Abhanga 571

Tukaram admits that a life given wholly to devotion can leave a family without livelihood and a wife anguished, and he answers her not with excuses but with honest acceptance of what is written.

The verse

Literal translation

What it means

A bhakta's-followers-no-livelihood-followers'-wives-suffer abhang. Self-aware-of-the-bhakti-band's-family-cost. Five claims:

1. न करवे धंदा — आइता तोंडीं पडे लोंदा — उठितें तें कुटितें टाळ — अवघा मांडिला कोल्हाळ — dhamdā not done — āitā lōmdā falls — beats ṭāḷa — kollāḷa set. The bhakta-band-image: thedhamdā(livelihood) doesn't get done; (but)āitā lōmdā(ready-made mass / lump = food prepared by others) falls in the mouth; whatever rises, beats theṭāḷa(cymbal); kollāḷa (commotion / playful-uproar) is māmḍilā (set up).Bhakta-band: no-livelihood, food-from-charity, all-day-kīrtana.

2. जिवंत चि मेले — लाजा वाटुनियां प्याले — jīvanta-cī mēlē — lajjā — distributed-drunk. The living-dead-claim: they arejīvanta-cī mēlē(alive yet dead, dead-while-living); thelajjā(shame) has beenvāṭuniyām pyālē(distributed and drunk = passed-around-the-circle-and-drunk). They've-lost-shame-as-a-shared-cup-among-them.

3. संसाराकडे न पाहाती ओस पडे — samsāra — don't look — ōsa falls. The household-deserted-claim: tosamsāra— they don't look; it fallsōsa(deserted, in-ruins). They-don't-tend-the-household; it-becomes-deserted.

4. तळमळती यांच्या रांडा — घालिती जीवा नांवें धोंडा — rāṇḍa — taḷa-maḷatī — jīva — dhōmḍā. The wives-curse-claim: theirrāṇḍās(wives)taḷa-maḷatī(anguish, are-tormented); givejīva(their souls / their lives = their husbands) — dhōmḍā (a stone-of-curse = a curse, a stone-of-blame).Wives-anguished-and-curse-the-husbands. (Thejīva-nāmvē-dhōmḍā idiom: cursing-them-by-name as if hurling-a-stone.)

5. तुका म्हणे बरें जालें — घे गे बाइले लीहिलें — Tuka says: bara jālē — bāila — līhilē. The closing-resignation: Tuka says:bara jālē(it's good = let-it-be); take,bāila(wife) —līhilē(what-is-written, what-is-fated). Tukaram tells his own wife: take it, this is what's written. Resignation-to-fate-as-acceptance.

[T]

For someone today

This verse is Tukaram's unflinching look at what a life devoted to bhakti can cost a family. Some who join a band of devotees stop earning a living, eat food that others give them, and spend their days singing and playing cymbals in noisy kirtana while their households fall into ruin. The wives are the ones left to suffer for it, anguished and cursing the husbands who abandoned their duties. Tukaram doesn't hide from this truth — he names his own wife's pain directly and tells her simply to accept what is written, because devotion has a real, human cost and pretending otherwise helps no one.

मराठी: ही ओवी तुकारामांचे भक्तीच्या किमतीबद्दलचे प्रामाणिक चिंतन आहे. भक्तिमार्गाला वाहून घेतलेले काही जण उपजीविका सोडतात, दुसऱ्यांनी दिलेले अन्न खातात आणि दिवसभर टाळ वाजवत कीर्तनात रमतात, तर त्यांचा संसार ओस पडतो. या सगळ्याचा त्रास सोसावा लागतो तो त्यांच्या पत्नींना; त्या तळमळतात आणि नवऱ्यांना दोष देतात. तुकाराम यापासून पळ काढत नाहीत — ते स्वतःच्याच पत्नीचे दुःख मान्य करतात आणि तिला सांगतात, जे लिहिलेले आहे ते स्वीकार कर, कारण भक्तीची किंमत खरी आणि माणुसकीची आहे, ती लपवण्यात काही अर्थ नाही.

Where this applies

• Bhakta-band: no work, all-day-ṭāḷa. Pattern.
• Lajjā drunk shared. Cost-shared.
• Samsāra falls deserted. Households-ruin.
• Take, wife, what's written. Resignation.

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