The Abhang 3-Come O Vitthal for the love of your bhakta
The abhang, above all, is a form of Bhakti poetry.
The poet-saints who wrote the abhangs believed in a direct and personal relationship with the Divine. The great tradition of Bhakti literature in Marathi can be said to have begun with Jnyaneshwar (also spelled Dnyaneshwar and also known as Jnyanadeva) and carried on by others like Namdeo, Janabai, Eknath, Tukaram and Bahinabai.
The Sanskrit noun bhakti is derived from the verb root bhaj, whose meanings include “to share in”, “to belong to”, and “to worship”.[6] It also occurs in compounds where it means “being a part of” and “that which belongs to or is contained in anything else.”[20] Bhajan, or devotional singing to God, is also derived from the same root.[21] “Devotion” as an English translation for bhakti doesn’t fully convey two important aspects of bhakti—the sense of participation that is central to the relationship between the devotee and God, and the intense feeling that is more typically associated with the word “love”. link
Dilip Chitre writes:
The deity does not represent any sectarian dogma to the Bhakta but only a common object of universal love or a common spiritual focus. Poetry is another expression of the same fellowship. Tukaram may have written his poems in loneliness but he recited them to live audiences in a shrine of Vitthal. Hundreds of people gathered there to listen to his poetry. The poetess Bahinabai, a contemporary and a devoted follower of Tukaram, has described how Tukaram, in a state of trance, chanted his poems while an enraptured audience rocked to their rhythm.
This had been a tradition from the time of Jnandev (1275-1296), the founder of Marathi poetry and the cult of Vithoba and Namdeo (1270-1350), the great forerunner of Tukaram. The audience consisted of common village-folk, including women and low-caste people, thrilled by the heights their own language [edited to add: as opposed to Sanskrit] scaled and stirred by the depths it touched.
In the video below, the popular abhang Bhaktajana Vatsale by Sant Namdeo is sung by Suresh Wadkar. In this abhang Vitthal is also referred to as the world’s mother, tu vishwachi janani and as Jagadamba- another name for the Mother Goddess, which means mother of the universe. The words and translations are superimposed on top.
Just read a chapter on Tukaram in a book called A Social History of the Deccan Eight Indian Lives by Ricard Eaton. It was fascinating to read that the whole Varkari, Bhakti Movement in Maharashtra was a non Brahmin religious or spiritual movement. They challenged the claim that only Brahmins have the right to preach devotion to God and get His grace.
Have edited this post a bit to illustrate the point you are making-am going to talk about it a little further on the next post too.
This series is going great !!! Keep it up.