्य नित्य वारू ॥ २ ॥

तुका म्हणे तझ्या नामाचिये बळें । अवघियांचे काळें केलें तोंड ॥ ३ ॥

Supporting Abhanga by Namadev MahaRAJ

अमृताहुनी गोड नाम तुझे देवा । मन माझे केशवा कां बा न घे ॥ १ ॥

सांग पंढरीराया काय करू यांसी ।कां रूप ध्यानासि न ये तुझे ॥ २॥

कीर्तनीं बैसतां निद्रे नागविले । मन माझे गुंतले विषयसुखा ॥ ३ ॥

हरीदास गर्जती हरीनामा्च्या कीर्ती । नये माझा चित्ती नाम म्हणें ॥४।|

Verbatim Translation :-

Main Abhanga :-

We have to fight the battle thoroughout the day and night || 1 ||

In this battle, we have to take measures for the injuries every now and then.We have to do this action continuously. || 2||

Tuka says that O'God( Panduranga), I have faced these attacks , and defeated them using the weapon of your Holy Nama || 3 ||

Another Abhanga ( given below) is taken to explain the meaning of the above Abhanga.This was written by Sant Namadeva about 400 years before Tukaram maharaj.

O'God your Name is sweeter than the Nector| O Kesdhava why my mind is resisting to recite the same|| 1||

O' Lord of Pandharpura , Please tell me what should I do | Why I am unable to see You when I try to meditatye upon You || 2||

I fall asleep when I go to hear the discource about You | My mind is entanglled in the pleasure enjoyed through my five sense organs || 3||

Your Disciples are spreading the importance of You , But still I am not able to recite yoor Name ,( because my mind drifting as described above.) || 4||

Background/ Information needed to understand the teachings:-

The first two stanzas of the abhanga describe that when a person realizes that the purpose of Human Birth is to achieve Liberation from the cycle of Death-Birth(emancipation); then only he starts his efforts to achieve this goal.

The various efforts he puts; can be classified in the below-given broad categories.

1) Follow the Path of Worship. There are total nine modes in this path ( Navavidha- bhakti) .

2) Follow the path of Knowledge described in various Upanishads.. In this method one makes efforts to understand and experience the real nature of Self and the world., and the relationship of the same with each other.

However; one does not get success immediately. It takes a very long time depending upon one's state of attachments with the external world.

This is because of the habits developed in all the previous Births as well as the habits acquired during the lifetime. The net result initially is a conflict between ones desires for putting efforts and the habit of running towards the external attractions.

Even Every Saint too went through this kind of struggle and was successful in defeating the negative tendencies, which drive one away from his goal.

Tukaram Maharaj also had faced this situation and inthe third stanza of the abhanga he has described how he won the battle

It is obvious that , this abhanga gives us guidance. For this is the reason the first two lines are very famous in Maharashtra.(India)

In the first line itself, Tukaram Maharaj says that he is continuously fighting.

There was another saint Sant Namadeva. He too faced the difficulties when he started to tread the path of worship and devotion. We have quoted this abhanga since it describes ( briefly) ; all the problems and difficulties which are addressed as “the Fight or Battle”.

In fact this quoted Abhanga of Sant Namadeva enables us to understand the meaning of the Abhanga of Sant Tukaram Maharaj. I have tried to bring out the salient points here ; for the purpose of. understanding the meaning of Sant Tukarama's abhanga.

Meaning of the Abhnaga:-

When one starts treading on any of the paths; then generally one encounters some physical difficulties and problems. These external problems cause disturbance in one 's mind; and thus one gives-up or deviates from his path. It is not possible to list out all the problems but at least one can generalize these and Namadeva maharaj's aabhnagas helps us here.

The difficulties faced are as follows.

1) Many a seekers decide to Regularly perform some activities such as Meditation. When one sits to meditate ; the body does not cooperate and all the attention then goes to the pains, experienced because one is sitting for meditation in particular position( generally one sits in crossed leg position for doing meditation)

Sometimes we remember some past incidents, which cause disturbance in the mind.

The net result is that one is unable to meditate.

2)Some seekers decide to read regularly, a few chapters from the books, biography of Saints For example the Biography of Sri. Shirdi Saibaba, of Sri Gajanan Maharaj.

Some decide to perform Japa or recitations of Holy name of God.

