Abhanga 2606
What Deva considers right is the correct measure; do not parcel out your heart to denial. Don't stand near filth — those who will bark, abandon them. Tukā: kṣamā is a heap of bliss; why would you abandon it to become sorrowful?
The verse
देवाचिये चाडे प्रमाण उचित । नये वांटूं चित्त निषेधासीं ॥१॥
नये राहों उभें कसमळापाशीं । भुंकतील तैसीं सांडावीं तीं ॥२॥
तुका म्हणे क्षमा सुखाची हे रासी । सांडूनि कां ऐसी दुःखी व्हावें ॥३॥
Literal translation
What Deva considers right is the proper measure; do not parcel out your heart to denial. Do not stand near filth — those who will bark, like that, abandon them. Tukā says: kṣamā is a heap of bliss; why would you abandon it like this to become sorrowful?
What it means
The verse is a practical daily-ethics manual condensed into three verses.
First — Devāchiyē chāḍē pramāṇa uchita — what Deva considers right is the correct measure. Pramāṇa-uchita — the proper-measure. Don't run your decisions by other tribunals. Then the operative warning: nayē vāmṭūm chitta niṣēdhāsīm — do not parcel out your heart to denial. Niṣēdha (denial, prohibition, scorn) attracts the heart's involvement; Tukārām forbids the parceling-out (vāmṭūm) of attention to it. Don't give the scoffer a chair in your inner room.
Second — nayē rāhō ubhēm kasamaḷāpāśīm — do not stand near filth. Kasamaḷa is dirt-rubbish. Bhunkatīla taisīm sāṇḍāvīm tī — those who will bark like that, abandon them. The image is unmistakable: the village-dog at the gate barks; you walk past. The mistake is to stop and argue with the barking.
Third — the positive name of what you are choosing instead: kṣamā sukhāchī rāśī — kṣamā (forbearance, forgiveness, patience) is a heap of bliss. Rāśī — a piled-heap, a quantity. Sāṇḍūnī kām aiśī duḥkhī vhāvē — why would you abandon it like this, to become sorrowful? Forfeiting kṣamā in order to argue with the barking is a net-loss trade — you put down a heap-of-bliss to pick up sorrow.
For someone today
You can construct an entire daily-ethics from this verse. Don't run your decisions by detractors; their measure is not the right measure. Don't parcel out your heart to denial — denial wants your attention as currency; don't pay it. Don't stand near rubbish; the dogs at the gate bark — keep walking. Kṣamā is a heap of bliss; do not abandon it for the temporary satisfaction of arguing back. The trade is always net-loss when scorn buys your kṣamā in exchange. Notice today how often the trade is offered, and how often you make it.
Where this applies
- Online detractors, comment-trolls, neighborhood scolds
- A family member or colleague whose only mode is denial
- Walking past the barking dog without stopping to argue
- A daily kṣamā-rāśī audit — am I trading my heap-of-bliss for sorrowful comebacks?