Abhanga 563

A genuinely lit inner light cannot be reached by the world's darkness, the same way a lamp cannot search out darkness or grass cannot smother real fire.

The verse

Literal translation

What it means

A three-impossible-images-bhakta-doesn't-fear abhang. Logical-impossibility register. Three claims:

1. दीप घेउनियां धुंडिती अंधार — भेटे हा विचार अघटित — dīpa — search andhakāra — bhēṭa aghaṭita. The first-impossibility-image: with adīpa(lamp) — searching forandhakāra(darkness); would such abhēṭa(meeting) — beaghaṭita(impossible, never-happens)? Lamp-can't-find-darkness. Light-and-darkness-can't-meet.

2. विष्णुदास आम्ही न भ्यो कळिकाळा — भुलों मृगजळा न घडे तें — Viṣṇu-dāsa — don't fear kalikāḷa — mṛga-jaḷa — not. The application-claim: weViṣṇu-dāsadon't fearkalikāḷa(the kali-age, the dark-age); beingbhulō(deluded) bymṛga-jaḷa(mirage / illusion-water) — doesn't happen for us. Just-as-darkness-can't-meet-light, kalikāḷa-can't-frighten-us, mṛga-jaḷa-can't-delude-us.

3. उधळितां माती रविकळा मळे — हें कैसें न कळे भाग्यहीना — तुका म्हणे तृणें झांके हुताशन — हें तंव वचन वाउगें चि — throwing māti — ravi-kaḷā maḷē? — bhāgya-hīna — Tuka says: tṛṇa — hutāśana — vacana vāugē. The second-and-third-impossibility-images: throwing-upmāti(dust) — does the ravi-kaḷā (sun's-rays) get maḷē (muddied / dirtied)?;how is this not kaḷē (known) to the bhāgya-hīna (luckless / fortuneless)?—Tuka says: tṛṇa (grass / hay) covers the hutāśana (fire-eater = fire)—that vacana (claim, statement) is vāugē (in vain / wrong).Three impossibilities: lamp-can't-find-darkness; dust-can't-muddy-sun's-rays; grass-can't-cover-fire.Bhakta is sun-and-fire; kalikāḷa-and-imitators-and-mirage are dust-and-grass and darkness-with-lamp.

[T]

For someone today

Tukaram uses three simple, everyday impossibilities to explain why he feels unshakeable. You cannot use a lamp to go searching for darkness, because the lamp's own light destroys the darkness the moment it arrives. In the same way, throwing a handful of dust into the air cannot dirty the sun, and a pile of dry grass cannot smother a real fire, the fire simply burns right through it. He says his devotion works the same way, the troubles and confusions of the world, even a whole difficult era, cannot actually reach or delude someone whose inner light is genuinely lit. This is not blind confidence, it is the plain logic of how light and darkness, or fire and grass, actually behave.

मराठी: आपण का अभंग राहतो हे समजावण्यासाठी तुकाराम रोजच्या जीवनातील तीन साध्या पण अशक्य गोष्टींचा वापर करतात. दिवा घेऊन अंधार शोधायला जाता येत नाही, कारण दिव्याचा प्रकाश येताच अंधार नाहीसा होतो. त्याचप्रमाणे, हवेत मूठभर धूळ उडवली तरी सूर्य मलिन होत नाही, आणि वाळलेल्या गवताच्या ढिगाने खरी आग विझवता येत नाही, आग ती जाळूनच टाकते. ते म्हणतात त्यांची भक्तीसुद्धा अशीच काम करते, जगातील अडचणी आणि गोंधळ, अगदी संपूर्ण कठीण काळसुद्धा, ज्याच्या आत खरोखर प्रकाश जळत असतो त्याला स्पर्श करू शकत नाहीत किंवा भुलवू शकत नाहीत. हा आंधळा आत्मविश्वास नाही, हे फक्त प्रकाश आणि अंधार, किंवा आग आणि गवत, प्रत्यक्षात कसे वागतात याचे साधे तर्कशास्त्र आहे.

Where this applies

• Lamp-darkness — aghaṭita. First-image.
• Viṣṇu-dāsa fearless. Application.
• Dust-muddy-sun? Second-image.
• Grass-cover-fire? Third-image.

Related verses

• Abhanga 2448 — The easiest path to God is repeating divine names with love at home, right where you are,
• 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
• Abhanga 4482 — Tukaram teaches that no ritual equals sincerely speaking the Lord's name, that self-center