Abhanga 238

In a crisis, most people run to the bank and watch, letting each grieve in their own way and honestly admitting what they missed, while Tukaram asks whether you will actually jump into the deep with the one you love.

The verse

Literal translation

What it means

A crisis-witness abhang in the Kāliya-mardana sequence. After Krishna jumps into the Yamuna (237), the bhakta-band reacts. Three sharp observations:

1. आपलिया रडती भावें — जयासवें जयापरी — each cries by their own bhāva — by whichever relation. The plurality-of-affects in shared-grief. Each companion has their own bhāva with Krishna; the grief is not uniform. Some cry as friends, some as protectors, some as worshippers, some as children. The bhāva-uniqueness is preserved even in collective-crisis.

2. चुकलों आम्ही खेळतां खेळ — गेला गोपाळ हातींचा — we missed in playing the game — the gopāl is gone from our hands. The self-recognition: we (= the bhakta-band) missed in playing the game; the gopāl has gone-from-our-hands. The bhaktas take responsibility: they missed; they let him go-from-their-hands. (Compare 230's kabaddi-trap played, cattle avoided — the bhaktas' game-engagement causes neglect of the deity-charge.)

3. धांवती थडी — न घली उडी आंत कोणी — they run to the bank — but no one jumps inside. The sharp critique. They all run to the bank (= externally-respond, witness, gather, lament) — but none jumps inside (= none enters the deep with Krishna). The bank-running-no-jumping is the failure-mode. The bhakta-band witnesses externally but does not enter. [T]

For someone today

This abhang names a common failure in bhakti. When crisis strikes, each person's grief takes its own form — some cry as friends, some as protectors, some as worshippers — and that plurality should be honored rather than forced into a single uniform expression. The bhaktas here also take honest responsibility: they don't blame Krishna for jumping into the river, they admit that they themselves were absorbed in play and let him slip from their hands. But Tuka's sharpest observation is this: everyone runs to the riverbank to watch and lament, yet no one actually jumps in after him. Running to the bank — witnessing, gathering, talking about the crisis — is not the same as diving into the deep with the one you love; ask yourself honestly which of the two you are actually doing.

मराठी: ही ओवी भक्तीतल्या एका सामान्य चुकीच्या पद्धतीचं नाव सांगते. संकट आलं की प्रत्येकाचं दुःख वेगळ्या रूपात व्यक्त होतं — कुणी मित्र म्हणून रडतो, कुणी रक्षणकर्ता म्हणून, कुणी भक्त म्हणून — आणि हे वेगळेपण जबरदस्तीने एकसारखं न करता जपायला हवं. इथले भक्त प्रामाणिकपणे स्वतःची जबाबदारीही घेतात — कृष्ण नदीत उडी मारला म्हणून त्याला दोष न देता, ते कबूल करतात की आम्हीच खेळात इतके गुंग होतो की तो आमच्या हातातून निसटला. पण तुकारामांचं सगळ्यात तीक्ष्ण निरीक्षण हे आहे — सगळे नदीकाठी धावत जातात, बघत राहतात, हळहळतात, पण कोणीही आत उडी मारत नाही. काठावर धावणं — नुसतं बघणं, गोळा होणं, बोलणं — म्हणजे प्रिय व्यक्तीसोबत खोल पाण्यात उडी मारणं नव्हे; तुम्ही खरंच यातलं कोणतं करत आहात हे स्वतःलाच प्रामाणिकपणे विचारा.

Where this applies

• Plural bhāvas in shared-grief. Don't force uniformity.
• Honest self-blame: I let-it-happen. Not survivor-guilt.
• Bank-running is not jumping-inside. Witnessing ≠ entering.

Related verses

• Abhanga 2448 — The easiest path to God is repeating divine names with love at home, right where you are,
• Abhanga 2467 — What looks like your whole world, like a fig to the insect living inside it, is only a tin
• Abhanga 2494 — Living in devotion turns an ordinary day into a festival and removes the fear of birth and
• Abhanga 4481 — Tukaram promises that sincerely calling on the Lord's name, knowingly or unknowingly, with