Abhanga 2404
English: Asks for kṣīra, serves him pickle — such names are pādhānī-gadhaḍī.
The verse
क्षीर मागे तया रायतें वाढी । पाधानी गधडी ऐशा नांवें ॥१॥ समयो जाणां समयो जाणां । भलतें नाणां भलतेथें ॥ध्रु.॥ अमंगळ वाणी वदवी मंगळी । अशुभ वोंगळी शोभन तें ॥२॥ तुका म्हणे नेणें समयो ठाया ठाव । राहाडी ते वाव नरकाडी ॥३॥
Literal translation
English: Asks for kṣīra, serves him pickle — such names are pādhānī-gadhaḍī. ★★ Know the occasion, know the occasion — don't bring wrong things to wrong places ★★. Speaks inauspicious words in auspicious time — what shines is ugly-foul. Tuka says: knows not occasion or place — that place is empty hell-residence.
What it means
★★ THE SAMAYŌ JĀṆĀṀ (KNOW-THE-OCCASION) ABHANG ★★. A celebrated propriety / context-awareness line in Tukārām's corpus.
The kṣīra-and-pickle: kṣīra māgē tayā rāyatē vāḍhī — pādhānī gadhaḍī aiśā nāmvē — asks for kṣīra (milk-pudding), serves him pickle. One who-serves-pickle to-one-who-asks-for-milk-pudding is named-pādhānī-gadhaḍī (an idiom for clumsy, inappropriate fool).
★★ THE FAMOUS LINE ★★: samayō jāṇām samayō jāṇām — bhalatē nāṇām bhalatēthē — ★★ know the occasion, know the occasion — don't bring wrong things to wrong places ★★. ★★ Know-the-occasion, know-the-occasion (repeated); don't-bring wrong-things to-wrong-places. ★★ The principle of context-appropriateness — wisdom is not-just-knowing-what but-knowing-when-and-where.
The inauspicious-speech: amangaḷa vāṇī vadavī mangaḷī — aśubha vongaḷī śōbhana tē — speaks inauspicious words in auspicious time. Speaking inauspicious-speech at-an-auspicious-time mars-the-beauty.
[T]
For someone today
For today: don't serve pickle when asked for milk-pudding; ★★ know the occasion, know the occasion — wrong things in wrong places fail ★★; inauspicious-speech in auspicious time mars all.
Where this applies
- Samayō-jāṇām-know-the-occasion-propriety. Samayō-jāṇām-bhalatē-nāṇām-bhalatēthē.