Abhanga 593

When you know someone closely enough, even their silence becomes familiar and readable rather than frightening, while people who don't know them that well mistake the same silence for rejection.

The verse

Literal translation

What it means

A short deva-house-abōlā-savē-jana-different abhang. Familiarity-with-the-deva register. Three claims:

1. येथील हा ठसा — गेला पडोनियां ऐसा — here — ṭhasā — fell — like this. The opening-mark-claim: here — thisṭhasā(mark, impression, established-pattern); fell (was-cast / became-set) like-this. The bhakti-pattern is set in this manner. Established-impression.

2. घरीं देवाचे अबोला — त्याची ते चि सवे त्याला — नाहीं पाहावें लागत — एकाएकीं च ते रित — in ghara — deva — abōlā — that — savē — no looking — at-once — rita. The deva-house-silence-as-familiarity-claim: in the deva'sghara(house) —abōlā(silence-of-disagreement, sulking-silence); that very is hissavē(habit, accustomed-ness, familiar-mode); no need topāhāvē(look-out, anticipate); at-once (immediately) — thatrita(way, mode) is clear. In the deva-house, even-the-silence is familiar; no-need-to-look-or-anticipate. Familiarity-with-deva-silence.

3. तुका म्हणे जन — तयामध्यें येवढें भिन्न — Tuka says: jana — bhinna — among. The closing-contrast-claim: Tuka says: thejana(people); that much (yēvaḍhē) different (bhinna) among them (tayā-madhyē). Thejanaare different from this familiar-deva-silence-pattern. World-and-bhakta-house-different. (The jana don't have this familiarity-with-deva-silence; they take it as rejection-not-savē.)

[T]

For someone today

Tukaram describes a relationship so close and so established that even God's silence no longer worries him. In his house, when God goes quiet, that is simply God's habit, not a rejection, not something to fret over or watch anxiously for signs of trouble. He knows the pattern immediately, without having to study it. Ordinary people, he says, don't have this; they mistake a loved one's silence for anger or distance because they haven't lived close enough, long enough, to recognize it as just part of who that person is.

मराठी: तुकाराम अशा एका जवळिकीचे वर्णन करतात जी इतकी घट्ट रुजलेली आहे की देवाच्या मौनानेही आता त्यांना काळजी वाटत नाही. त्यांच्या घरात देव जेव्हा अबोला धरतो, तेव्हा तो त्याचा नुसता स्वभाव असतो, नकार नव्हे, चिंता करण्यासारखे किंवा चिन्हांसाठी सावध डोळ्यांनी बघत राहण्यासारखे काहीच नसते. हा नमुना त्यांना क्षणार्धात, कुठलाही अभ्यास न करता कळतो. सामान्य लोकांकडे मात्र हे नसते; ते जवळच्या व्यक्तीच्या मौनाला राग किंवा दुरावा समजून घेतात, कारण ते इतके जवळ, इतका काळ राहिलेलेच नसतात की तो मौनाचा स्वभाव ओळखता यावा.

Where this applies

• Ṭhasā fell here. Pattern-set.
• Deva abōlā — savē. Silence-familiar.
• No anticipation needed. Immediate-knowing.
• Jana differ. World-and-bhakta.

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