Abhanga 201

Trouble grows through one more comfortable-seeming commitment at a time, and once the stakes are high you cannot simply walk away, so cut free decisively before that moment arrives.

The verse

Literal translation

What it means

A folk-game-overload abhang — using viṭū-dāṇḍū (the Marathi children's bat-and-stick game, played with a small wooden stick that is hit at one end to make it fly) as the metaphor for life's dāvas (turns / situations / vicissitudes). Six structural moves:

1. माग विटूदांडू — आणीक कांही खेळ मांडूं — bring back viṭū-dāṇḍū, let's set up some other games. The opening is innocent — children's voice — let's add more games. The trap is: adding-more-games without dropping prior ones.

2. बहु अंगा आले डाव — स्थिर नाहीं कोठें पाव — many dāva have come on the body; foot doesn't stay anywhere. The result of adding more games: too many turns/situations on the body simultaneously; the foot cannot find any stable ground.

3. कोली हाणे टोला — झेली तेणें तो गोविला — the hunter hits a smack; whoever catches is entangled by that catching. The catching-trap: in each game, catching (which seems like winning) is itself being-entangled. The hunter (the game / circumstance / desire) throws something; whoever catches (= responds, claims, takes) is trapped by the catch.

4. एकमेकां हाका मारी — सेल जाळी एक धरी — they call each other; one catches by the net. The social-game nested in the others: people call each other into the games; one catches another by the sela-jāḷī (net of social-pull).

5. राजी आलें नांव — फेरा न चुकेचि धांव — the rājī name comes; the round doesn't miss the run. The stakes-rising: when the rājī (queen-card / high-stake) is on the table, the round demands the run. You cannot opt out at the high-stake moment.

6. खेळ मोडावा परता — break the game aside. The closing-imperative is severe. Not play-better, not exit-gracefully, not optimize-the-game — but break the game aside. Paratā — aside, away, separate — is Tukaram's repeated insistence (compare 080's jeva ahankar gelā tevha āpa-para boḷavile, 173's thāyīncyā thāyī).

[T]

For someone today

Tukaram watches how trouble sneaks in, not through one bad choice but through quietly stacking one more game, one more commitment, one more obligation on top of what you already carry. You know the load has crossed the line when you cannot find solid footing anywhere, no matter which way you turn. The trap is subtle: even winning at these games, catching what is thrown at you, is itself what tangles you up further, and other people calling you into their games only pulls you deeper in. Once the stakes get high you cannot simply walk away, so the real work is deciding earlier, before that high-stakes moment arrives, that you are done. Tukaram's answer is not to play smarter or manage better, it is to break away entirely.

मराठी: तुकाराम इथे सांगतात की संकट एका चुकीच्या निर्णयातून येत नाही, तर एकामागोमाग एक खेळ, एक जबाबदारी, एक व्यवधान अंगावर घेत राहिल्याने हळूहळू साचत जाते. जेव्हा कुठेही पाय स्थिर टेकत नाही, तेव्हा समजावे की भार मर्यादेबाहेर गेला आहे. गंमत अशी की या खेळांत जिंकणे, म्हणजे एखादी गोष्ट झेलून घेणे, हेच अधिक गुंतवून टाकते; आणि इतरांच्या हाकाही तुम्हाला आणखी आत ओढतात. एकदा पैज मोठी झाली की मध्येच बाहेर पडता येत नाही, म्हणून खरा निर्णय आधीच घ्यावा लागतो. तुकारामांचे उत्तर खेळ अधिक चांगला खेळण्याचे नाही, तर तो पूर्णपणे मोडून बाजूला ठेवण्याचे आहे.

Where this applies

• Foot finds no ground anywhere. Threshold-crossing diagnostic.
• Catching = entangled. Counter-intuitive but precise.
• Break-aside, severely. Don't try to play-better.

Related verses

• Abhanga 2374 — Rather than scattering devotion among many lesser deities who demand offerings, Tukaram sa
• Abhanga 2377 — This detailed meditation on Vitthal standing on a brick at Pandharpur, out of love for his
• Abhanga 2387 — Accept whatever life brings with reverence, and place the burden on God rather than carryi
• Abhanga 2402 — For today: happily take rebirths — IF among the Paṇḍharī-Vārkarīs ; Hari-dāsas' company is