Abhanga 240

When someone returns changed from a hard ordeal, your confusion about recognizing them is honest, not a fault, and a warm embrace, not overthinking, restores the connection.

The verse

Literal translation

What it means

The Kāliya-mardana resolution abhang. Three movements:

1. काळिया नाथूनि आला वरी — पैल हरी दाखविती — (Krishna) subdued Kāliya — came up; here is Hari! they show. The return-from-the-deep. Hari hassubduedthe venom-serpent andcome up. The bhakta-band's recognition gesture: here is Hari! — pointing at his return.

2. दुसरिया भावें न कळे कोणा — होय नव्हेसा संदेह मना — in the prior bhāva, no-one understands — is-or-is-not doubt in the mind. The recognition-difficulty. The bhaktas' prior-bhāva (= the bhāva from before he jumped) cannot recognize the post-leelā Krishna. The is-or-is-not doubt arises in the mana. Is this really him? Is this not?

3. रूपा भिन्न पालट जाला — गोरें सांवळेंसा पैं देखिला — the form changed — the fair is seen as dark. The form-change. The gora (fair) Krishna appears as sāvaḷā (dark) — perhaps because of the Kāliya-venom on the body, or because of the intensity of the leelā. The form has been transformed by the encounter with the deep. Recognition-failure is understandable.

4. आश्वासीत आला करें — तुका खरें म्हणे देव — coming, consoling with (his) hands; deva is true. The resolution. Krishna comes consoling with his hands (= physical, embodied reassurance). And Tuka's closing claim: kharē mhaṇē deva — the deva is true. After all the form-change and recognition-doubt, the deva-is-true. Sāvaḷā or gora — the deva is true.

[T]

For someone today

Sometimes someone you love comes back from a hard, transformative experience looking or feeling different, and you find yourself unsure if you're seeing the same person. Tukaram says this confusion is honest, not a failure on your part — your old sense of them is genuinely out of date after what they've been through. What resolves the doubt isn't figuring it out mentally, but the warmth of their actual touch and presence reassuring you. In the end, despite the change in appearance, the person, and the truth of the relationship, remains real.

मराठी: कधीकधी तुमची प्रिय व्यक्ती एखाद्या कठीण, बदल घडवणाऱ्या अनुभवातून परत येते, तेव्हा ती तीच व्यक्ती आहे की नाही असा संभ्रम तुम्हाला पडतो. तुकाराम म्हणतात हा गोंधळ प्रामाणिक आहे, तुमची चूक नाही — त्या अनुभवानंतर तुमची जुनी ओळख खरोखरच कालबाह्य झालेली असते. हा संभ्रम डोक्याने विचार करून नाही, तर तिच्या प्रत्यक्ष स्पर्शाने आणि उपस्थितीने दूर होतो. शेवटी, रूप बदललं तरी ती व्यक्ती आणि तुमच्या नात्यामधलं सत्य तेच राहतं.

Where this applies

• Return-from-the-deep — recognize. Here is Hari!
• Prior-bhāva will not recognize. Update needed.
• Form-change is honest. Don't self-blame for doubt.
• Consoling-with-hands completes. Deva is true.

Related verses

• 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
• Abhanga 4555 — A true encounter with God proves that plain, steady closeness to him outweighs any amount