संत साहित्य · Tukārām · Abhanga 69 of 4582

Abhanga 69

The hope-bound mind cannot know Narayana. It serves the senses, watches its own desire-jealousies, babbles confused. Hope is to the soul what poison is to food.

When you keep noticing your hope is what's making the practice unproductive — and you have to learn that hope itself is the obstacle, not its non-fulfillment

When you find yourself rehearsing what you want and noticing your mind is not present to anything else — and you have to ask whether the hope-rehearsal is taking up your attention

When food is being ruined by a tiny amount of poison — and you have to recognize the analogy

The verse

आशाबद्ध जन । काय जाणे नारायण ॥१॥ करी इंद्रियांची सेवा । पाहे आवडीचा हेवा ॥ध्रु.॥ भ्रमलें चावळे । तैसें उचित न कळे ॥२॥ तुका म्हणे विषें । अन्न नाशियलें जैसें ॥३॥

Literal translation

English: People bound by hope — how do they know Narayana? They serve the senses; they watch the jealousy of their own desire. Confused babbling — they cannot tell what is fitting. Tuka says: just as poison destroys food.

मराठी: आशाबद्ध माणसांना नारायण कसा कळेल? ते इंद्रियांची सेवा करतात; आपल्या आवडीच्या हेव्याकडे बघतात. भ्रमित बडबड; काय बरोबर ते कळत नाही. तुकाराम म्हणतात — विष अन्न नाश करतं तसंच.

Word-by-word gloss

Marathi	Meaning
आशाबद्ध जन	"people bound by hope"
काय जाणे नारायण	"how do they know Narayana?"
करी इंद्रियांची सेवा	"they do service of the senses"
पाहे आवडीचा हेवा	"they look at the jealousy of (their own) liking"
भ्रमलें चावळे	"confused babbling"
तैसें उचित न कळे	"such that they cannot tell what is fitting"
विषें अन्न नाशियलें जैसें	"as poison destroys food"

What it means

Hope (आशा) here is the forward-leaning desire-state — wanting, expecting, planning-toward-acquisition. The verse claims it is itself the obstacle to bhakti, not its non-fulfillment. The hope-bound mind serves the senses (because hope is what gives sense-pleasures their forward-pull) and watches its own desire-jealousies (the comparison-engine). It cannot tell what is fitting because fittingness requires being present to what is; hope is by definition toward what is not yet. The poison-in-food image is a precise analogy: a small amount of poison ruins all the food. A small amount of hope-toward-acquisition contaminates the entire spiritual life. [T]

For someone today

The modern reframe: hope is celebrated. Stay hopeful, manifest, attract. Tukaram is naming hope's cost: it forward-leans the mind, taking it out of presence, and turns the body into a sense-server-and-comparator. The cure is not despair (which has the same forward-lean toward absence); it is not-leaning — not toward acquisition, not toward avoidance — being where you are. The poison destroys food in any quantity. Hope-toward-acquisition contaminates the practice in any quantity.

मराठी: आधुनिक reframe — आशा कौतुक केली जाते. Hopeful राहा, manifest करा, attract करा. तुकाराम आशेची किंमत नाव सांगतायत — ती मनाला पुढे झुकवते, presence मधून बाहेर काढते — आणि शरीराला sense-server आणि comparator बनवते. उपाय निराशा नाही (जिची सुद्धा absence कडे झुक). उपाय न-झुकणं — acquisition कडे नाही, avoidance कडे नाही — जिथे आहात तिथे असणं. विष कितीही प्रमाणात अन्न नष्ट करतं. आशा कितीही प्रमाणात साधना दूषित करते.

Where this applies

Hope-as-obstacle. Not its non-fulfillment.
Mind rehearsing what you want. That's where attention is going.
Tiny poison in food. Same with hope in practice.