संत साहित्य · Tukārām · Abhanga 2497 of 4582

Abhanga 2497

For today: no travel-expense, body-mocked; daily Rāma Rāma — all say ; mouth without Rāma = self-killer .

When you skip your daily prayer or remembrance because you feel too busy

When you are anxious about how you will face old age, loss, or death unprepared

When you want a simple daily practice sturdy enough to support you through hard times

The verse

न चलवे पंथ वेच नसतां पालवीं । शरीर विटंबिलें वाटे भीक मागावी ॥१॥ न करीं रे तैसें आपआपणां । नित्य राम राम तुम्ही सकळ म्हणा ॥ध्रु.॥ राम म्हणवितां रांडा पोरें निरविशी । पडसी यमा हांतीं जाचविती चौर्‍याशी ॥२॥ मुखीं नाहीं राम तो ही आत्महत्यारा । तुका म्हणे लाज नाहीं तया गंव्हारा ॥३॥

Literal translation

No path-progress without travel-expense in the pallu — body mocked, must beg. Don't do that to yourself — daily Rāma Rāma all of you say. Saying Rāma, raise wife-children — fall in Yama's hand, 84-lakh-cycle tortured. Mouth without Rāma = self-killer — Tuka says: no shame for that gavhāra.

What it means

THE MOUTH-WITHOUT-RĀMA = SELF-KILLER ABHANG. Strong polemic.

The opening warning: na chalavē pantha vēcha nasatām pālavīm — śarīra viṭambilē vāṭē bhīka māgāvī — no path-progress without travel-expense — body mocked, must beg. Without travel-expense (tied-in-pallu), no path-progress; body-mocked, you'll-need-to-beg. The journey-without-provisions metaphor for life-without-Name.

THE CLOSING POLEMIC: mukhīm nāhīm Rāma tō hī āma-hatyārā — Tukā mhaṇē lāja nāhīm tayā gavhārā — mouth without Rāma = self-killer — Tuka says: no shame for that gavhāra. Āma-hatyārā = self-killer, ātma-hatyārā (suicide-committer). Gavhāra = rustic-fool. One whose-mouth doesn't-have-Rāma IS a self-killer (committing-spiritual-suicide); Tuka says: no-shame for-that-rustic-fool. Strong polemic — not-saying-Rāma is-self-destruction.

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For someone today

For today: no travel-expense, body-mocked; daily Rāma Rāma — all say ; mouth without Rāma = self-killer .

Where this applies

When you keep postponing any daily spiritual practice, telling yourself there is always tomorrow
When you feel unprepared and anxious about facing hardship, death, or reckoning later in life
When you see someone dismiss devotion entirely and wonder if it really matters
When you need a simple, doable daily habit that can carry you through difficult stretches of life