संत साहित्य
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संत साहित्य · Tukārām · Abhanga 675 of 4582

Abhanga 675

Devotion cannot be handed to someone else if it isn't genuinely present in you first, since what the measure holds is exactly what fills the sack.

When the speaker is bound-by-āśā and the listener's mind is in fear — and you have to recognize this register
When both are lōbhī (greedy); the bhajan is vain — and you accept this image
When like measure, like sack; both empty — and you receive this final aphorism

The verse

आशाबद्ध वक्ता । धाक श्रोतयाच्या चित्ता ॥१॥ वांयां गेलें तें भजन । उभयतां लोभी मन ॥ध्रु.॥ बहिर्मुख एके ठायीं । तैसें जालें तया दोहीं ॥२॥ माप तैसी गोणी । तुका म्हणे रितीं दोन्ही ॥३॥

Literal translation

Āśā-baddha vaktā — dhāka in the śrōtā's citta. The bhajana went vain — both have lōbhī mana. Bahirmukha in one place — so-it-became for both. Māpa taisī gōṇī — Tuka says: both — ritī (empty).

मराठी: आशा-बद्ध वक्ता — श्रोत्याच्या चित्ती धाक. भजन वायां गेलें — दोघांचंही लोभी मन. एके ठायीं बहिर्मुख — तसं दोघांना झालं. माप तशी गोणी — Tuka म्हणे: दोघं रितीं.

Word-by-word gloss
Marathi Meaning
आशाबद्ध वक्ता "āśā-baddha — vaktā"
धाक श्रोतयाच्या चित्ता "dhāka — śrōtā's citta"
वांयां गेलें तें भजन "vāyām gēlē — that bhajana"
उभयतां लोभी मन "ubhayatām — lōbhī mana"
बहिर्मुख एके ठायीं "bahirmukha — in one place"
तैसें जालें तया दोहीं "so-it-became — for both"
माप तैसी गोणी "as the māpa, so the gōṇī"
तुका म्हणे रितीं दोन्ही "Tuka — both — ritī (empty)"

What it means

A āśā-bound-vaktā-fear-in-śrōtā-bhajan-vain-māpa-taisī-gōṇī abhang. Vakta-śrōtā-aphorism register, in just four short lines. This is one of Tukaram's gem-aphorisms — sharp and complete.

  1. आशा-बद्ध वक्ता — श्रोत्याच्या चित्ती धाक. Opening-diagnostic-claim. Thevaktā(preacher / kīrtana-speaker) is bound byāśā(hope-of-reward, desire-for-honor); theśrōtā(listener) hasdhāka(fear / anxiety) in theircitta(mind). Both-sides-bound-by-something-other-than-bhāva.

  2. वांयां भजन — दोघांचंही लोभी मन. That-bhajan-vain-claim. Thebhajanagoesvāyām(in vain); both havelōbhī mana(greedy minds — the speaker greedy-for-honor, the listener greedy-for-its-own-protection or worldly-benefit). Both-greedy-bhajan-vain.

  3. बहिर्मुख एके ठायीं — तसं दोघांना. Bahirmukha-claim. Like one who isbahirmukha(turned-outward, away-from-the-Self) in one place — so it becomes for both.Both-turned-outward. (When one of the two — speaker or listener — isbahirmukha, the other is automatically dragged into the same.)

  4. माप-गोणी — दोघं रितीं. Māpa-gōṇī-aphorism. Like themāpa(measure / measuring-vessel), so thegōṇī(sack); Tuka says: both —ritī(empty). Empty-measure-gives-empty-sack: when the measure is empty (no real-bhāva in the speaker), the sack (the listener) gets nothing. (This is a beautiful concrete-proverb: the merchant's māpa and the buyer's gōṇī are correlated — what doesn't enter the measure can't enter the sack.)

[T]

For someone today

This abhang belongs to Tukaram's sharp, aphoristic register on the speaker-listener relationship. The speaker is bound by the hope of praise, and the listener sits in fear rather than genuine love; when both are driven by self-interest, the bhajan itself goes to waste. If one of them turns outward, away from the Self, the other gets pulled outward too. Tukaram sums it up with a simple image: whatever fills the measure is exactly what ends up in the sack, so if there is no real devotion in the speaker, the listener receives nothing. This is one of Tukaram's sharpest critiques of turning bhajan into a transaction; compare it with abhang 0586, which makes a similar point about discerning the true fruit of one's actions, here applied to the bond between speaker and listener.

मराठी: ही ओवी वक्ता-श्रोता यांच्यातील नात्याविषयीचं तुकारामांचं एक मार्मिक भाष्य आहे. वक्ता मान-सन्मानाच्या आशेने बांधलेला असतो, तर श्रोत्याच्या मनात भीती असते, खरा भाव नसतो. दोघांचंही मन लोभी असेल, तर भजन वायां जातं. एक जण जर बहिर्मुख झाला, तर दुसराही तसाच ओढला जातो. तुकाराम माप आणि गोणीचं साधं उदाहरण देतात, जे माप भरतं तेच गोणीत जातं, म्हणजे वक्त्यामध्ये खरा भाव नसेल तर श्रोत्याला काहीच मिळत नाही. भजनाला व्यवहार बनवण्यावरचं हे तुकारामांचं अतिशय मार्मिक भाष्य आहे. अभंग ५८६ मध्ये फळाच्या विवेकाबद्दल असाच विचार मांडला आहे, तिथे तोच विवेक कर्मफळाला लावला आहे, तर इथे वक्ता-श्रोता नात्याला.

Where this applies

Bhakti

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