Abhanga 322

This is a short, urgent prayer. Tukaram asks God not for wealth or deliverance from circumstances but simply to be shown what is genuine and real. He appeals to God's own reputation for compassion, which lives on in the world, reminding God that this very reputation is at stake in whether the prayer is answered. There is urgency here too: even as God watches, death keeps drawing nearer by the hand, so grace must actively step in rather than merely observe. Finally Tukaram asks for a foothold, a lasting place for himself at God's feet — not a physical spot, but a permanent bond with the divine.

The verse

Literal translation

What it means

A short petition-for-genuine-arrival abhang. Three claims:

1. कृपा करुनी देवा — मज साच तें दाखवा — do kṛpā, deva — show me the sācē. The opening-petition. Sācē — genuine, real, true. Show me the genuine. The bhakta is not asking for material-gain or specific-outcome; he is asking for the genuine to be revealed. (Compare 297's prema-priority over offering-quality; same orientation.)

2. तुम्ही दयावंत कैसे — कीर्ति जगामाजी वसे — how are you dayā-vanta — your kīrti abides in the world. The invocation. You are dayā-vanta (compassion-having); your reputation lives in the jaga. The bhakta invokes the deity's reputation as the basis for the petition. (Don't make me a kīrti-falsifying example; your own kīrti depends on this petition's fulfillment.)

3. पाहोनियां डोळां — हातीं ओढवाल काळा — seeing with the eyes — kāḷa pulled by hand. Reading: if I'm not shown the sācē, I will be pulled-by-the-hand by kāḷa (death/time) — even as the dayā-vanta deva watches with eyes. The urgency: kāḷa is approaching; show me the sācē before it pulls me away. (Pāhonīyām ḍoḷām — while you watch with eyes; hātīm oḍhavāla kāḷā — kāḷa will pull / haul me away by the hand.)

4. तुका म्हणे देवा — माझा करावा कुठावा — Tuka says: deva — make my kuṭhāvā. The closing-petition. Kuṭhāvā — place, abode, footprint, spot — make it for me. Make me a place (= give me a footprint, an abode, an established-spot at your feet). (Compare 173's catch him at-the-place; 264's redefining-kin-by-bhakti.)

[T]

For someone today

This is a short, urgent prayer. Tukaram asks God not for wealth or deliverance from circumstances but simply to be shown what is genuine and real. He appeals to God's own reputation for compassion, which lives on in the world, reminding God that this very reputation is at stake in whether the prayer is answered. There is urgency here too: even as God watches, death keeps drawing nearer by the hand, so grace must actively step in rather than merely observe. Finally Tukaram asks for a foothold, a lasting place for himself at God's feet — not a physical spot, but a permanent bond with the divine.

मराठी: ही एक छोटी, आर्त प्रार्थना आहे. तुकाराम देवाकडे धन किंवा परिस्थितीतून सुटका मागत नाहीत, तर फक्त जे खरे आहे ते मला दाखव अशी विनंती करतात. ते देवाच्या दयाळू म्हणून असलेल्या कीर्तीचा आधार घेतात, जी साऱ्या जगात पसरलेली आहे — जणू सांगतात की या विनवणीच्या पूर्ततेवरच तुझी ही कीर्ती अवलंबून आहे. यात निकडही आहे: देव पाहत असतानाच काळ हाताने खेचत पुढे जातो, त्यामुळे नुसते पाहणे पुरेसे नाही, कृपेने प्रत्यक्ष हस्तक्षेप करायला हवा. शेवटी तुकाराम देवाच्या चरणी आपल्याला एक हक्काचे स्थान, कायमचा आसरा द्यावा अशी विनंती करतात — हे भौतिक स्थान नसून देवाशी असलेले कायमचे नाते आहे.

Where this applies

• Petition for the sācē, not outcomes.
• Invoke deity's reputation as theological-leverage. Kīrti in the jaga.
• Urgency: kāḷa pulls even as deity watches. Active-grace needed.
• Kuṭhāvā at the feet. Relational-place petition.

Related verses

• Abhanga 2448 — The easiest path to God is repeating divine names with love at home, right where you are,
• Abhanga 2464 — For today: Pāṇḍuranga is sukha-rūpa ; no wandering, no shaving, no sādhana-pressure ; Chan
• Abhanga 2477 — Like a child too absorbed in play to notice how tired he is, let go and trust the parent c
• Abhanga 2481 — Pandharpur surpasses even the greatest pilgrimage cities because people there set aside pr