Abhanga 336

The suffering that consumes you may be as unreal as forced labor in a dream, and while pain itself can wake you up, sometimes it takes someone else, like the saints, to finally rouse you.

The verse

Literal translation

What it means

A dream-as-vēṭhī abhang. Four claims:

1. स्वप्नीचिया गोष्टी — मज धरिलें होतें वेठी — जालिया सेवटीं जालें लटिकें सकळ — dream-things — I had been seized in vēṭhī — when ended, all became laṭikē. Vēṭhī — forced-labor / unpaid-conscription. The dream seized me as if into vēṭhī. When the dream ended, all (the seizure) became laṭikē (false). The suffering-while-asleep was a vēṭhī-illusion.

2. वायां भाकिली करुणा — मूळ पावावया सिणा — राव रंक राणा — कैंचे स्थानावरि — in vain made karuṇā to reach the mūla of śiṇa — king, beggar, queen — what sthāna? The mūla-of-strain was sought-in-vain; king, beggar, queen — what sthāna (true-position) do they have? In the dream, positions are not real-positions.

3. सोसिलें तें अंगें खरें होतें नव्हतां जागें — अनुभव ही सांगे — दुःखें डोळे उघडीले — suffered-with-body was true while not awake — anubhava says — sufferings opened the eyes. The sufferings were true only as long as not-awake; upon waking, they were false. The anubhava (experiential-realization) — the dukha itself opened the eyes. Suffering is its own waking-cue.

4. संतीं सावचित केलें अंतीं — नाहीं तरि टाळी बैसोनि राहिली — saints made me sāvacita at the end — otherwise the ṭāḷī would have remained. Sāvacita — alert, awake. Ṭāḷī — silenced-stuck-state (= the trance-locked state of the dreamer). The saints' intervention at the end woke me; otherwise the ṭāḷī would have remained.

[T]

For someone today

Tukaram compares his past suffering to being trapped in forced labor within a dream — once the dream ended, all of it turned out to be false. Chasing the true source of that anguish was pointless, because in a dream even a king, a beggar, and a queen have no real standing at all. Still, the pain itself was not wasted: like real experience, that suffering itself began to open his eyes. But it was ultimately the saints who fully roused him in the end — without their help, he might have stayed caught in that trance forever.

मराठी: तुकाराम आपल्या भूतकाळातील दुःखाची तुलना स्वप्नातील वेठबिगारीशी करतात — स्वप्न संपले की ते सगळे खोटे ठरले. त्या यातनांचे खरे मूळ शोधणे व्यर्थ होते, कारण स्वप्नात राजा, भिकारी आणि राणी यांनाही खरे स्थान नसते. तरीही ते दुःख निरर्थक नव्हते — खऱ्या अनुभवाप्रमाणे त्या दुःखानेच त्यांचे डोळे उघडायला सुरुवात केली. पण अखेर संतांनीच त्यांना पूर्णपणे जागे केले — त्यांच्या मदतीशिवाय ते कदाचित त्या गुंगीतच अडकून राहिले असते.

Where this applies

• Dream-suffering ends as laṭikē. Vēṭhī-frame.
• In vain seek the mūla-of-śiṇa. Positions are dream-positions.
• Suffering opens eyes. Self-waking-cue.
• Saints wake at the end. Trust the mechanism.

Related verses

• Abhanga 2464 — For today: Pāṇḍuranga is sukha-rūpa ; no wandering, no shaving, no sādhana-pressure ; Chan
• Abhanga 2490 — The divine is most reachable through the living presence of a true saint, not through a di
• 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