Abhanga 2620
Who now will give Kālikāla strength-to-approach? Authority in the three worlds is Chakrapāṇi the protector. He carries the burden of his darlings — standing up to support. Tukā: not a ghaṭikā, not a day, not even a nimiṣa goes without his attention.
The verse
कोण आतां कळिकाळा । येऊं बळा देईंल ॥१॥
सत्ता झाली त्रिभुवनीं । चक्रपाणी कोंवसा ॥ध्रु.॥
लडिवाळांचा भार वाहे । उभा आहे कुढावया ॥२॥
तुका म्हणे घटिका दिस । निमिश ही न विसंभे ॥३॥
Literal translation
Who, now, will give Kālikāla strength-to-approach? Authority has come over the three worlds — Chakrapāṇi (the Discus-holder) is the protector-fence (kōmvasā). He carries the burden of the darlings — he stands ready to support. Tukā says: not a ghaṭikā, not a day, not even a nimiṣa (instant) of forgetting.
What it means
A short, defiant refuge-prayer. Kōṇa ātām kaḷikāḷā yēūm baḷā dēīla — who now will lend strength to Kālikāla to come? The Kāli-kāla (the dark-age, the time-of-Kali, the time of the world's decay) is the standard feared-time-entity in this register; the bhakta asks rhetorically who could now empower it against him.
Sattā jhālī tribhuvanīm — Chakrapāṇī kōmvasā — authority is established in the three worlds — Chakrapāṇi (Viṣṇu, the Discus-holder) is the protector-fence. Kōmvasā is a wooden fence-bar, a protector-rail. The Lord stands as the protective barrier between the bhakta and Kālikāla.
Laḍivāḷāñchā bhāra vāhē — ubhā āhē kuḍhāvayā — he carries the burden of the darlings (laḍivāḷa = the petted/spoiled-loved-one); he stands ready to prop-up. Laḍivāḷa is one of Tukārām's specific Vārkarī-self-descriptions — the spoiled-darling of the Lord, the loved-one who acts with the unselfconscious freedom of a favored child.
The close measures the attention-density: ghaṭikā divasa — nimiṣa hī na visambhē — not a ghaṭikā (24-minute unit), not a day, not even a nimiṣa (eye-blink, instant) of letting-forgotten. The Lord's attention to the laḍivāḷa is continuous at the smallest timescale. Visambhē — fall-back-into-forgetting — does not happen.
For someone today
When the protector is genuinely in place, the appropriate stance is not anxious watchfulness on your own part. The verse hands you the relevant claim: not a nimiṣa of forgetting on the protector's side. Be the laḍivāḷa — the spoiled-darling, freely-acting child — rather than the over-watchful adult. The feared time-age cannot get strength-to-approach from anywhere if the Chakrapāṇi-fence is up. Live inside that fence rather than running its perimeter.
Where this applies
- Refuge-secured stance in a feared time of decline
- Trusting the protective-attention without auditing it every instant
- Being a laḍivāḷa — spoiled-darling — rather than a worried-watchman
- The bhakti claim that genuine grace is continuous at the smallest timescale