Abhanga 2148

When you feel swept away and out of strength, it is honest to cry out for compassion, trusting the same natural pull a child feels toward its mother.

The verse

Literal translation

What it means

I-am-being-swept + your-strength-weakened + mother-pull abhang.

The opening — flood-image: vāhavitōm purīm — ātām uchita tē karī — I am being swept in the flood — now do what is proper. The bhakta is-being-swept by-the-flood (= samsāra); the Lord should-do-what-is-proper.

The plea: mājhī śakti Nārāyaṇā — kīmva bhākāvī karuṇā — my śakti, Nārāyaṇa — plead karuṇā. You-are my-śakti; I-plead karuṇā.

The provocative-challenge: āmhām ōḍhī kāḷa — tujhē kṣīṇa jhālē baḷa — kāla pulls us — your strength has weakened. Kāla is-pulling-us; has-your-strength-weakened?. Tukārām's pointed-question: is your-power diminished, that you let-kāla-pull-me?.

The closing — mother-pull: Tukā mhaṇē gōḍī — jīvā mātēchiyā ōḍhī — sweetness — jīva's mother-pull. The sweetness — the jīva's-pull-toward-mother.

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For someone today

For today: I am being swept in the flood — now do what is proper; my śakti, Nārāyaṇa — plead karuṇā; kāla pulls us — your strength has weakened; Tuka says — sweetness — jīva's mother-pull.

Where this applies

• When you feel swept along by events and have nothing left to fight back with
• When you honestly ask why help hasn't come, even wondering if the source of help has weakened
• When you catch yourself instinctively longing for comfort the way a child longs for its mother
• When you decide to cry out loudly for help instead of suffering in silence

Related verses

• Abhanga 2477 — Like a child too absorbed in play to notice how tired he is, let go and trust the parent c
• 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 4495 — Tukaram tells how Krishna's mother and the cowherd families, absorbed in their own practic