Abhanga 557

Genuine devotion is not indifferent to the suffering of others and can include real anger and protest directed straight at God about it.

The verse

Literal translation

What it means

A para-cakra-where-was-You-deva abhang. Historical-context: the 17th-century Deccan saw repeated invasion-and-aggression; this abhang protests the suffering-of-the-people. Three claims:

1. न देखवे डोळां ऐसा हा आकांत — परपीडे चित्त दुःखी होतें — eyes can't see — ākānta — para-pīḍā — citta duḥkhī. The opening-distress-claim: eyes can't bear to see — thisākānta(calamity, public-disaster); para-pīḍā (others' suffering)makes thecittaduḥkhī. Bhakta-suffers-at-seeing-others-suffer.

2. काय तुम्ही येथें नसालसें जालें — आम्हीं न देखिलें पाहिजे हें — परचक्र कोठें हरिदासांच्या वासें — न देखिजेत देशें राहातिया — have You nasālasē? — we don't want to see — para-cakra — where? — Hari-dāsa-vāsa — not seen in country. The protective-rule-claim: Have You —nasālasē(become absent / not-here)?; we don't want todēkhilē pāhijē(have-to-see) this; where there isHari-dāsa-vāsa(dwelling of Hari's servants) —para-cakra(foreign-army / aggression) is not seen — in the country, the place where they live.The protective-rule: where the Hari-dāsa lives, para-cakra is not seen; if it is seen, deva must have been absent.

3. तुका म्हणे माझी लाजविली सेवा — हीनपणें देवा जिणें जालें — Tuka says: my sevā — lājavilī — hīna-paṇa — deva's jīṇē. The closing-shame-charge: Tuka says: mysevāhas beenlājavilī(put-to-shame, exposed-to-disgrace); byhīna-paṇa(low-degree, lowness), the deva'sjīṇē(life-going-on, mode-of-existing) has jālē (become).The deva's-life-going-on has-become-low-by-not-protecting; the bhakta's-sevā is shamed.Reputation-charge.

[T]

For someone today

Here Tukaram is not writing about his own private pain but about the suffering of ordinary people around him, and it wrecks him, his eyes can hardly bear to look at the disaster unfolding, and his heart aches simply from witnessing what others are going through. He turns to God almost accusingly, asking whether God has gone missing, because he believed that wherever God's devoted people live, invasion and destruction should not be able to reach them. He even says his own service to God feels humiliated by this failure, as if God's reputation and his own devotion are both diminished by allowing such suffering to happen. This shows that real devotion is not indifferent to the pain of others, it can include anger and protest directed straight at God.

मराठी: इथे तुकाराम स्वतःच्या वैयक्तिक दुःखाबद्दल लिहीत नाहीत तर आजूबाजूच्या सामान्य लोकांच्या दुःखाबद्दल लिहीत आहेत, आणि त्याने ते पूर्णपणे कोसळतात, समोर घडणारी आपत्ती बघणे त्यांच्या डोळ्यांना सहन होत नाही, आणि इतरांचे दुःख बघूनच त्यांचे मन दुखावते. ते जवळजवळ आरोप करत देवाकडे वळतात आणि विचारतात की देव कुठे गायब झाला, कारण त्यांचा विश्वास होता की जिथे देवाचे भक्त राहतात तिथे आक्रमण आणि विनाश पोहोचूच शकत नाही. ते तर असेही म्हणतात की या अपयशामुळे देवाची सेवा करणे त्यांना लाजिरवाणे वाटते, जणू या दुःखाला परवानगी देऊन देवाची प्रतिष्ठा आणि त्यांची स्वतःची भक्ती दोन्ही कमी झाली आहेत. यातून हे दिसते की खरी भक्ती इतरांच्या वेदनांबद्दल उदासीन नसते, ती देवाला थेट प्रश्न विचारणारा राग आणि निषेधसुद्धा असू शकते.

Where this applies

• Eyes can't bear ākānta. Public-distress.
• Where dāsa lives — no para-cakra. Protective-rule.
• Sevāshamed — deva'sjīṇēhīna. Mutual-shame.
• Public-not-personal protest. Political register.

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