The saint Tukaram was Shudra by birth. His adoring of the Lord & creating religious hymns was not only inappropriate but also a sin in the eyes of those who were Brahmans by birth (the topmost class of the Indo-Aryan society) at that time.
A Brahman Rameshwar Bhatt, who was close to him called him & said-“Being a Shudra you should not accomplish all this. Neither veneration, neither recitation of hymns nor the composition of Abhangas(eternal songs).
Tukaram was a person of extremely simple temperament, very affable & ingenuous. He accepted the remarks of Rameshwar Bhatt & questioned-“But the Abhangas which have already been composed, what will happen to them?” Then that heartless priest said-“Sweep them away in the river.”
The detached ascetic Tukaram really disposed off his books in the river Indrayani.Though he did this under pressure, but his heart was wounded & he remained prostrated before the temple of Lord Vitthal for thirteen days without food & water…kept on reckoning-“There must have been some fault in my reverence that the Lord has been adverse to me.”
The invocation of the anguished heart- the heart which has been illuminated by the radiance of truth, never remains unheard. On the thirteenth day Tukaram saw in the dream that the his books are lying at the bank of the river, go & bring them. Then hearing the state of his dream, his devotees went shouting in joy & brought the books from the bank.
Devotion should be total & not partial!