78 th post English Two Abhangas 1) ज्याचें जया ध्यान  2गोविंद गोविंद । मना लागलिया छंद; 

 Blog address : http: // tukaramasteachings.blogsopt.com

 For Marathi Readers a separate post has been added.

अभंग १ ला :-

ज्याचें जया ध्यान । तेंचिं होय त्याचें मन ॥१॥ म्हणूनी अवघे सारां। पांडुरंग दॄढ धरा ॥२॥

सम खूण ज्याचें पाय । उभा व्यापक विटे ठाय ॥३॥ म्हणें नभा । परता अणूचाहि गाभा ॥4॥

अभंग २ रा:-

गोविंद गोविंद । मना लागलिया छंद॥१॥ मग गोविंद ते काया । भेद नाहीं देवा तया ॥ २॥

आनंदले मन । प्रेमें पाझरती लोचन॥ २॥ तुका म्हणें आळी । जेंवी नुरेंचि वेगळी ॥४||

Verbatim Meaning -

Abhanga( Hymn) 1 :-

When One meditates on a specific object, his mind becomes one with the object.|| 1|| Therefore one should meditate on Panduranga with a fixed and loving mind.|| 2||

{He is Omnipresent }and yet ( in Pandharapura) He is standing on a brick with both of his arms on the waste.{ Remember this}|| 3 ||

Tuka says that He is larger than the Space and is smaller than the smallest. He is present even within the space between the atoms.|| 4||

Abhanga( Hymn) 2 :-

Once one developes a habit of reciting “Govinda”; then the body of such a disciple becomes one with “Govinda”.|| 1|| After reaching this stage there is no difference between the Disciple and The God.|| 2|| The mind is full of Bliss and eyes cry due to divine love for God.|| 3|| This happens like the insect which is caught and taken in the cocoon of a butterfly. Such pray does not think anything other than the Butterfly and thus becomes itself a Butterfly.||4||

Background of the Abhnags.

It is believed that Saint Jyaneshvar Maharaj asked a Brahmin to meet Saint Tukarama and get initiated . Saint Tukarama Maharaj has preached this disciple thorough a few Hymns Abhangas). The two Hymns given here are from this set.

The saints are Liberated souls and thus are able to transcend the limits of Space and time. ( Saint Jyaneshvar had lived 300 to 400 before Saint Tukarama ) . It may be the destiny of the Brahmin to have Saint Tukaram as his spiritual Teacher and Guide. Every person has a destined Guru. This point is well discussed and elaborated in the famous book “Autobiography Of a Yogi “written by Paramhansa Yogananda.

Anyway, we are benefited by this incident, since we have these two very Abhnagas guiding us about the process of performing Namasmarana meaningfully.

Also one should understand that comprehending the meaning of Real God and concept of Liberation is very important.

When this happens then the worship will be done with detachment from the desire of deriving pleasure from worldly objects which are transient in their nature.

Without detachment ,the union with the God does not take place even after lifetime of many births. For a disciple of God who has developed detachment to worldly pleasures (Vairagya); liberation is possible in a single or very few births. Such is the path of Bhakti with Knowledge, ( Vihangama Marga) . It is well known that that the attachment to worldly objects and pleasures derived from these objects ; entangles a soul in the unending cycle of Births and Deaths for period for thousands of years.

Additional Information needed to understand the meaning of the Abhangas.

1) Most of us think that the God means an image in our House or in a temple. This is a very narrow notion about the God. If we look at the Sky and outside world, then it is seen that the space is full of millions of stars and Galaxies..All this universe is also made up of the same material that is making an image in our temple. Ishopnishad says that this infinite universe is also an image of the God almighty. However Real God is still seperate from all the universe.

This can best be understood by referring to the example of our Dreams.

The complete universe which we experience in the dream-state ; vanishes when we go into deeper state of our sleep. ( Beta to Gamma State of sleep). The universe created by us vanishes but not our consciousness. Our consciousness is still present in the Deep sleep.

Our consciousness is thus separate from the universe created and experienced in the dream state.Whatever happens in the dream does not affect us.

Similarly the God Almighty is different and separate from the world or infinitely large Universe. If one has to describe Him in three words, then one says that He is Omnipresent, Omnipotent, and Omniscient.

We address our God almighty by other names such as Ishvara. He is present in every thing like the reflection of Sun ,in the thousands of droplets that are formed when a shower is formed.

He is present in Live beings as well as in the non-living things, That is why he is Omnipresent. Our five senses have a number of limitations and therefore He can not be comprehended thorough the Fives senses organs of Human body. But it is true that His presence is experienced by all of us.

For this reason it is our practice to see Him in the Image. One can make any number of Images and thus the God has many names. He is the real substratum supporting entity for all that is experienced by us. For eg images Universe etc. He is therefore addressed by another set of names such as Bhagavant, Parabrahman.

2) All our saints and Upanishads also say that the sole purpose of our birth as a human being is to realize the Self and to attain liberalization. When the realization happens, then the God( parabrahman and the disciple are merged with each other. Once this merging / unification takes place then there is no Birth and Death. There is no more illusion and Dvaita. ( Separation from God). This is attained thorough the path of worship or path of knowledge.

