Abhanga 2608
The wicked one's gaze is always on the petty side, harassing the well-meaning. He runs his trade at the full-storehouse pace. But kindness is the sants' working-capital — their words are spent on helping. Tukā: they alone have lifted up what is theirs.
The verse
खळा सदा क्षुद्रीं दृष्टी । करी कष्टी सज्जना ॥१॥
करितां आपुलाले परी । धणीवरी व्यापार ॥ध्रु.॥
दया संतां भांडवल। वेची बोल उपकार ॥२॥
तुका म्हणे आपुलालें । उसंतिलें ज्यांणीं तें ॥३॥
Literal translation
The wicked one's gaze is always on the petty side — he distresses the well-meaning. Running their own kind, full-storehouse trade. Kindness is the sants' working capital — they spend words as upakāra (favor, help). Tukā says: only those have lifted up what is their own.
What it means
The verse is a small economics-of-character lesson. Khaḷa sadā kṣudrīm drṣṭī — the wicked one's gaze is always on the petty side. Kṣudra — small, mean, scornful — names the angle of attention; the khaḷa habitually sees the diminished version of others. The dhrūpada is unsparing about the scale: karitām āpulālē parī — dhaṇīvarī vyāpāra — they run their own kind of trade at the full-storehouse pace (dhaṇī = master-of-stores, vyāpāra = trade). The petty-gaze is not lazy — it is operated at dhaṇī-scale, with full inventory.
The contrast follows: dayā santām bhāṇḍavala — kindness (compassion) is the sants' capital (bhāṇḍavala = working capital, the inventory put into commerce). Vēchī bōla upakāra — they spend (vēchaṇē) words as upakāra — words are not held back as scarce currency; they are spent on the helpful side of the ledger. The close: āpulālēm uṣantilēm jyāmṇīm tēm — only those have lifted (uṣantaṇē = to gather/take-up) what is their own. The sants alone have correctly identified what is genuinely theirs — kindness as capital — and gathered it.
For someone today
You are running a small daily-business no matter what you think. The khaḷa runs kṣudra-drṣṭī trade — sees the petty side, comments on it, traffics in it — at full inventory. The santa runs dayā — kindness as capital, words spent as upakāra. Notice which capital you are putting into circulation today. The verse is also a small theological claim — only those who run the kindness-trade have lifted up what is their own. The petty-gaze trader, however successful, has not actually picked up his own life.
Where this applies
- A workplace conversation that could be pulled toward kṣudra-drṣṭī (petty critique) or toward upakāra (helpful word)
- Daily audit of which capital one is actually deploying
- Recognizing the dhaṇī-scale energy that goes into running petty-gaze trade
- Choosing to spend words as charity rather than commerce