But even these simple activities are disturbed because of some external causes, such as arrival of some visitor, Need to attend some urgent work, illness etc.

3) Many a times some desires suddenly take possession of our mind. Such as a desire to watch some TV serial, desire to listen to some songs, We then postpone our activity and repeating this once or twice will make us lazy. Laziness is the most important obstacle in the path of spirituality. One of the important manifestation of laziness is need to sleep.

In our present times ,the tradition of spiritual discourses is almost dead. While attending such discourse the sleep takes possession if the subject is complicated. This can be observed in Seminars, typically in the post lunch sessions.

Surprisingly The abhanga Sant NamadevMaharaj also addresses this issue.

4) Most of the times the people get interest4d in spirituality after their retirement. This is fully in line with Vaidiac way of living i.e. Dharma , Artha , Kama ( all the Duties of a Householder) and at the end Mokha for one's own liberation.

However, the desire for Money can never be fully satisfied . One always wants more. So much so that even after retirement from service life , people try to spend time for earning Money.( even though they have sufficient money at their disposal) .

One can never know the time for death. And all the saints andseers have advised us that at least at this stage ONE should strive for, put the efforts for attaining the true purpose of Human birth the Emancipation ( Liberation , the Mokhas)

All the above thoughts, which drive one away from the true path; are called “desire for satisfying the demands of our five senses” in the abhanga of Sant Namdeva.

Thus we are fighting an inner fight or war continuously. This war is happening between our good sense which demands that we should not get entangled in the efforts for satisfying the demands of our five sense organs and the other bad sense which demands the immediate satisfaction of the five sense organ's demands. The Abhnaga of Tukarama Maharaj in the very first line says that we are fighting this this war at every moment in the day and even night.

At this point, some one may pose a question? The nature of the question is as follows.

Will it not be inappropriate to run away from our duties? Is it necessary and absolute condition to shy away from our duties?

This question has been answered in the Last lines of Tukarama Maharaj.

These lines describe to us the importance of Namasmarana .

Tukaram Maharaj says that He has been able to win the battle just by reciting the Holy name of Panduranga. It is obvious that this is the method that can be used by us too.

At this stage I am repeating what is the approch for doing the Namasmarana , while attending to all our day to day duties . I know that repetition is not desirable but some times repetition is used to emphasize a point.

The details are available in the chapter of NamasmaraN Bhakti in the book Dasabodha written by Samarath Ramadasa.

1) Whenever one is free then this time can be used effectively by reciting the Holy name of God.( Sri Ram Jayaram Jayajaya Rama, Oum NamaH Shivaya , etc)

2) One should remember that every thing ( all the wealth, our relatives, children etc belong to Him. He decided when to give us weallth and when to take it back. This thought enables us to reduce ous attachment and thus consol us on facing any loss.

3) Also we should always remember that the Lord almighty gets various things done by us. 
ईश्वर: सर्वभूतानां  हृद्देशे॓॓र्जुन तिष्ठति ।  भ्रामयन्   सर्वभूतानि  यंत्रारूढानि मायया ॥
This shloka from sri.Bhagavadgeeta guides us abuot the said point.
We are like dancing dolls who are controleed by Him. He does this thorough our Fate.

At the same time we should not feel worried, He is our Mother too. Thus whatever happens in our life , happens always for our welfare only.

4) Our Ego causes to feel Unhappyness, Anger etc. And if we remember that we are not the real doers but He is the real doer , then many a tensions will vanish.

5) Most important is to believe in Him and surrendering to Him totally. For this purpose we should develope a habit of Praying to Him and surrendering every action to Him.

We have not experienced that He iseverywhere, but we can believe in this .And this is not at all wrong. If the prayer is done with this understanding, then it is definiltely heard and He will do for us what is good for us.

अनन्याश्च्तिंतयंतो माम्  ये जना पर्युपासते । तेषां नित्याभियुक्तामां  योगक्षेमम्  वहाम्यहम् ॥
In this slhoka Lord Krishna has advised us that it is best to surrender to Him

Teachings of the Abhanga :- As descibed  in the abhanga  by Sant Tukaram Maharaj, if we hold on the method of Namasmarana ( Reciting Holy Name of God –as described in the above five points) ; then we can definitely win the battle and achieve the goal of emancipation( MokSha ) .

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