Abhanga 2639
Once the pressure of an old debt lifts and you find the wealth was at home all along, the remaining task is simply not letting yourself forget it, with help.
The verse
आतां चुकलें बंधन गेलें विसरोनि दान । आपुले ते वाण सावकाश विकावे ॥१॥
लाभ जोडला अनंत घरीं सांपडलें वित्त । हातोहातीं थीत उरों तळ नल्हाचि ॥ध्रु.॥
होतें गोविलें विसारें माप जालें एकसरें । होतें होरें वारें तों चि लाहो साधिला॥२॥
कराया जतन तुका म्हणे निजधन । केला नारायण साहए नेदी विसंबों ॥३॥
Literal translation
Now bondage has been missed; the dāna (gift, transaction) has gone forgotten. Sell your wares leisurely. Infinite gain has joined — wealth has been found at home. Hand-to-hand, no thīta (residue, leftover) stays on the floor. What was held in collateral, the measure became at one stroke; the hōrē-vārē (haggling-over-the-bargain) — then the lāhō (gain, profit) was mastered. Tukā says: to preserve the nija-dhana (self-wealth), Nārāyaṇa is made sāhā'e (helper) — let it not be forgotten.
What it means
A commerce-image verse from the post-arrival mode. Chukalēm bandhana — gēlēm visarōnī dāna — bondage is now missed (gone-by, slipped-away) — the transaction has gone forgotten. The bhakti-claim: the obligation-bondage of having-received has been quietly dropped — no debt remains. Āpulē tē vāṇa sāvakāśa vikāvē — sell your wares leisurely. The bhakta who once-haggled-anxiously can now sell without haste, because there is no more debt-pressure.
The dhrūpada: lābha jōḍalā ananta — gharīm sāmpaḍalēm vitta — infinite gain has joined — wealth has been found at home. Gharīm (at home) — the wealth was not in the marketplace; it was at home all along. Hātōhātīm thīta urōm taḷī nalhāchi — hand-to-hand, no residue lies-flat on the floor — every grain-of-wealth gets carried up.
The second verse describes the redemption of the original-bondage: hōtēm gōvilēm visārē māpa jālēm ēkasarē — what was held as collateral-pledge, the measure became one-stroke. The whole accumulated-debt was settled in one transaction. Hōtēm hōrē-vārē tōm chi lāhō sādhilā — what had been haggling-back-and-forth — then the gain was mastered. Haggling stops once the gain is secured.
The close: karāyā jatana — Tukā mhaṇē — nija-dhana — kelā Nārāyaṇa sāhā'e — nēdī visambō — to preserve carefully — Tukā says — the self-wealth — Nārāyaṇa is made helper — does-not-let-it-be-forgotten. Nija-dhana (self-wealth) is the realized-treasure; visambō (forgetting, drifting-from-attention) is the danger. Nārāyaṇa is asked to be the sāhā'e (helper) who keeps the preservation-attention sharp.
For someone today
The verse describes a particular relief — when the debt-pressure of a long-bondage has been quietly missed-out-of, and one can finally sell leisurely without haggling. The bhakti claim is that this wealth-at-home is preservable only with Nārāyaṇa as sāhā'e — the helper-against-forgetting. The post-arrival ease is genuine; the only ongoing work is jatana (preservation against drift), and even that has a helper.
Where this applies
- Post-arrival ease where anxious-haggling has ended
- Recognizing that the wealth was at home all along
- The nija-dhana (self-wealth) preservation discipline
- Asking the Lord to be the helper-against-forgetting