Abhanga 2677
The verse is one of the most-quoted Tukārām mortality-prompts. Old age has come to your ear's-root and is telling stories — Death's meeting is in the neighborhood; become alert; the knowledge of merit-and-fruit is your work-accomplishment now; the final ghaṭikā drowns in no time, and that moment is near. Meditate on the family-deity; drive away the surrounding false-words.
The verse
जरा कर्णमूळीं सांगों आली गोष्टी । मृत्याचिये भेटी जवळी आली ॥१॥
आतां माझ्या मना होई सावधान । वोंपुण्याची जाण कार्यसिद्धी ॥ध्रु.॥
शेवटील घडी बुडतां न लगे वेळ । साधावा तो काळ जवळी आला ॥२॥
तुका म्हणे चिंतीं कुळींची देवता । वारावा भोंवता शब्द मिथ्या ॥३॥
Literal translation
Old age (jarā) has come to the karṇa-mūḷa (ear's-root) — telling stories; the mrtyāñchiyē bhēṭī (Death's meeting) has come near. Now, my mind — become sāvadhāna (alert, attentive); the jāṇa (knowledge) of vōmpuṇya is work-accomplishment. The final ghaṭikā to drown — takes no time; that kāḷa (moment) to be mastered has come near. Tukā says: meditate on the kula-dēvatā (family-deity); drive away the bhōmvatā śabda mithyā (surrounding false-words).
What it means
A celebrated mortality-warning verse. The opening image is unforgettable: jarā karṇa-mūḷīm sāngōm ālī gōṣṭī — mrtyāchiyē bhēṭī javaḷī ālī — old age has come to the ear's-root, telling stories — Death's meeting has come near. Jarā (old age) is personified as a story-teller who has come up close to the ear (karṇa-mūḷa = ear's-root). She is whispering stories — but the message is plain: Death's meeting has arrived in the neighborhood. The image of old-age-as-whisperer-at-the-ear has become a celebrated Marathi mortality-trope.
The dhrūpada is the urgent prompt: ātām mājhyā manā hōī sāvadhāna — vōmpuṇyāchī jāṇa kārya-siddhi — now my mind, become alert (sāvadhāna) — the knowledge of vōmpuṇya is the work-accomplishment. Sāvadhāna — the sevadhāna call given at death-bedsides and at sacred-moments — be alert. Vōmpuṇya — vō-puṇya, the knowledge of merit-and-its-fruit-mastery — is the kārya-siddhi (work-accomplishment) for this final-stage.
The second verse: śevaṭīla ghaḍī buḍatām na lagē vēḷa — sādhāvā tō kāḷa javaḷī ālā — the final ghaṭikā to drown — takes no time; that kāḷa (moment) to be mastered has come near. Ghaṭikā (a 24-minute unit) — the final-ghaṭikā can drown the whole life-effort in no time. The kāḷa to be sādhāvā (mastered) is here.
The close: chintīm kuḷīñchī dēvatā — vārāvā bhōmvatā śabda mithyā — meditate on the kula-dēvatā (family-deity); drive away the surrounding false-words (śabda-mithyā). The dying-stage prompt: meditate on the family-deity, drive away the false-words circulating around you. The Vārkarī's kula-dēvatā is Viṭhṭhala — chintā Viṭhṭhalā — is the final-stage focus.
For someone today
The verse is one of the most-quoted Tukārām mortality-prompts. Old age has come to your ear's-root and is telling stories — Death's meeting is in the neighborhood; become alert; the knowledge of merit-and-fruit is your work-accomplishment now; the final ghaṭikā drowns in no time, and that moment is near. Meditate on the family-deity; drive away the surrounding false-words.
Two practical instructions: meditate on the kula-dēvatā (settle on the central love-figure of your life-tradition), and drive away the surrounding false-words (the noise of dying-room conversations, the well-meaning chatter, the regret-stories). The dying-mind needs the simple addressee, not the surrounding-words.
Where this applies
- Final-stage of life and the mortality-warning prompt
- Recognizing the old-age-whispering-at-the-ear as a sound-image to attend to
- Be alert — the sāvadhāna call to the dying-mind
- Meditating on the kula-dēvatā and driving away the surrounding śabda-mithyā