Abhanga 26
English: You may listen, but this is not for you, sister; do not leave the convenience of your husband.
The verse
अइकाल परी ऐसें नव्हे बाई । न संडा या सोई भ्रताराची ॥१॥ नव्हे आराणुक लौकिकापासून । आपुल्या आपण गोविलें तें ॥२॥ तुका म्हणे मन कराल कठीण । त्या या निवडोन मजपाशीं ॥३॥
(Source: transliteral.org Sant Tukaram Gatha, abhang 26. Twentieth in the gopī-arc.)
Literal translation
English: You may listen, but this is not for you, sister; do not leave the convenience of your husband. There is no shelter from the worldly — you have entangled yourself with your own self. Tuka says: (only) if you would make your mind hard, having chosen that, come to me.
मराठी (आधुनिक): ऐकाल — पण असं नाही, बाई; नवऱ्याची सोय सोडू नका. लौकिकापासून सुटका नाहीच; तुम्ही स्वतःलाच स्वतःत गुंतवून ठेवलं आहे. तुकाराम म्हणतात — मन कठीण कराल, ते निवडून घ्याल, तरच माझ्याजवळ या.
Word-by-word gloss
| Marathi | Meaning |
|---|---|
| अइकाल परी ऐसें नव्हे बाई | "you may listen, but it is not so / not for you, sister" |
| न संडा या सोई भ्रताराची | "do not leave the convenience / arrangement of the husband" (सोय = arrangement, the convenient given-thing) |
| नव्हे आराणुक लौकिकापासून | "there is no escape / no shelter from the worldly" (आराणुक = shelter, escape) |
| आपुल्या आपण गोविलें तें | "you yourself have entangled yourself" (गोविलें = bound, entangled) |
| मन कराल कठीण | "(if) you would make the mind hard / firm" |
| त्या या निवडोन मजपाशीं | "having chosen that (the firm-mind), come to me" |
What it means
This is the responsible counsel abhang. After 19 abhangs of dramatizing the gopī-rebellion, Tukaram pauses and tells listeners: don't do what you've been listening to me describe. The arc has been beautiful, the journey has had its arrival, the price has been clarified — and now Tukaram is withholding the path from those who would copy it casually. न संडा या सोई भ्रताराची — don't leave the arrangement of the husband. [T]
The reasoning in verse 2 is structural: नव्हे आराणुक लौकिकापासून — there is no shelter from the worldly — combined with आपुल्या आपण गोविलें तें — you yourself have entangled yourself. The point: the worldly cannot be escaped from the outside, because the entanglement is self-made. Leaving the husband does not unmake the entanglement; the entanglement is in you. Without the internal work, the external move just relocates the trap. [T]
The conditional in verse 3 is the abhang's gate: only if you would make your mind hard — only with the right kind of internal hardness — come to me. The path is real but the entry condition is real too. Tukaram is being a good gatekeeper, not a recruiter. [T]
For someone today
English: This abhang is the antidote to romanticizing the previous 19. Tukaram has just walked you through a beautiful and intense narrative — defiance, departure, arrival, deafness, arrival, non-duality, play, the moth-to-the-lamp. And now, plainly: don't do this unless your mind has become hard in the right way. Most readers, romanced by the arc, will not yet have the internal hardness; for them the right counsel is stay.
The "convenience of the husband" — सोई भ्रताराची — translates broadly to the arrangement that is currently working for you. If your conventional life is currently functional, do not blow it up because Tukaram's gopī-arc is moving. The blowing-up will not deliver what the arc delivers; it will only deliver homelessness, because the entanglement was in you, not in the arrangement. Leaving does not solve internal entanglement.
The condition — मन कराल कठीण — if you make the mind hard — points at something like the small-self's death described in 0024. Until that has actually happened, the radical move is premature. The premature move costs everything and delivers nothing.
This is one of Tukaram's most important verses for modern readers because most modern spiritual culture is implicitly recruitment-oriented — yes, leave your job, leave your relationship, follow your heart. Tukaram's gopī-speaker, after embodying the most radical version of that move, actively withholds the recommendation. She says: only if you have already done the internal work. Otherwise, stay.
मराठी: ही ओवी आधीच्या १९ ओव्यांना रोमांचित करण्याचा antidote आहे. तुकाराम तुम्हाला सुंदर आणि तीव्र कथेतून घेऊन गेले — निडरता, सोडणं, आगमन, बहिरेपण, अद्वैत, खेळ, ज्योतीवरचा पतंग. आणि आता स्पष्ट: मन योग्य रीतीने कठीण झाल्याशिवाय हे करू नका. बहुतेक वाचकांकडे आर्क-च्या मोहामुळे ती आंतरिक कठोरता नसेल; त्यांच्यासाठी योग्य सल्ला आहे राहा.
"नवऱ्याची सोय" — सोई भ्रताराची — व्यापक अर्थाने सध्या तुमच्यासाठी कार्यरत असलेली व्यवस्था. तुमचं पारंपरिक जीवन सध्या कार्यरत असेल, तर तुकारामांची आर्क पाहून ते उडवू नका. उडवण्याने जे आर्क देते ते मिळणार नाही; फक्त बेघरत्व मिळेल — कारण गुंता तुमच्यात होता, व्यवस्थेत नाही. सोडण्याने आंतरिक गुंता सुटत नाही.
अट — मन कराल कठीण — ०००२४ मध्ये वर्णिलेल्या छोट्या-मीच्या मृत्यूकडे निर्देश करते. ते खरंच घडलं नसेल, तर radical move अकाली आहे. अकाली move सर्व किंमत मागतो आणि काही देत नाही.
ही तुकारामांची आधुनिक वाचकांसाठी सर्वात महत्त्वाची ओवींपैकी एक आहे — कारण आधुनिक आध्यात्मिक संस्कृती गुप्तपणे recruitment-oriented आहे — हो, नोकरी सोडा, नातं सोडा, मनाचं ऐका. तुकारामांची गोपी-वक्ती, त्या move ची सर्वात radical आवृत्ती जगून, सक्रियपणे शिफारस मागे घेते. ती म्हणते: आंतरिक काम झालं असेल तरच. नाहीतर, राहा.
Where this applies
- When someone is romanticizing leaving their conventional life and asking you for permission. Use Tukaram's words: don't, unless the internal hardness is already there. The honest counsel is stay, with the gate left open for if the condition is later met.
- When you yourself are tempted by a radical move. Diagnostic: has my mind become hard, or is this still wishful? Tukaram's gate is real.
- When the wisdom in front of you is the kind that says don't leave. Distinguish: is this the genuine internal-work-first counsel, or is it fear masquerading? Tukaram's own counsel is the former — and it has the rest of the arc behind it as evidence.