Abhanga 356

Tukaram praises Vithoba three times over, even right after being beaten and abused — well done, well done, well done. He recognizes that God, seeing the forbearance already within him, allowed his body to be struck with thorns, as if the trial itself were matched exactly to what he could endure. He names the abuse honestly, without softening it: he was cursed, insulted, and disgraced far beyond any decency. But the deepest gift, he says, was not protection from the attacker's hands — it was being rescued from his own rising anger, so that hatred never took hold of his heart in return.

The verse

Literal translation

What it means

A praise-Viṭhobā-after-torture abhang within the Mambaji Gosavi persecution cluster (cf. 354 colophon, 355). Three claims:

1. बरवें बरवें केलें विठोबा बरवें — well-done, well-done, well-done, Viṭhobā. The triple-praise. Repeated-three-times — to seal the praise. Tukaram praises Viṭhobā for what was done — which is the persecution-allowing-while-protecting.

2. पाहोनि आंत क्षमा अंगी कांटीवरी मारविलें — looking at kṣamā inside, you let me be beaten on the thorns. The deva's-test-of-kṣamā: Viṭhobā saw the kṣamā (forbearance) inside Tukaram — and therefore allowed the body to be beaten on the kānṭīvarī (thorns). The test was permitted because of the inner-kṣamā. (The kānṭīvarī beating is biographically attested — Mambaji is reported to have beaten Tukaram with a thorn-stick.)

3. शिव्या गाळी नीत नाहीं बहु फार विटंबिलें — abuses-without-nīta — much viṭambana. The verbal-abuse-clause: śivyā-gāḷī (curses and abuses) without nīta (rule, propriety) — much viṭambana (mockery, disgrace). The physical-and-verbal abuse is both named.

4. तुका म्हणे क्रोधा हातीं — सोडवूनि घेतलें रे — Tuka says: from the hands of krodha — released and took. The closing-rescue: Viṭhobā released Tukaram from the hands of krodha — and took him. The deepest-rescue is not from the persecutor's hands but from the persecuted's krodha. Krodha could have arisen in Tukaram in response; Viṭhobā released him from this krodha-arising.

[T]

For someone today

Tukaram praises Vithoba three times over, even right after being beaten and abused — well done, well done, well done. He recognizes that God, seeing the forbearance already within him, allowed his body to be struck with thorns, as if the trial itself were matched exactly to what he could endure. He names the abuse honestly, without softening it: he was cursed, insulted, and disgraced far beyond any decency. But the deepest gift, he says, was not protection from the attacker's hands — it was being rescued from his own rising anger, so that hatred never took hold of his heart in return.

मराठी: तुकाराम मार खाल्ल्यावर आणि अपमान झाल्यावरही विठोबाची तीनदा स्तुती करतात — बरवें, बरवें, बरवें. आपल्या अंतरंगातील क्षमा पाहूनच देवाने अंगावर काट्यांचा मार सोसू दिला, जणू ही परीक्षाच आपल्या सहनशक्तीइतकीच होती, हे ते ओळखतात. ते हा अपमान लपवत नाहीत — शिव्या-गाळी, अतोनात विटंबना — सगळे स्पष्टपणे सांगतात. पण खरी देणगी, ते म्हणतात, हल्लेखोराच्या हातांपासून वाचवणे ही नव्हती — तर स्वतःच्याच वाढत्या क्रोधापासून वाचवले जाणे ही होती, जेणेकरून प्रत्युत्तरादाखल त्यांच्या मनात कधीही द्वेष उभा राहिला नाही.

Where this applies

• Triple-praise after torture. Recognize the test-purpose.
• Test calibrated to kṣamā-capacity. Inner-seen, outer-permitted.
• Name the abuse without minimizing. Honest-recognition.
• Rescue from krodha-hands. Deepest-inner-rescue.

Related verses

• Abhanga 2374 — Rather than scattering devotion among many lesser deities who demand offerings, Tukaram sa
• Abhanga 2377 — This detailed meditation on Vitthal standing on a brick at Pandharpur, out of love for his
• Abhanga 2387 — Accept whatever life brings with reverence, and place the burden on God rather than carryi
• Abhanga 2402 — For today: happily take rebirths — IF among the Paṇḍharī-Vārkarīs ; Hari-dāsas' company is