There is one more third aspect as described further below.

The process of knowledge acquisition or perception as per Vedanta is described as “ When a man sees any object then his mind first gets unified with the object. Then he again comes back to himself and then his mind knows the object.
Based upon this above described background; we can comprehend the meaning of these Abhangas. The further text describe the revealed meaning of the abhangas.]

MEANING OF THE Abhangas.
Abhanga 1 st:- 

In the very first stanza “ When One meditates on a specific object, his mind becomes one with the object.”; Tukaram Maharaj has described the process of acquiring knowledge as per Vedanta. 

He says here that if one meditates on God, then he attains unification with Him. Of -course one has to have an object in front of the mind/eyes to meditate. Therefore generally one meditates with some Symbol, or Image in the mind to start with. As described earlier in the background information; the one who meditates automatically merges with the God on whom he is meditating.

However this state of unification is very transient / momentary. One immediately returns to his earlier state before starting meditation. And once one is back to world, he again is attracted to worldly objects, the sense objects and desire for enjoyment from them. The unification with God is immediately disturbed.

The only remedy told by liberated saints and scriptures is “ one has to forcefully withdraw his senses from the worldly objects. This can be achieved only with continuous practice. 

One of the simple practices is to recite the holy name of God and to remember Him . For this reason in the next stanza Tukaram Maharaj says “ Therefore one should meditate on Panduranga with a fixed and loving mind. “. 

Immediately a number of questions and doubts arise in our mind. The nature of these doubts are  Should we leave everything and do only the act of recitation ? For doing this ,do we have to go to secluded places like Dhrva did ? ( Dhruva's story in Bhagavatam ). In-short it is very difficult to continuously recite His name. Also even in Geeta, SriKrishna Bhagvan says to Arjuna to get up and Fight the battle.  

Before getting answers to such questions and quarries, it is better to see the meaning of the below given part of the Abhanga in the 3^rd stanza . 

“' He is Omnipresent and yet ( in Pandharapura) He is standing on a brick with both of his arms on the waste. Remember this . Tuka says that He is larger than the Space and is smaller than the smallest. He is present even within the space between the atoms.” 

Also one should remember that in spirituality it is important to have the attitude of total surrender to the God. One gets this attitude when one looks at the vast universe and thinks about the Omniscient , Omnipotent quality of God 

Sant Tukarama describes here the real nature of the Lord. At this stage we are being guided to move from our limited concept of God in the temple to the Infinite Universe and beyond, by Sant Tukarama.

We are living in the universe which is covered by “Nabha” meaning Space. The lord of this universe is larger than the universe. Also being Omnipresent, He is smaller than the Atoms as well. This is described in the Abhanga “ Tuka says that He is larger than the Space and is smaller than the smallest. He is present even within the space between the atoms.” 

This Lord is the sub-stratum ie. base foundation on which the complete Universe is supported. Bhagavan SriKrishna says in Geeta that the complete universe is standing on a part of the Lord Almighty. The Lord is the real doer of everything that happens in the universe.  

To remember Him , all one has to do is to follow the below described aspects in the life. 

1) Deal with everything , everybody with love and see in everything the image of the Lord. Therefore doing any action for the welfare of others is also a form of His worship. 

2) Whatever work we do should be done as a worship to Him. One should remember that the results of the works ( Success or Failure) are decided by Him and these belong to Him. He is getting things done thorough us.  

3)Whenever one finds time one should recite His holy name.  

Bhagavadgeeta calls this way of living as Tapas by Bodily and Mind.

To develop this habit of living in the world, one needs to put all above three points into practice. It is also important to check once a while whether one is going in the right direction. Generally if we live like this for a period of about 2 to 3 months then it becomes a habit by itself. 

We have seen an Abhanga earlier which describes the effects of a habit formation. Hence it is not repeated here.

At this stage the meaning of the second Abhanga can be understood. 

Meaning of 2^nd Abhanga.

This Abhanga describes the effects of the method preached by Tukaram Maharahja in the 1^st Abhanag. 

The major effect is to development of love for the lord. This state is very important in the life of a disciple of the Lord. Since at this stage all the welfare activities for the Disciple are takwn care of, by Lord himself. Hat is why SriKrishna says in Geeta “Yog kShemm vahaamyaham 

Tukarama Maharaja has said the one should recite the nama “Govida, Govinda “. "Meaning of Govinda is “Controller of the Senses” because He enables the disciple mind to concentrate on Himself and away from the external objects which create the need for enjoyment of the objects sensed in the external world. 

This is the link between the 1^st ND 2bdnd Abhanag,In the3 abhanga Tukarama Maharaj gives the example of an insect. This insect (who is caught and placed in the cocoon,) thinks only about the butterfly , and ultimately becomes Butterfly itself. 

Similarly the disciple who thinks of Lord only becomes one with the Lord. This state is call the state of Liberation. 

Teachings of the Abhangas :-  

The Abhangas teach us the method to perform worship .All we have to do is follow the teachings. Also it is clear that we have to develop a habit of doing Namasmarana.

Print this Article