संत साहित्य
Work in progress. Translations and commentary are AI-generated and may contain inaccuracies or hallucinations — please use your own judgement and check against the original sources.

Abhanga 95

English: The vīrasarī has gone — then the wife (herself) strikes him.

When you've waited until after the breaking to start being virtuous — and you have to face that the patching does not reach
When authority has slipped from you in a relationship and you notice the others stop deferring — and you have to recognize the structural change
When you ask whether patience-after-the-breaking is bhakti's dheer or just the wail of someone who lost — Tukaram offers the diagnostic

The verse

गेली वीरसरी । मग त्यासि रांड मारी ॥१॥ मग नये तैसी सत्ता । गेली मागील आणितां ॥ध्रु.॥ भंगलिया चित्ता । न ये काशानें सांदितां ॥२॥ तुका म्हणे धीर । भंगलिया पाठीं कीर ॥३॥

Literal translation

English: The vīrasarī has gone — then the wife (herself) strikes him. The authority that was — once gone — does not return as it was; even retrieving the past does not restore it. The broken heart — no patching mends it. Tuka says: patience after the breaking — is just a wail.

मराठी: वीरसरी गेली — मग त्याला रांड (पत्नीच) मारते. आधीची सत्ता — परत येत नाही; मागील आणून बघितलं तरी. भंगलेलं चित्त — कशाने तरी सांदून येत नाही. तुकाराम म्हणतात — भंगण्यानंतरचा धीर — एक कीर (वावर / आक्रोश).

Word-by-word gloss
Marathi Meaning
गेली वीरसरी "the vīrasarī (virility / commanding authority) has gone"
मग त्यासि रांड मारी "then the woman / wife strikes him"
मग नये तैसी सत्ता "(once gone), authority does not come back as it was"
गेली मागील आणितां "(even) bringing back the past doesn't restore (it)"
भंगलिया चित्ता "the broken heart"
न ये काशानें सांदितां "by no patching does it come (back)"
धीर भंगलिया पाठीं कीर "dheer (patience) after the breaking — is just a wail" (कीर = lament / wail)

What it means

A short, sharp too-late abhang. Two pairs of images: (1) vīrasarī gone → wife strikes him — once authority slips in a household, even the closest person no longer defers. (2) broken heart → no patching — once trust / inner-coherence is broken, no amount of patching mends it. The closing line is the cutting one: धीर भंगलिया पाठीं कीरpatience after the breaking is (just) a wail. The bhakti virtue of dheer (patience, equanimity) is real before the breaking; after the breaking, what looks like patience is just helpless wailing dressed up as patience. [T]

For someone today

This abhang names a temporal-asymmetry most modern psychology underweights. Practices that produce equanimity before a crisis are not equivalent to practices attempted after the crisis. भंगलिया पाठीं कीरafter the breaking, what looks like patience is wail. The implication: build patience-and-authority-and-trust now, while the structure still holds. Trying to assemble them after they have collapsed is just lament. The moment of pre-emptive bhakti is the load-bearing moment; the post-collapse moment is too late.

The harder reading: notice when in your life you are currently in the pre-breaking phase — and use the structure while you have it. Once gone, मग नये तैसी सत्ता — it does not come back as it was.

मराठी: ही ओवी एक temporal-asymmetry नाव सांगते जिला आधुनिक मानसशास्त्र underweight करतं. संकटाच्या आधी equanimity देणारी साधना संकटाच्या नंतर प्रयत्न केलेल्या साधनेसारखी नाही. भंगलिया पाठीं कीर. आर्थ: patience-authority-trust आत्ताच बांधा — रचना अजून टिकलेली असताना. कोलमडल्यानंतर assemble करायचा प्रयत्न म्हणजे फक्त वावर. preemptive bhakti चा क्षण load-bearing क्षण; post-collapse क्षण उशिरा.

कठीण वाचन: तुम्ही जीवनात कुठे सध्या pre-breaking phase मध्ये आहात — आणि रचना असताना ती वापरा. एकदा गेली — मग नये तैसी सत्ता.

Where this applies

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