Abhanga 587

A fault you refuse to give up keeps aching at your tender spot, and the reckoning it eventually brings is harsh, so let honest, stinging words wake you up now rather than face a heavier accounting later.

The verse

Literal translation

What it means

A don't-leave-avaguṇa-yama-daṇḍa-pain abhang. Strong-warning register. Three claims:

1. न संडी अवगुण — वर्में मानीतसे सिण — avaguṇa — not samḍī — varma — siṇa felt. The opening-warning: ifavaguṇa(defects) is notsamḍī(given-up, abandoned); by thevarma(the vital / sensitive-spot) — siṇa (weariness, pain) is felt.Avaguṇa-not-given-up causes pain at the sensitive-point.

2. भोग देतां करिती काई — फुटतां यमदंडें डोई — पापपुण्यझाडा — देतां तेथें मोटी पीडा — bhōga given — what doing? — yama-daṇḍa — dōī cracked — pāpa-puṇya-jhāḍā — given there — mōṭī pīḍā. The yama-account-claim: what does it do whenbhōga(the experience-of-result) is given?; theyama-daṇḍa(Yama's-staff) cracks-open the dōī (head);pāpa-puṇya-jhāḍā(sin-merit-accounting) — when given there — mōṭī pīḍā (great pain).The yama-court breaks the head; the sin-merit-accounting brings great pain.

3. तुका म्हणे बोला — माझ्या सिणती विठ्ठला — Tuka says: bōlā — siṇatī Viṭṭhalā. The closing-bhakta-speech-causes-suffering: Tuka says: by mybōlā(speech, verses); theysiṇatī(suffer, weary),Viṭṭhalā. By-the-bhakta's-truth-speech, the avaguṇa-doers-feel-the-pain. Truth-speech-as-warning. (The bhakta's-words are themselves the warning that causes the avaguṇa-doer to feel the varma-pain.)

[T]

For someone today

Tukaram warns that a fault you refuse to let go of doesn't just sit there quietly; it keeps pressing on your most tender, sensitive place until you feel the ache of it. He pictures the reckoning that comes later, when the consequences of what you've done finally arrive, as something as hard as a blow to the head, and the settling of accounts between your good and bad actions as its own kind of great pain. Tukaram says his own words, his verses, are meant to sting on purpose: hearing hard truths spoken plainly is what wakes people up before the reckoning comes. Better to feel that sting now, from honest words, than to wait for a much heavier reckoning later.

मराठी: तुकाराम सांगतात की जो दोष आपण सोडत नाही, तो शांत बसून राहत नाही; तो आपल्या सगळ्यात हळव्या, संवेदनशील जागी सतत टोचत राहतो, आणि त्याचा शीण जाणवतच राहतो. पुढे केव्हातरी आपल्या कृत्यांचे परिणाम समोर येतात, तेव्हाचा तो हिशोब डोक्यावर आघात व्हावा इतका कठोर असतो, आणि पाप-पुण्याचा हा ताळेबंद स्वतःच एक मोठी पीडा असतो. तुकाराम म्हणतात की माझे शब्द, माझ्या ओव्या मुद्दामच झोंबणाऱ्या आहेत — कठोर सत्य ऐकवणे हेच माणसाला वेळेत जागं करतं. हा आताचा टोचणारा सत्यशब्द सोसणे, नंतरच्या जड हिशोबापेक्षा नक्कीच बरे आहे.

Where this applies

• Avaguṇanot-given-up —varma pain. Internal-cost.
• Yama-daṇḍa cracks head. Final-bhōga.
• Pāpa-puṇya account. Mōṭī pīḍā.
• Bhakta speech wakes. Truth-warning.

Related verses

• Abhanga 2448 — The easiest path to God is repeating divine names with love at home, right where you are,
• Abhanga 2464 — For today: Pāṇḍuranga is sukha-rūpa ; no wandering, no shaving, no sādhana-pressure ; Chan
• Abhanga 2477 — Like a child too absorbed in play to notice how tired he is, let go and trust the parent c
• Abhanga 2481 — Pandharpur surpasses even the greatest pilgrimage cities because people there set aside pr