Abhanga 2322

Don't settle for a small, confined life when vastness is already within reach, and don't keep delaying the break from what confines you.

The verse

Literal translation

What it means

Why-shrunk-to-small-take-brahmāṇḍa-apōśaṇa + small-house-caused-darkness abhang.

The cosmic-mouth-rinse: sankōchōni kāya jālāsī lahāna — ghē'ī apōśaṇa brahmāṇḍāchē — why have you shrunk to small — take the apōśaṇa of the brahmāṇḍa. Sankōcha = shrinking. Apōśaṇa = the ritual mouth-rinse with-water before-eating (in Hindu tradition). Why-have-you-shrunk-to-small? Take-the-apōśaṇa of-the-brahmāṇḍa (= rinse-your-mouth-with-the-whole-cosmos). A striking-cosmic-image — let-the-Lord's-apōśaṇa be-the-brahmāṇḍa-itself.

The pāraṇa-samsāra: karōni pāraṇē ānchavē samsārā — uśīra uśirā lāvūm nakō — by pāraṇa-fast-breaking, gargle samsāra — don't put a delay-of-delays. By-pāraṇa (fast-breaking), gargle-out the-samsāra; don't-make-delay-after-delay.

The small-house-darkness: gharkulānē hōtā paḍilā andhāra — tēṇē kēlē phāra kāsāvīsa — there was darkness from the small-house — that made [me] much agitated. The small-house caused-darkness; that-made-me much-agitated.

The playful-tugs: jhugārūni durī lapavilē kākhē — Tukā mhaṇē vākhē kautukāchē — swinging far, hidden in the armpit — Tuka says — playful tugs. Swinging-far, hidden-in-the-armpit; Tukā says — these-are-playful-tugs.

[T]

For someone today

For today: why have you shrunk to small — take the brahmāṇḍa as apōśaṇa; by pāraṇa, gargle samsāra — no delay-of-delays; the small-house caused darkness — much agitation; swinging far, hidden in armpit — Tuka says — playful tugs.

Where this applies

• When you've settled for a small, cramped version of yourself out of habit or fear
• When you keep postponing a change you know you need to make, telling yourself later
• When feeling confined or stuck starts to genuinely wear you down
• When you need to see your own struggles as part of something larger, even a little playful, not just grim punishment

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