Abhanga 1914

Tukaram warns that obsession with wealth empties out everything else in life, and even turns to ask whether God, too, clings to something too tightly.

The verse

Literal translation

What it means

Anti-wealth-obsession + Lord-also-attached abhang. Letter-sent-with-saints cluster.

The opening: jōḍīcyā havyāsē — lāgē dhanāñcē chi pisē — with obsession of gain — the madness for wealth attaches. Wealth-obsession leads-to-madness.

The children-line: maga āṇīka dusarē — lōbhyā nāvaḍatī pōrē — then others — even children don't please the lobha-stricken. Wealth-obsession poisons-even-affection: the lobha-stricken doesn't-even-love-his-own-children.

The rupee-stare: pāhē rukyākaḍē — maga avaghē ōsa paḍē — (he) looks at the rupee — then everything else falls-empty. Rukyā = rupee, coin. Once-the-eye-fixates-on-the-coin, the-rest-of-life empties-out.

The accusation-twist: Tukā mhaṇē devā — tulā bahuta chi hēvā — Tuka says: deva — you have much-attachment. Hēvā = attachment, jealous-clinging. Striking turn: the bhakta-accuses-the-Lord-himself of having-much-attachment (= attachment to-some-thing-that-keeps-the-Lord-from-attending-to-the-bhakta; or, the Lord has hēvā for the bhakta's-bhakti-and-keeps-it for-himself). Either-way, the Lord-too-suffers-from-attachment.

This is a comic-letter-fragment — the bhakta accuses-the-Lord-of-being-just-as-attached-as-the-lobha-stricken-householder.

[T]

For someone today

For today: with the obsession of gain — the madness for wealth attaches; then even children don't please the lobha-stricken; (he) looks at the rupee — then everything else falls empty; Tuka says — deva — you have much-attachment.

Where this applies

• When you notice you've started measuring every day only by how much money came in.
• When you realize you've been too distracted by financial worry to enjoy time with your own family.
• When your focus on one goal has quietly emptied out everything else that used to matter to you.
• When you catch yourself judging someone else's attachment while ignoring the thing you cling to.

Related verses

• Abhanga 2467 — What looks like your whole world, like a fig to the insect living inside it, is only a tin
• Abhanga 4481 — Tukaram promises that sincerely calling on the Lord's name, knowingly or unknowingly, with
• Abhanga 4482 — Tukaram teaches that no ritual equals sincerely speaking the Lord's name, that self-center
• Abhanga 4497 — Tukaram describes a life so soaked in devotion that Krishna's presence fills every ordinar