Abhanga 1891

When you stop keeping your own anxious account of life and hand the ledger over in trust, the worry and the burden are no longer yours to carry.

The verse

Literal translation

What it means

All-accounting-in-Lord's-name + burden-on-his-head abhang.

The opening: khāvē lyāvē dyāvē — jamā-kharcha tujhyā nāmē — to eat, wear, give — the income-and-expense in your name. Jamā-kharcha = the formal-accounting-ledger of income-and-expense. The bhakta-runs-his-life as-if-the-account-is-in-the-Lord's-name — all-eating, wearing, giving is registered in the Lord's-account.

The disturbance-stopped: ātām cukalī khaṭa-paṭa — jhāḍyā-pāḍyācā bōbhāṭa — now disturbance has stopped — no noise of accounting. Khaṭa-paṭa = fuss, agitation; jhāḍyā-pāḍā = the formal accounting-balance; bōbhāṭa = noise, racket. No-more-anxious-accounting-fuss.

The work-line: āhē nāhīm tyāce — āmhām kāma sāngāyāce — what is and isn't his — our work is to tell. The bhakta's-only-work is to-recite-(the-Name) — the income-and-expense are not-his-concern.

The closing: Tukā mhaṇē cintā — bhāra vāhē tujhyā māthām — Tuka says: the worry — the burden — bears on your head. The worry-and-burden are-on-the-Lord's-head.

This abhang's jamā-kharcha-in-your-name image is brilliant — the bhakta's-life as a corporate-account-in-the-Lord's-name; the bhakta is just-the-employee-reciting-the-Name.

[T]

For someone today

For today: to eat, wear, give — the income-and-expense in your name; now disturbance has stopped — no noise of accounting; what is and isn't his — our work is to tell; Tuka says — the worry — the burden — bears on your head.

Where this applies

• When you're overwhelmed by tracking every expense, obligation, or outcome in your life
• When you realize how much energy you spend worrying about things that were never fully yours to control
• When you want to focus on one simple, steady practice instead of constant mental accounting
• When you need permission to hand over a worry that has been weighing on you

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