Abhanga 674

When you are surrounded on every side with no way out, calling on God's name is the real way through, and help often arrives through ordinary means rather than a miracle.

The verse

Literal translation

What it means

A prēma-guja-narrative-doe-fawns-hunter-fire-saved-by-nāma-smaraṇa abhang. Bhakti-narrative-pavāḍa register. The structure is a complete narrative-of-divine-rescue:

1. Setup: One doe with two fawns grazing in joy in the forest.

2. Threat: A hunter arrives with two dogs. He arranges a four-fold trap: trap-net (vāghura) on one side, dog-pups (decoy) on another, wildfire on a third, himself on the fourth. The mṛgas are surrounded from all four sides.

3. Smaraṇa: The mṛgas begin to remember the nāma — Rāmā-Kṛṣṇā Hari Govinda Kēśava — the very-multi-name deva-of-devas litany. They cry: who saves in such a sankaṭa without You?

4. Rescue: Hearing them, Jagat-jēṭhī's kṛpā-antaḥkaraṇa melts. He commands: parjanya (rain) extinguishes the wildfire; a rabbit is raised-up-and-flees; the two dogs go after the rabbit; the mṛgas startle and quickly leave. Govinda saved them.

5. Praise: You are kṛpāḷu-dayāḷu; jīva-laga (life-attached) to Your bhaktas; such kīrti is loved in life. Rakhumāī's pati, Tuka says.

This is the classical bhakti-narrative-of-divine-rescue. The four-fold trap (vāghura-dog-pup-wildfire-hunter-himself) is striking and concrete. The rescue is accomplished through means rather than miracle: parjanya extinguishes the fire, a rabbit-decoy distracts the dogs, the mṛgas-themselves slip-out. Govinda manages-the-situation, doesn't merely-zap-it-away.

The four-fold-trap and four-fold-rescue is also a sub-structural-claim: each side of the surrounding-samsāra has its appropriate divine-counter-move.

[T]

For someone today

Tukaram tells a story: a doe and her two fawns are grazing happily in the forest when a hunter surrounds them on all four sides at once, with a trap-net, decoy dogs, a wildfire, and himself. Trapped with no way out, the fawns and doe do the only thing left to them, they cry out God's name, Rama, Krishna, Hari, Govinda, Keshava, asking who else could save them from such danger. Moved with compassion, God sends rain to put out the fire and sends a rabbit running past to pull the dogs away, and the deer slip free. Tukaram's point is that this rescue happens through ordinary means, not a lightning bolt from the sky, and that this is exactly how deeply God is attached to the life of those who call on him. When you feel boxed in from every side, calling out is not a last resort, it is the move that actually opens a way through.

मराठी: तुकाराम एक गोष्ट सांगतात: एक मृग आपल्या दोन पाडसांसह वनात आनंदाने चरत असते, तेवढ्यात एक पारधी चहूबाजूंनी तिला घेरतो — एका बाजूला जाळे, एका बाजूला भुभुकणारी पिल्ले, एका बाजूला वणवा आणि चौथ्या बाजूला स्वतः. सुटकेचा कोणताही मार्ग नसताना मृग आणि पाडसें एकच गोष्ट करतात — देवाचे नाव घेतात, राम, कृष्ण, हरी, गोविंद, केशव, आणि विचारतात की तुझ्याशिवाय अशा संकटातून कोण वाचवील. त्यांची हाक ऐकून देवाचे मन कळवळते, तो पाऊस पाठवून वणवा विझवतो आणि एक ससा पळवून कुत्र्यांचे लक्ष वळवतो, आणि मृगें सुटतात. तुकारामांचा मुद्दा असा की हे रक्षण साध्या, सामान्य मार्गांनी होते, कुठल्या चमत्काराने नाही, आणि हेच दाखवते की देव आपल्या भक्तांच्या जिवाशी किती घट्ट जोडलेला आहे. तुम्हाला चहूबाजूंनी घेरल्यासारखे वाटते तेव्हा हाक मारणे हा शेवटचा उपाय नसून, तोच खरा मार्ग उघडणारा उपाय आहे.

Where this applies

• Doe-and-fawns surrounded. Innocent-life-trapped.
• Four-fold trap. Surrounded-samsāra.
• Nāma-smaraṇa. Cry-of-many-names.
• Means-rescue. Govinda-manages.
• Rakhumāī's pati. Mudra.

Related verses

• Abhanga 2448 — The easiest path to God is repeating divine names with love at home, right where you are,
• Abhanga 2467 — What looks like your whole world, like a fig to the insect living inside it, is only a tin
• 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