Abhanga 2668
I hear plenty of complaints — many have come. Don't trust them — they are body-thieves, mine-diggers. This is their occupation — always bald-and-naked. Tukā: what they take — whose-it-is, that one has no knowledge of.
The verse
ऐकतों दाट । आले एकांचें बोभाट ॥१॥
नका विश्वासों यावरी । चोर देहाचे खाणोरी ॥ध्रु.॥
हे चि यांची जोडी । सदा बोडकीं उघडीं ॥२॥
तुका म्हणे न्यावें । ज्याचे त्यासी नाहीं ठावें ॥३॥
Literal translation
I hear thickly (aikatōm dāṭa) — many bōbhāṭa (complaints, outcries) have come. Don't trust them — they are dēhāñchē chōra-khāṇōrī (body-thieves and mine-diggers). This is their jōḍī (occupation, pair-of-trades) — always bōḍakīm ughaḍīm (bald-and-naked). Tukā says: they will take — whose-it-is, that one has no knowledge.
What it means
A continuation of the playful-warning from 2667. Aikatōm dāṭa — ālē ēkāñchē bōbhāṭa — I hear thickly — many complaints have come. The bōbhāṭa (loud-outcry) is from those whose houses the Vaiṣṇavas have visited.
The dhrūpada extends the mock-warning: nakā viśvāsōm yāvarī — chōra dēhāñche khāṇōrī — don't trust them — they are body-thieves, mine-diggers (khāṇōrī = the ones who dig mines, the ones who extract). The dēha-chōra — body-thieves — is the second-layer of the joke: they steal not the household-goods but the body-itself, the identification-with-body that the householder didn't know was up-for-theft.
The second verse names their trade-profile: hē chi yāñchī jōḍī — sadā bōḍakīm ughaḍīm — this is their occupation — always bald-and-naked. Bōḍakīm ughaḍīm — the bhakti-ascetic-look, shaved-head and unclothed (or thin-clothed). The Vaiṣṇavas are recognizable: they look the part of the dispossessed.
The close: nyāvē — jyāñche tyāsī nāhī ṭhāvē — they will take — whose-it-is, that one has no knowledge. The bhakti-economy is now precise: they take what the owner didn't know was his. The owner thought he owned his body; he didn't. The Vaiṣṇavas take what was always-not-really-his-anyway, but the owner had been pretending otherwise.
For someone today
The two-verse pair (2667+2668) offers a complete playful description of how bhakti-encounter operates: they come looking dispossessed; they eat your meal and take everything; they leave no trail; what they take, you didn't actually know was yours. The diagnostic-test for whether the encounter has happened: what is missing that you can no longer claim? If you have lost things you didn't know you owned, you may have hosted the body-thieves lately. The verse is also a warning to those still-pretending: body-thieves are coming, and what they take, you can't recover, because it never was yours to begin with.
Where this applies
- Continuation of the playful Vaiṣṇavas-as-thieves image from 2667
- Recognizing the body-mine-digging economy of genuine bhakti-encounter
- The diagnostic — what is missing that I can no longer claim?
- The honest joke: they take what was never yours