संत साहित्य · Tukārām · Abhanga 2487 of 4582

Abhanga 2487

There is a painful in-between stage where you belong neither to your old worldly life nor to the new spiritual one, and naming that suspended state honestly is itself part of the path.

When you have given up your old livelihood or way of life for something deeper but no new support has arrived yet

When you feel suspended between two worlds, unable to return to the old one and not yet settled in the new one

When you keep reaching for something meaningful and watch it slip further away each time

The verse

हातीं धरूं जावें । तेणें परतें चि व्हावें ॥१॥ ऐसा कां हो आला वांटा । हीन भाग्याचा करंटा ॥ध्रु.॥ देव ना संसार । दोहीं ठायीं नाहीं थार ॥२॥ तुका म्हणे पीक । भूमि न दे न मिळे भीक ॥३॥

Literal translation

Want to grab — but it moves away. What fate is this — the unlucky bowl-of-low-fortune. Neither Dēva nor samsāra — no place in either. Tuka says: crop — earth doesn't give, alms not received.

What it means

THE NEITHER-DĒVA-NOR-SAṀSĀRA EXISTENTIAL-COMPLAINT ABHANG.

THE CELEBRATED LINE: Dēva nā samsāra — dōhīm ṭhāyīm nāhīm thāra — neither Dēva nor samsāra — no place in either. Neither Dēva nor samsāra — no place (thāra) in either of-the-two-realms. The classic between-worlds-bhakta-complaint — too-renounced-for-samsāra, not-yet-arrived-at-Dēva.

The reinforcing-image: Tukā mhaṇē pīka — bhūmi na dē na miḷē bhīka — crop — earth doesn't give, alms not received. The crop — earth-doesn't-yield, alms-not-received. Trapped-between: the earth-doesn't-feed-me (= I've-given-up-householder-livelihood), and alms-don't-come (= bhakti-result-not-yet-arrived).

This existential-between-state is a recurring-Tukārām-theme — the bhakta's-suspended-state during-the-test-period. Compare 2484's 13-day-fast and 2485's protest-cluster — together they form the trial-by-suspension sub-mood of Tukārām's bhakti.

[T]

For someone today

Whatever Tukaram reaches out to grab keeps slipping away, and he wonders what kind of luck it is that has handed him this thin, unlucky portion in life. He names the painful in-between state honestly: he belongs neither to God nor to ordinary worldly life, with no real footing in either. The field yields no crop, and no alms come to fill the gap, so he is caught in the middle, provided for by neither world. Rather than hide it, Tukaram simply admits this suspended, unlucky state as it is.

मराठी: जे काही हाताने धरायला जावे, ते आणखीनच दूर सरकते, आणि आपल्या वाट्याला असे कठीण, तुटपुंजे नशीब का यावे असा प्रश्न तुकाराम विचारतात. ते आपली वेदनादायी मधली अवस्था प्रामाणिकपणे मांडतात — ना देवाचे, ना संसाराचे, दोन्हीकडे थारा नाही. शेत पीक देत नाही आणि भीकही मिळत नाही, अशा दोन्ही बाजूंनी उपेक्षित अवस्थेत ते अडकले आहेत. आपली ही असहाय्य, कमनशिबी स्थिती लपवण्याऐवजी तुकाराम ती जशीच्या तशी स्पष्टपणे मान्य करतात.

Where this applies

When you have left behind an old career, relationship, or way of living but the new path has not yet given you anything back
When you feel like you belong nowhere, not fully in your old world and not yet settled in the new one
When you reach for something you want and it keeps slipping just out of your grasp no matter how hard you try
When you wonder why bad luck seems to follow you even though you have tried to do the right thing

Bhakti