Abhanga 283
Tukaram gives a plain test for a poisoned heart: if your mind quietly cools with satisfaction whenever someone else falls, loses their job, gets embarrassed, or is defeated, that satisfaction itself marks you as living in a kind of self-made hell — and it usually comes paired with a short, quick temper. This same person tends to strain their ears eagerly toward gossip and cruel talk, and then can't help passing it along to others. Tukaram closes with a sharp image: a mouth with no patience in it is just a quarrelsome, noisy vessel, forever stirring up trouble rather than holding its peace — so the real cure here is to notice that inward flicker of satisfaction at someone else's downfall and refuse to feed it, cultivating patience in both heart and tongue instead.
The verse
आणिकांच्या घातें । ज्यांचीं निवतील चित्तें ॥१॥ ते चि ओळखावे पापी । निरयवासी शीघ्रकोपी ॥ध्रु.॥ कान पसरोनी । ऐके वदे दुष्ट वाणी ॥२॥ तुका म्हणे भांडा । धीर नाहीं ज्याच्या तोंडा॥३॥
Literal translation
Those whose chitta cools at others' ghāta — recognize them as pāpīs; niraya-vāsī, śīghra-kopī. Spreading the ear, hears (and) speaks duṣṭa-vāṇī. Tuka says: bhāṇḍa — no dhīra in (his) mouth.
मराठी: आणिकांच्या घातें — ज्यांचीं निवतील चित्तें — ते चि ओळखावे पापी — निरयवासी शीघ्रकोपी. कान पसरोनी — ऐके वदे दुष्ट वाणी. तुकाराम म्हणतात — भांडा — धीर नाहीं ज्याच्या तोंडा.
Word-by-word gloss
| Marathi | Meaning |
|---|---|
| आणिकांच्या घातें | "at others' ghāta (destruction / killing)" |
| ज्यांचीं निवतील चित्तें | "whosechitta(heart-mind)cools (= gets satisfied)" |
| ते चि ओळखावे पापी | "recognizethemaspāpīs" |
| निरयवासी शीघ्रकोपी | "niraya-vāsī (hell-dwellers), śīghra-kopī (quick-tempered)" |
| कान पसरोनी | "spreading the ear" |
| ऐके वदे दुष्ट वाणी | "hears (and) speaksduṣṭa-vāṇī(wicked-speech)" |
| भांडा धीर नाहीं ज्याच्या तोंडा | "bhāṇḍa (quarreler) — nodhīra(patience) in (his) mouth" |
What it means
A schadenfreude-diagnostic abhang. Three claims:
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आणिकांच्या घातें — ज्यांचीं निवतील चित्तें — whose chitta cools at others' destruction. The schadenfreude-diagnostic. Chitta — heart-mind. Cools (nivaṇē) — gets satisfied, finds rest. When another's destruction is what cools your chitta, you have failed the bhakta-test. The schadenfreude is itself the diagnostic of pāpī-status.
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ते चि ओळखावे पापी — निरयवासी शीघ्रकोपी — recognize them as pāpīs; niraya-vāsī, śīghra-kopī. The labels. Pāpī (sinner), niraya-vāsī (hell-dweller), śīghra-kopī (quick-tempered). Quick-temper is also a marker — the short-fuse combined with cooling-at-others-destruction is the pāpī-pattern.
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कान पसरोनी — ऐके वदे दुष्ट वाणी — spreading the ear, hears (and) speaks wicked-speech. The ear-and-tongue pattern. The pāpī actively spreads the ear (= eagerly listens) for wicked-speech; and speaks the wicked-speech (= passes it on). The eagerly-listening + passing-on is the speech-mark.
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तुका म्हणे भांडा — धीर नाहीं ज्याच्या तोंडा — Tuka says: bhāṇḍa — no dhīra in his mouth. The closing-image. Bhāṇḍa — quarreler, scold, vessel-of-noise. No dhīra (patience) in his mouth — the mouth speaks impulsively, without restraint. (Compare 274's dhīra makes hira; here, no-dhīra makes bhāṇḍa.)
[T]
For someone today
Tukaram gives a plain test for a poisoned heart: if your mind quietly cools with satisfaction whenever someone else falls, loses their job, gets embarrassed, or is defeated, that satisfaction itself marks you as living in a kind of self-made hell — and it usually comes paired with a short, quick temper. This same person tends to strain their ears eagerly toward gossip and cruel talk, and then can't help passing it along to others. Tukaram closes with a sharp image: a mouth with no patience in it is just a quarrelsome, noisy vessel, forever stirring up trouble rather than holding its peace — so the real cure here is to notice that inward flicker of satisfaction at someone else's downfall and refuse to feed it, cultivating patience in both heart and tongue instead.
मराठी: तुकाराम विषारी मनाची एक साधी कसोटी देतात — दुसरा कोणी अडचणीत आला, नोकरी गमावली, अपमानित झाला किंवा हरला, आणि तेव्हा तुमचे मन शांत, समाधानी वाटले, तर तेच समाधान तुम्ही एका प्रकारच्या स्वनिर्मित नरकात राहत असल्याचे लक्षण आहे — आणि ते सहसा तीव्र, चटकन चिडणाऱ्या स्वभावासोबतच येते. अशी व्यक्ती कान टवकारून वाईट बोलणे, कुजबुज ऐकण्यास उत्सुक असते, आणि ते पुढे इतरांना सांगितल्याशिवाय राहत नाही. तुकाराम शेवटी एक बोचरी प्रतिमा मांडतात — ज्या तोंडात धीर नाही ते तोंड म्हणजे नुसते भांडखोर, गोंगाट करणारे भांडे आहे, जे शांत राहण्याऐवजी सतत भांडण उकरून काढते — म्हणून खरा उपाय म्हणजे दुसऱ्याच्या अपयशावर मनात उमटणारी ती क्षणिक समाधानाची लहर ओळखून तिला खतपाणी न घालणे, आणि त्याऐवजी मनात व जिभेवर धीर जोपासणे.
Where this applies
- Cooling-at-others'-destruction is the diagnostic. Don't moderate.
- Schadenfreude pairs with quick-temper. Both together.
- Ear-spread + tongue-passes-on. Speech-mark.
- Bhāṇḍa= no-dhīra-in-mouth. Cultivate dhīra.