Abhanga 213

Sort your true companions from the rest, keep fearful or self-interested people out of positions of trust, and let no dishonesty or hypocrisy near what you hold sacred.

The verse

Literal translation

What it means

A band-sorting abhang. Continuation of the gopa-band-management register (210, 213). Four moves:

1. माझे गडी कोण कोण — निवडा भिन्न यांतुनी — my comrades — who-who? Sort separately from these. The sorting is named directly. Among a larger group, real comrades must be sorted-out. The yāntunī (from-these) implies the not-real-comrades are present; they need to be sorted out from.

2. आपआपणामध्यें मिळो — एक खेळों एकाशीं — let us mix among ourselves — play one-with-another. The internal-circulation of the band. (Compare 183: kālā vāṇṭū ekamekā.) The play is one-with-another, not all-with-all-undifferentiated.

3. घाबरियांच्या मोडा काड्या — धाडा भाड्यां वळतियां — break the frightened-ones' twigs; send the rented-ones with the homing-cattle. Two exclusion-rules:

4. Frightened-ones (ghābariyām) — those who cannot stay through fear — their kāḍyā (twigs / power-sticks) should be broken. They cannot have authority-instruments in the band, even if they are present.

5. Rented-ones (bhāḍyā) — those who come for hire / for what-they-can-get — should be sent back with the homing-cattle. They do not belong with the comrades through the night.

6. देवापाशीं विटाळशी नसावी — at the deva — no viṭāḷaśī (impurity) should be. The closing-claim. Viṭāḷaśī (literally: a menstruating-woman, or by extension any ritually-impure thing) should not be near the deva. Important reading: in Tukaram's recoded register, viṭāḷaśī is NOT the literal menstruating woman — Tukaram is anti-ritual-impurity (compare 75 viṭāḷācīcha mūrti used for the wicked person, not the woman). The viṭāḷaśī here is symbolic — the morally / spiritually impure. Compare 75: the wicked-portrait is called viṭāḷācīcha mūrti — the very image of impurity. The viṭāḷaśī in 213 is the same register — spiritual-impurity, not bodily. The frightened-ones-with-power and the rented-ones of 213 lines 2-3 are the actual viṭāḷaśī Tukaram means.

[T] [Important — Tukaram's anti-ritual-impurity stance must inform reading]

For someone today

This abhang names band-sorting rules — for any community-of-practice. Three precise rules:

1. Sort out who is real-comrade. Not everyone present is a comrade. Mājhe gaḍī koṇa-koṇa? The honest sorting is the first move. Bhinna yāntunī — sort separately from these.

2. Internal-circulation: play one-with-another. Āpa-āpaṇāmadhyē miḷo. The play is among the real-comrades, not all-with-all. This is not exclusion-by-prejudice; it is protection of the real-circulation.

3. Two specific exclusions:

4. Frightened-ones with power (ghābariyām) → break their power-sticks. Those who cannot stay through fear should not have authority-instruments in the band. Their fear will use the authority badly.

5. Rented-ones (bhāḍyā) → send back with the homing-cattle. Those who come for what they can get should go home when the work-cattle go home. They do not belong to the night-vigil.

6. At the deva-level, no spiritual-impurity. Devāpāśīm viṭāḷaśī nasāvī. This is not an injunction against women, lower-castes, or any human group. Tukaram's viṭāḷaśī is moral-spiritual impurity — wickedness, deceit, hypocrisy, the things he condemns in the wicked-portrait of 75. At the deva-level — at the zone of real-presence — the spiritually-impure things should not be there. This is a boundary-keeping, not a people-excluding rule.

For today: when managing a real community-of-practice — sort the comrades from the rest, circulate internally, break the power-sticks of those who are frightened yet hold authority, send the hire-seekers home with the day-workers, and keep the spiritually-impure away from the real-presence-zone. Each rule is practical; none are anti-human.

मराठी: ही ओवी कोणत्याही सामुदायिक साधनेसाठी समूह-चाळणीचे नियम सांगते. तीन नेमके नियम.

1. खरा सोबती कोण आहे ते ओळखा — उपस्थित असलेला प्रत्येकजण सोबती नसतो. 'माझे गडी कोण-कोण?' — हा प्रामाणिक शोधच पहिली पायरी आहे. यांतून वेगळं ओळखा.

2. आपापसांत मिसळणं — एक-एकाशी खेळणं. हा खेळ खऱ्या सोबत्यांमध्येच असतो, सगळ्यांसोबत सगळे असं नाही. हा पूर्वग्रहातून केलेला बहिष्कार नाही; ही खऱ्या अभिसरणाची जपणूक आहे.

3. दोन ठराविक वगळण्याचे नियम — घाबरणाऱ्या पण अधिकार असलेल्यांच्या हातातल्या काठ्या मोडा. जे भीतीपोटी टिकू शकत नाहीत, त्यांच्याकडे समूहात अधिकाराची साधनं नसावीत. त्यांची भीती तो अधिकार चुकीच्या पद्धतीने वापरेल. भाड्याने आलेल्यांना घरी परत पाठवा — जे फक्त काय मिळेल यासाठी येतात, त्यांनी कामाची गुरं घरी जातात तेव्हाच घरी जावं. रात्रभराच्या जागरणात त्यांचं स्थान नाही.

4. देवाजवळ अशुद्धता नसावी — हा नियम स्त्रिया, खालच्या जातींतले किंवा कोणत्याही माणसांच्या गटाविरुद्ध नाही. तुकारामांची अशुद्धता म्हणजे नैतिक-आध्यात्मिक भ्रष्टता — दुष्टपणा, फसवणूक, ढोंग — ज्यांचा ते निषेध करतात. देवाजवळ, खऱ्या उपस्थितीच्या क्षेत्रात, या आध्यात्मिकदृष्ट्या अशुद्ध गोष्टी नसाव्यात. ही सीमा राखण्याची गोष्ट आहे, माणसांना वगळण्याची नाही.

आज एवढंच — कोणत्याही खऱ्या सामुदायिक साधनेचं व्यवस्थापन करताना — खरे सोबती वेगळे ओळखा, आपापसांत मोकळेपणाने वावरा, भिती असूनही अधिकार असलेल्यांच्या हातातली सत्ता काढून घ्या, फक्त फायद्यासाठी येणाऱ्यांना रोजंदारी संपताच घरी पाठवा, आणि आध्यात्मिक अशुद्धतेला खऱ्या उपस्थितीच्या क्षेत्रापासून दूर ठेवा. हे सगळे नियम व्यावहारिक आहेत; कोणताही माणूसविरोधी नाही.

Where this applies

• My comrades — who-who? Sort honestly.
• Internal-circulation among the real-comrades. Not all-with-all.
• Frightened-ones lose power-sticks; rented-ones go home. Two precise exclusions.
• No spiritual-impurity at the deva-level. Symbolic, not anti-human.

Related verses

• Abhanga 2467 — What looks like your whole world, like a fig to the insect living inside it, is only a tin
• Abhanga 4481 — Tukaram promises that sincerely calling on the Lord's name, knowingly or unknowingly, with
• Abhanga 4482 — Tukaram teaches that no ritual equals sincerely speaking the Lord's name, that self-center
• Abhanga 4497 — Tukaram describes a life so soaked in devotion that Krishna's presence fills every ordinar