Abhanga 1118

Tukaram says whether you rise or fall depends on how the mind is used, so it should be brought into solitude and into the company of good people rather than left to wander. He warns twice, urgently, to guard the mind because left alone it runs wild like a stray animal that has slipped its rope. Honor and insult are both just habits of the mind, and whatever the mind is trained to dwell on through steady attention, that is what it becomes. Tukaram ends by saying this same mind can either carry you across the ocean of worldly existence or bind you into eighty-four lakh cycles of rebirth. The mind is neither your enemy nor your friend by nature; it becomes whichever one you train it to be.

The verse

Literal translation

What it means

A the-direction-up-or-down-is-the-trick-of-the-mind abhang. The mana is both the boat across bhava-sindhu and the chain to 84-lakh-rebirths. Four claims:

1. गति-अधोगति-मन-युक्ति — एकांत-साधु-संग. Mind-decides-claim.

2. जतन-धांवतें-ओढाळ. Stray-mind-claim.

3. मान-अपमान — ध्यान-तेंच. Mind-becomes-its-object-claim.

4. Tuka: मन-भव-सिंधु — मन-बंधु-चौर्यांशी. Crosses-or-binds-claim.

[T]

For someone today

Tukaram says whether you rise or fall depends on how the mind is used, so it should be brought into solitude and into the company of good people rather than left to wander. He warns twice, urgently, to guard the mind because left alone it runs wild like a stray animal that has slipped its rope. Honor and insult are both just habits of the mind, and whatever the mind is trained to dwell on through steady attention, that is what it becomes. Tukaram ends by saying this same mind can either carry you across the ocean of worldly existence or bind you into eighty-four lakh cycles of rebirth. The mind is neither your enemy nor your friend by nature; it becomes whichever one you train it to be.

मराठी: तुकाराम म्हणतात की तुम्ही वर जाल की खाली, हे मनाच्या वापरावर अवलंबून आहे, म्हणून मनाला एकांतात आणि सज्जनांच्या संगतीत गुंतवावे, भरकटू देऊ नये. ते दोनदा आग्रहाने बजावतात की मनाची जपणूक करा, कारण एकटे सोडले तर ते दोर तुटलेल्या जनावरासारखे सैरावैरा धावते. मान आणि अपमान ही दोन्ही मनाचीच लक्षणे आहेत, आणि सतत लक्ष कशावर ठेवले जाते तेच मन बनते. तुकाराम शेवटी सांगतात की हेच मन भवसागर पार करून देऊ शकते किंवा चौऱ्याऐंशी लक्ष योनींच्या बंधनातही अडकवू शकते. मन हे मुळातच तुमचा शत्रू किंवा मित्र नाही; तुम्ही त्याला जसे घडवाल तसे ते बनते.

Where this applies

• Mind-decides. Yukti.
• Stray-mind. Ōḍhāḷa.
• Mind-becomes. Dhyāna.
• Crosses-or-binds. Cauryā-mśī.

Related verses

• Abhanga 2464 — For today: Pāṇḍuranga is sukha-rūpa ; no wandering, no shaving, no sādhana-pressure ; Chan
• Abhanga 2490 — The divine is most reachable through the living presence of a true saint, not through a di
• 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