Maza Bhaav Tuze Charani

 माझा भाव तुझे चरणी

This is a well known abhang of Sant Namdev who lived in Pandharpur in Maharashtra in the 13th-14th century ( 1270-1350). He was one of the leading figures of the warkari movement of the time. Like his contemporaries his idol was Vitthala. 

In the following abhang he has not mentioned Vitthala by name. The poetry is in the form of a direct conversation he is making with his deity.

माझा भाव तुझे चरणी

तुझें रूप माझे नयनीं

I have devoted myself to your feet( service). Your image is forever in my sight.

सापडलों एकामेकां

जन्मोजन्मीं नोहे सुटका

(By stroke of destiny) we have met each other. Now this union is for eternity. From this life to another we cannot escape each other’s company.

त्वा मोडिली माझी माया

मी तो जडलो तुझिया पायां

You have been instrumental in detaching me from the material world and temptations therein. Thereafter I have been free to devote myself to your service. 

त्वा मज मोकविलें विदेहीं

मी तुज घातलें ह्रदयीं 

You conferred upon me the detachment from my physical body thus freeing me from bondage. In turn, I placed you in my heart. 

नामा म्हणे गा सुजाणा 

सांग कोणे ठकविले कोणा?

Oh knower of all that is to be known, we have enticed each other into this relationship of love. Nama asks you, tell me who really lured the other? 

——————————————————

Above is the straightforward meaning of this abhang.

What follows is my way of looking at it.

माझा भाव तुझे चरणी

तुझें रूप माझे नयनीं

Within consciousness, the I thought which is the individual self/ seeker/devotee, if he is lucky enough to have the blessing of humility, finds himself at the very bottom of the entire scheme of things. His deity sits on the very top.

The deity or ultimate destination is never out of the seeker’s sight. It is a focused life with single pointed attention on the supreme being. It is a pledge the devotee has made to himself and one that he is determined to fulfill. With every passing day this conviction is strengthened by the force of habit. The individual will, emotion and intellect are unified in their purpose. This is the basis of integrity. 

सापडलों एकामेकां

जन्मोजन्मीं नोहे सुटका

In the 7th chapter of the Bhagwad Gita, verse 19, Shri Krishna has said to Arjun who is a loyal devotee:

After many lifetimes a devotee finally realizes that the supreme being pervades everything in creation. That there is nothing other than the Ultimate Reality in whatever exists. This is the stage of a devotee’s final surrender of his own separate existence.

बहूनां जन्मनामन्ते ज्ञानवान्मां प्रपद्यते |
वासुदेव: सर्वमिति स महात्मा सुदुर्लभ: ||

In the abhang Namdev is saying we have found each other! What this refers to is the finding of the true nature of each other and realizing that it is a single entity. When it is a single entity it is an obvious conclusion that it cannot escape from itself. It is going to remain as itself. 

त्वा मोडिली माझी माया

मी तो जडलो तुझिया पायां

Even though the intellect has intuitively gathered the oneness of the its individual entity with the universal reality, it can still perceive the spread of that larger consciousness into the smaller entities. Like a jeweler who has created a pair of earrings, necklace, bracelets, rings from a bar of gold can see the gold spread out in each individual item. The ring is the smallest item and the necklace is the biggest. The gold is sum total of all items put together plus whatever unused remained in the bar. The jeweler can see the individual items as well as the gold and has a perspective of the total reality of them put together.

Similarly an enlightened devotee gets a bird’s eye view of the creation and the extra that exists above and beyond the creation. With this intuitive knowledge his prior limited understanding is eliminated. Having seen everything there is to be seen in this new light, he is no longer drawn to individual items within creation. This ability to rise above the temptation to acquire and hold on to objects is what Namdev is referring to as the destruction of( the hold of) Maya. He gives the credit to the Supreme Being for breaking the shackles of Maya for him. त्वा मोडिली माझी माया.

Now he finds himself as a free individual miniature figure made out of the same essence as the Supreme Being. All other entities in creation are also made of the same essence. But now another attribute is gained by his intellect. And that is humility. It is this humility that makes him identify himself as the smallest item amongst all. Like the ring the jeweler created out of gold. The humility and devotion combined is reflected when he states:

मी तो जडलो तुझिया पायां

This is figurative speech. I am the lowliest. I see you in everything and everyone. I am here to serve you and your creation.

त्वा मज मोकविलें विदेहीं

मी तुज घातलें ह्रदयीं 

When you are enabled to see the pure consciousness pervading everything around you and within you it becomes rather easy to disidentify yourself from your own physical body. Thus not only are you unshackled from outside objects but also from your own physical sheaths and the mental sheaths that relate with the physical body. Thats what videha mukti refers to. Thats what Namdev is talking about when he proclaims त्वा मज मोकविलें विदेहीं. You have freed me from physical bondage, he says. 

It is almost like the mental apparatus is being broken down into two parts. Imagine like a continental divide or the breaking away of a giant glacier and it’s drifting away into the sea. The part that adhered to material identity and attachment gets detached and disregarded from within. What remains and continues to be owned up is the thought and intelligence that is ingrained within pure consciousness. मी तुज घातलें ह्रदयीं . When Namdev says I placed you in my heart this is what he is referring to. That his mind and intellect is singularly dedicated to the will of the total universal consciousness. He has discarded his old consciousness that was riddled with ignorance.

नामा म्हणे गा सुजाणा 

सांग कोणे ठकविले कोणा?

Finally Namdev addresses this infinite conscious being as he is surrendering himself to it, acknowledging that this consciousness knows everything that is there to be known. He also lightheartedly wonders about how he arrived at this juncture of final surrender. Was it his own will that brought him here or was it the will of the Total Consciousness? Who lured whom into this union? 

In some sense if both are essentially one entity it is redundant to believe there are two separate wills here. However from the perspective of common thinking, it is indeed a rare occurrence that the universal will be perfectly aligned with an individual person’s will. 

A decisive answer to Namdev’s question becomes less relevant. The experience of the union is what ultimately matters.

The experience is what is known as samadhi. Etymologically sama+dhi is the perfect integration of intellect where the observer, observed and act of observation become one. In that union all mental concepts, constructs, questions and doubts merge and equilibrate. This is therefore also at times referred to as Nirvikalp Samadhi. Not to be mistaken as burying doubts. It is a state of transcending doubts and finding them irrelevant because you have accessed meaningful existence. Doubts do not add value to your existence in pure awareness.

As one can see after studying these writings of the saints that they are more than what meets the eye at first glance. They are direct pathways to the eyes of God. 

माझा भाव तुझे चरणी

तुझें रूप माझे नयनीं

सापडलों एकामेकां

जन्मोजन्मीं नोहे सुटका

त्वा मोडिली माझी माया

मी तो जडलो तुझिया पायां

त्वा मज मोकविलें विदेहीं

मी तुज घातलें ह्रदयीं 

नामा म्हणे गा सुजाणा 

सांग कोणे ठकविले कोणा?