Abhanga 1609
God's greatness is so vast that even scripture and a thousand tireless mouths fall short of praising it, yet Tukaram praises anyway, knowing words will never be enough.
The verse
ज्याचे गर्जतां पवाडे । श्रुतिशास्त्रां मौन्य पडे ॥१॥ तेथें माझी वाचा किती । पुरे करावया स्तुती ॥ध्रु.॥ सिणलें सहजर तोंडें । शेषाफणी ऐसें धेंडें ॥२॥ तुका म्हणे मही । पत्र सिंधु न पुरे शाही ॥३॥
Literal translation
Whose pavāḍas, when resounding, make śruti-śāstra fall silent — there, how much is my speech to complete the stuti? Tired the thousand mouths — like Śeṣa-phaṇī's bouquet. Tuka says: the earth as paper, the ocean — not enough as ink.
Word-by-word gloss
| Marathi | Meaning |
|---|---|
| ज्याचे गर्जतां पवाडे | "whose — resounding — pavāḍas" |
| श्रुतिशास्त्रां मौन्य पडे | "to śruti-śāstras — silence falls" |
| तेथें माझी वाचा किती | "there — my — speech — how much?" |
| पुरे करावया स्तुती | "to complete and make — the stuti" |
| सिणलें सहजर तोंडें | "tired — thousand mouths" |
| शेषाफणी ऐसें धेंडें | "like Śeṣa-phaṇī — bouquet (ḍhēṇḍēm)" |
| तुका म्हणे मही | "Tuka says — the earth" |
| पत्र सिंधु न पुरे शाही | "paper — ocean — not enough — as ink" |
What it means
Hyperbolic-praise abhang. Praise-exceeds-all-instruments-of-expression.
The śruti-śāstra-silenced: jyācē garjatām pavāḍē — śruti-śāstrām maunya paḍē — whose pavāḍas, resounding, make śruti-śāstras fall silent. The highest-canonical-corpus (śruti-śāstra) falls silent before his deeds. (Compare 1608's Kalikāḷa pāyām paḍē — same garjana-clause, different effect.)
The speech-question: tēthē mājhī vācā kitī — purē karāvayā stuti — there, how much is my speech, to complete the stuti? If even śruti-śāstras fall silent, what amount of my own-speech could complete the praise?
The Śeṣa-image: siṇalē sahasra tōṇḍēm — Śēṣa-phaṇī aisēm ḍhēṇḍēm — tired the thousand-mouths — like Śeṣa-phaṇī's bouquet. Śeṣa = the thousand-headed-serpent on whom Viṣṇu rests; phaṇī = hood; ḍhēṇḍēm = bouquet, cluster. Even Śeṣa's thousand-hoods (= each with a mouth) get tired praising him — the thousand-mouths-of-Śeṣa-cluster.
The earth-and-ocean: Tukā mhaṇē mahī — patra sindhu na purē śāhī — Tuka says: the earth as paper, the ocean — not enough as ink. The classical hyperbolic-praise image: if the entire earth were paper and the entire ocean were ink, even that would not suffice to write his praises. (Compare kalpavṛkṣa-ink-stick + samudra-ink + bhūmi-paper image found across Indian-bhakti-literature.)
[T]
For someone today
For today: whose heroic-ballads, when resounding, make even the śruti and śāstras fall silent — there, how much is my speech to complete the praise?; even Śeṣa's thousand mouths grew tired praising him — like the bouquet of his many hoods; Tuka says — even if the earth were paper and the ocean were ink, it would not be enough.
Where this applies
- When you feel embarrassed that your prayer or praise feels clumsy and inadequate compared to what you feel inside
- When you are trying to describe an experience of awe or love and find that no words quite capture it
- When you compare yourself to eloquent speakers or scholars and feel your own devotion sounds too plain
- When you are tempted to stay silent about your faith because you fear you cannot do it justice