Abhanga 785

Tukaram warns that whatever power you truly worship, even appetite or anger dressed up as devotion, is the power that will claim you in the end.

The verse

Literal translation

What it means

A Śākta-donkey-piles-of-pāpa-sukṛta-call-but-indriya-chaos-kāma-in-krodha-form-mad-bhakṣa-māngina-jāti-viṭāḷa-stuti-rāṇḍa-Bhagavatī-takes-him abhang. Anti-Śākta-tāntrika-polemic register. Five claims:

1. Śākta-gadhaḍā — दे-देशी-तेथें-पाप-राशी — सुकृत-उदो — gōndhaḷa-इंद्रिय. Śākta-donkey-pāpa-piles-claim. TheŚākta(left-hand-tāntrika, follower of the Śakti-cult with antinomian-rituals) is agadhaḍā(donkey, brute); in whateverdēśa(country) he is, there are piles (rāśi) ofpāpa; (he) made theudō(call-out) ofsukṛta(good-deed); butgōndhaḷa(chaos, confusion) (is made) by (his)indriya. Donkey-Śākta-pāpa-and-indriya-chaos.

2. क्रोध-रूपें-काम-वसे — तीचें-नाम-japa. Kāma-in-krodha-form-claim. Kāma dwells in krodha-rūpa (anger-form, fierce-form — possibly the fierce-feminine Bhagavatī-form);he japs her name.His-deity-is-kāma-in-krodha-form.

3. मद्य-भक्षण — मांगिण-जाति — विटाळ-चित्तीं-साठवला. Madya-bhakṣa-and-low-jāti-viṭāḷa-claim. Madya-bhakṣaṇa (alcohol-drinking);māngiṇa-jātī(low-jāti-mixing — theMātanga/Māngcaste, with whom Brahminic-orthodox-Śākta would-not-normally-mix); viṭāḷa (impurity) is stored in (his) citta. Antinomian-practices-and-citta-storing-viṭāḷa. (The five-Ms — madya, māmsa, mīna, mudrā, maithuna — of left-hand-Śākta-tāntrika practice.)

4. स्तवुनिया-पूजी-rāṇḍa — दाढी-भांड-न-लजे. Stuti-rāṇḍa-no-shame-claim. Afterstuti, worships the rāṇḍa (low-woman, prostitute — possibly his Śakti-consort in tāntrika-rite);the bhāṇḍa (knave, scoundrel) is not-ashamed of his dāḍhī (beard — i.e., despite his elder-status / brahmin-beard).Worships-low-woman-after-stuti-no-shame-of-status.

5. Tuka: Bhagavatī — अंतीं आपणापें घेईल. Bhagavatī-takes-him-at-end-claim. Tuka says:Bhagavatī (the goddess he worships)—will take him to herself at the end (i.e., he'll get-the-deity-he-deserves; he will end up with-her in her dark-region / Bhagavatī's-realm-of-fierce-consequences).Bhagavatī-takes-him-at-end. (Reading: theBhagavatīhe-worships will take-him-at-the-end to-her-realm — which isnot heaven; it's the fierce-consort-realm appropriate-to-his-antinomian-practice.)

[T]

For someone today

Tukaram describes a man who dresses his own indulgence up as worship: he announces good deeds out loud while his senses run wild underneath, his real god is his own anger and lust wearing a fierce goddess's name, he drinks, crosses every boundary he claims to respect, and stores impurity in his own mind. He praises and bows to whatever serves his appetite, and feels no shame about it at all. Tuka's closing line is the real point, whatever power you worship becomes the power that claims you in the end, so if you worship your own appetite under a holy name, that appetite is what will own you. The warning is less about any one ritual and more about noticing when your rituals have become cover for indulgence rather than a check on it.

मराठी: तुकाराम महाराज इथे अशा माणसाचे वर्णन करतात जो स्वतःच्या वासनांना भक्तीचा मुखवटा घालतो, तो मोठ्याने सुकृताची जाहिरात करतो पण आतून त्याच्या इंद्रियांचा गोंधळ चालूच असतो, त्याचा खरा देव म्हणजे क्रोधाच्या रूपात लपलेली त्याची स्वतःची वासना असते. तो दारू पिऊन स्वतःच घालून घेतलेल्या मर्यादा मोडतो आणि मनात अशुद्धता साठवतो. जे काही त्याच्या वासनेला पूरक असेल त्याचीच तो लाजेशिवाय पूजा करतो. तुकोबांचा शेवटचा मुद्दा हाच आहे की तुम्ही ज्याची पूजा करता तेच शेवटी तुम्हाला घेऊन जाते, म्हणून पवित्र नावाखाली स्वतःच्या वासनेचीच पूजा केली तर तीच वासना शेवटी तुमच्यावर स्वामित्व गाजवते. हा इशारा कोणत्या एका विधीबद्दल नसून, तुमचे विधी संयमासाठी आहेत की भोगावर पांघरूण घालण्यासाठी हे तपासण्याबद्दल आहे.

Where this applies

• When you announce your good deeds loudly while privately indulging appetites you never mention
• When you notice your devotion has quietly become a cover for anger or desire rather than a check on them
• When you feel no shame about crossing your own stated moral boundaries because a ritual or belief seems to excuse it
• When you realize the thing you keep chasing and calling sacred is actually just your own appetite in disguise

Related verses

• Abhanga 2381 — For today: Name has no-price; just two letters — Rāma Rāma; no caste, no religion, no jāti
• Abhanga 4205 — Devotion asks for nothing but love and the Name in every state of being, and it declares t
• Abhanga 4275 — Holiness comes from devotion, not birth: saints have risen from every caste, trade, and re
• Abhanga 4356 — Repeating the Name in ordinary moments like eating and drinking water replaces every elabo