Abhanga 2205

When desire and sense pleasure take over, shame and self-understanding both vanish, and māyā quietly makes you dance to its tune without your realizing it.

The verse

Literal translation

What it means

Dharma-not-known-by-kāma-deluded + māyā-makes-one-dance abhang. Ends with ॥२॥ — closes 2-abhang sub-cluster (2204-2205).

The opening — dharma-unknown: dharma tō na kaḷē — kāya jhānkitīla ḍōḷē — dharma is not known — what will the eyes cover up. Dharma isn't-known; what-will-the-eyes-cover-up? (= if dharma-isn't-known, what's-there-to-conceal? — there's-nothing-to-protect.)

The kāma-delusion: jīva bhramalē yā kāmē — kaisīm kaḷōm yēta varmē — jīvas are deluded by this kāma — how would secrets come to be known. Jīvas are-deluded by-this-kāma; how-would the-secrets (varma = essential-truths) come-to-be-known?

The viṣaya-intoxication: viṣayāñchā māja — kāmhīm dharūm nēdī lāja — viṣaya's intoxication — won't let any shame be held. Māja = intoxication, frenzy. Viṣaya's-intoxication won't-let any-shame-be-held.

The closing — lāmsī, māyā-dances-one: Tukā mhaṇē lāmsī — māyā nāchavitē kaisī — Tuka says: the lāmsī (= the māyā-spectre) — how māyā makes [one] dance. Lāmsī = the clinging-female-imp (cf. 2199 where the same word was-applied-to icchā). Echoes 2199 — lāmsī was-icchā there; here-lāmsī-is-māyā. How-māyā makes-one-dance — the puppet-image.

The ॥२॥ colophon closes a 2-abhang sub-cluster (2204-2205): 2204 (monkey-up-and-down, don't-know-what-mistake) → 2205 (dharma-unknown, māyā-makes-dance). The pair: unidentified-mistake + māyā-as-the-answer.

[T]

For someone today

For today: dharma not known — eyes can't cover; jīvas deluded by kāma — secrets not known; viṣaya's intoxication — no shame held; Tuka says — lāmsī — how māyā makes one dance.

Where this applies

• When you catch yourself doing something you know is wrong but cannot explain why you did it
• When desire clouds your judgment so much that you cannot see your own real motives
• When chasing pleasure makes you drop the sense of shame that usually holds you back
• When you feel like something outside your control is pulling your choices without you noticing

Related verses

• Abhanga 2170 — You cannot pass off glass as a diamond, so stop performing for others and instead bow down
• 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