Abhanga 2600
Now is or is-not — I don't understand; do some childish-insistence for me. Fulfill the desire, dweller-of-Paṇḍharī. None other than you knows my burden and fatigue. Not far now: Tukā clasps the feet.
The verse
आतां आहे नाहीं । न कळे आळी करा कांहीं ॥१॥
देसी पुरवुनी इच्छा । आतां पंढरीनिवासा ॥ध्रु.॥
नेणे भाग सीण । दुजें कोणी तुम्हांविण ॥२॥
आतां नव्हे दुरी । तुका पायीं मिठी मारी ॥३॥
Literal translation
Now whether it is or it is not — I do not understand; do some āḷī (childish-insistence) for me. You will give, fulfilling the desire, O dweller of Paṇḍharī. None knows my burden and fatigue — no other than you. Not far away now — Tukā clasps the feet.
What it means
A small, tender verse. The opening confession is unusual: ātām āhē nāhīm — na kaḷē — now whether it is or it is not — I do not understand. The metaphysical question has stopped resolving; the bhakta cannot tell, anymore, whether the Lord is or isn't there. The response Tukārām chooses is striking: āḷī karā kāmhīm — do some childish-insistence. Āḷī is the petulant, willful, lovable insistence of a small child who will not be denied — the demand-by-tantrum that parents recognize. Tukārām asks the Lord to be the insister: you do the āḷī for me, since I cannot anymore. The dhrūpada confirms the request: dēsi puravuni icchā — Paṇḍharī-nivāsā — you will give, fulfilling the desire, O dweller of Paṇḍharī. The middle verse names the irreplaceability: nēṇē bhāga sīṇa — dujēm kōṇī tumhāmvīṇa — no one knows my burden and fatigue, no one other than you. The close brings the body in: pāyīm miṭhī mārī — Tukā clasps the feet in an embrace — the gesture of a child wrapping arms around a parent's legs.
For someone today
When you have lost the ability to argue your own case — when even the is-it-or-isn't-it of hope has gone quiet — the prayer Tukārām hands you is not heroic. It is small: do some āḷī for me. Ask the protector to be the insister you cannot be. Acknowledge: no one else knows my burden and fatigue. And do the physical thing — clasp the feet. The verse permits a prayer that doesn't pretend to clarity, only to attachment.
Where this applies
- A long-illness day when one can no longer make the case for one's own hope
- The end of an exhausting season, with only the small clasping-prayer left
- Asking a friend or sponsor to insist on one's behalf when one cannot insist for oneself
- The childlike-bhakta register: clinging without arguing