Abhanga 269

Right action carries far more weight than it seems and quietly sustains both your life and your integrity, while craving after food, honor, or wealth now only breeds future suffering.

The verse

Literal translation

What it means

A kanyā-dāna ethics + prārabdha abhang. Five claims:

1. साळंकृत कन्यादान — पृथ्वीसमान — adorned daughter-giving = equals the earth. Sālankṛta kanyā-dāna — giving the daughter in marriage with full adornment (clothes, jewelry, what-she-needs) — is equivalent to giving away the entire earth as dāna. The karma-credit is enormous. (The negative-reading — paying dowry to the groom's family — is not what kanyā-dāna means here; kanyā-dāna is the parents giving the daughter in proper-marriage with-her-things. The daughter is the gift, not the goods-sent-with-her-as-price.)

2. परि तें न कळे या मूढा — येइल कळों भोग पुढां — the mūḍha doesn't know — the bhoga will come and be known later. The fool (= one who treats the kanyā-dāna lightly or who refuses-to-do-it-properly) does not realize the karma-stake. The bhoga (= the karma-result-experienced) will come later. The karma-mechanism does not require belief.

3. आचरतां कर्म — भरे पोट राहे धर्म — practicing karma, the belly fills, dharma stays. Doing the right-action (kanyā-dāna and other right-conduct) — fills the belly (= life-needs are met) and dharma is preserved. The practical-and-spiritual benefits coexist. (Compare 261's protect-dharma-by-effort.)

4. सत्या देव साहे — ऐसें करूनियां पाहें — the deva supports the truth — do (this) and see. The deity-supports-the-truthful claim. The bhakta is encouraged to test: do this and see. Don't demand proof in advance; practice and observe.

5. अन्न मान धन — प्रारब्धा आधीन — food, honor, wealth — under prārabdha. Three things — food, honor, wealth — areprārabdha-determined(=result of past-karma already in motion). Thebhakta's sōsa (greed) for these does not change them; theprārabdha-mechanism is what determines them.

6. तुका म्हणे सोस — दुःख आतां पुढें नास — Tuka says: (present) sōsa — (future) duḥkha — nāśa. The closing-rule. Sōsa now (= greed-craving in the present) → duḥkha later, then nāśa (destruction). The karma-cycle of greed.

[T]

For someone today

Tukaram says that doing right by others — like giving a daughter in marriage properly, fully providing for her — carries as much weight as giving away the whole earth, even though the fool doesn't grasp how much is at stake until the results catch up with him later. Doing what's right isn't opposed to practical life: honest action both puts food on the table and keeps your integrity intact, so there's no need to choose between the two. Tukaram tells us to actually test this — do the truthful thing and watch for yourself whether God backs it up, rather than demanding proof in advance. Food, status, and wealth are already set in motion by what came before, so there's little point craving after them now, because that craving in the present only breeds suffering and ruin down the road.

मराठी: तुकाराम सांगतात की एखादे योग्य कृत्य करणे — जसे मुलीला साजेसा साज देऊन, तिची पूर्ण तरतूद करून विवाहात देणे — हे संपूर्ण पृथ्वी दान केल्याइतके मोठे असते, पण मूर्खाला याचे गांभीर्य तेव्हा कळत नाही; फळ पुढे भोगावे लागते तेव्हाच कळते. योग्य आचरण हे व्यवहारी जीवनाच्या विरोधात नाही — सत्कर्मानेच पोटही भरते आणि धर्मही राखला जातो, त्यामुळे दोघांतून एकाची निवड करायची गरज नाही. तुकाराम सांगतात की हे प्रत्यक्ष अनुभवून पाहा — सत्याने वागा आणि देव त्याला साथ देतो की नाही ते स्वतः पाहा, आधीच पुरावा मागू नका. अन्न, मान आणि धन हे आधीच प्रारब्धाने ठरलेले असते, त्यामुळे त्यांची हाव धरण्यात फारसा अर्थ नाही — कारण आजची हाव पुढे दुःख आणि नाश यातच परिणत होते.

Where this applies

• Sālankṛta kanyā-dāna = pṛthvī-samāna. Don't underestimate.
• Mūḍha doesn't know — bhoga comes anyway. Karma-mechanism is automatic.
• Right-karma fills belly + keeps dharma. Practical-and-spiritual together.
• Food-honor-wealth is prārabdha. Don't crave.
• Sōsa-now = duḥkha-later. Karma-warning.

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