Abhanga 2411
Even when you sulk and turn away like a child, the Mother, Vithai, knows your moods and never becomes indifferent to you.
The verse
बैसों पाठमोरीं । मना वाटे तैसे करीं ॥१॥ परिं तूं जाणसीं आवडीं । बाळा बहुतांचीं परवडी ॥ध्रु.॥ आपुलाल्या इच्छा । मागों जया व्हावें जैशा ॥२॥ तुका म्हणे आईं । नव्हसी उदास विठाईं ॥३॥
Literal translation
Sit with back-turned — mind does as it likes. But you know with love — the way of many children. Each one's own desire — ask what one wants to become. Tuka says: Mother — you, Viṭhā'īm, are not indifferent.
What it means
THE VIṬHĀ'ĪṀ-AS-MOTHER-NOT-INDIFFERENT ABHANG.
The child-sits-back-turned: baisōm pāṭhamōrīm — manā vāṭē taisē karīm — sit with back-turned — mind does as it likes. The child-bhakta sometimes-sits-with-back-turned (= sulks); the mind-does as-it-likes.
The Mother knows: parī tūm jāṇasīm āvaḍīm — bāḷā bahutāñchīm paravaḍī — but you know with love — the way of many children. But-you (the Mother) know-the-ways of-many-children.
THE CLOSING: Tukā mhaṇē ā'īm — navhasī udāsa Viṭhā'īm — Mother — you, Viṭhā'īm, are not indifferent. Mother — you, Viṭhā'īm (feminine of-Viṭhṭhal), are-not-indifferent (udāsa). The bhakta's-confidence: even-when-the-child-sulks, the-Mother-does-not-become-indifferent.
[T]
For someone today
For today: child sits back-turned, mind does as it likes; Mother knows the way of many children — Viṭhā'īm is not indifferent .
Where this applies
- When you pull away from prayer or from God in a sulky, moody phase and feel guilty about it
- When you worry that acting out or being difficult will make God stop caring about you
- When you see how a mother patiently reads the different moods of each of her children
- When you need reassurance that withdrawing for a while doesn't cost you the love that's waiting for you