Abhanga 1985

After a lifetime of failing to sort right from wrong through reasoning alone, Tuka concludes that the real secret to crossing life's struggles is simply holding onto God's Name.

The verse

Literal translation

What it means

Take-my-burden + the-secret-is-your-Name abhang.

The opening — saints'-testimony: tuja na karitām kāya navhē ēka — hē tōm sakaḷika santa-vāṇī — if you don't do — what wouldn't be — this is all the saints' speech. All-saints-say: what-doesn't-happen if-you-do-it?. (= the Lord's-omnipotence is the saints'-confirmed-doctrine.)

The burden-prayer: ghē'ī mājhā bhāra karī kaivāra — utarī hā pāra bhava-sindhu — take my burden — be advocate — ferry across the bhava-sindhu. Kaivāra = advocate, partisan, side-taker. Bhava-sindhu = ocean of samsāra. Take-my-burden, be-my-advocate, ferry-me-across-the-samsāra-ocean. Classic śaraṇāgati formula.

The cannot-distinguish: uchita anuchita pāpa-puṇya-kāḷā — hā tōm nayē malā nivaḍitām — proper-improper, pāpa-puṇya-kāla — I cannot distinguish. Confession of-discrimination-failure.

The speech-failure: kuṇṭita rāhilī bōlatām bōlatām — pāra na pavatām vāṇī puḍhē — kept stuck speaking — speech doesn't reach the further-shore. Even speech-fails to-cross.

The save-honor: pusatām hī kōṇām na kaḷē hē guja — rākhē ātām lāja Pāṇḍurangā — no one knows this guja (secret) — save my honor, Pāṇḍuranga.

The closing — the secret revealed: Tukā mhaṇē bahu pāhilē yā jīvē — varma jālē jī ṭhāvē Nāma tujhē — Tuka says: I've seen much with this jīva — the secret is — your Name. After-much-experience, the bhakta knows: the-secret (varma) is-your-Name.

[T]

For someone today

For today: if you don't do — what wouldn't be — saints say all; take my burden, be advocate — ferry across bhava-sindhu; proper-improper, pāpa-puṇya-kāla — I cannot distinguish; speech doesn't reach further-shore; no one knows this guja — save my honor, Pāṇḍuranga; Tuka says — I've seen much with this jīva — the secret is — your Name.

Where this applies

• When you've spent a long time trying to intellectually sort out right and wrong and still feel confused
• When you're overwhelmed by a burden and need to simply ask for help instead of solving it alone
• When words and explanations keep failing to capture what you're going through
• When you realize, after much searching, that a simple daily practice matters more than complex answers

Related verses

• 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
• Abhanga 4482 — Tukaram teaches that no ritual equals sincerely speaking the Lord's name, that self-center
• Abhanga 706 — Tukaram vows to become a beggar, a pilgrim walking to Pandharpur. This alone, he says, is