Abhanga 2682

You cannot purify yourself by turning away from people who could genuinely help you, and causing others pain only deepens your own trouble.

The verse

Literal translation

What it means

A diagnostic verse paired-companion to 2681. Udakīm kālavī śēṇa-mala-mūtra — tō hōya pavitra kāsayānē — one who mixes dung, filth, urine in water — by what does he become pure? The image is unsparing: someone mixing-filth-into-the-purifying-water cannot get pure by it. The companion to 2681: self-purification-while-agitating-sants is like trying to cleanse-by-mixing-filth-into-the-water.

The dhrūpada: uddhārāsī ṭhāva nāhī bhāgya-hīnā — vimukha charaṇām santāñcyā — the misfortunate one has no place of uddhāra — turned-away from sants' feet. Vimukha-from-sants — turned-face-away — closes the uddhāra-door. Without that door, no bhāgya-hīna (luck-less) person finds a way up.

The second verse: dukhavī tō buḍē sāngaḍīcā tāpa — atityāī-pāpāñcī chi mūrti — the one who pains-others drowns by the cluster-fever — he is the very image of excess-sin. Sāngaḍī (cluster, herd) — when a herd is feverish, the fever moves through; the pain-causer drowns in his own herd's fever. He becomes the murti (image-statue) of atityāī-pāpa — excess-sin. The vocabulary mūrti is striking — the person doesn't have excess-sin; he is the statue of excess-sin.

The close: jēvhām fiṛatēm kapāḷa — amangaḷa-yōga hōtō — when the forehead (fate-line) turns, an inauspicious-conjunction comes about. The kapāḷa-fiṛaṇē — the forehead-turning — names the moment when one's fate-line shifts adversely. The amangaḷa-yōga (inauspicious-conjunction) is the cosmological-arrangement that befalls one whose forehead has turned. The implication: the vimukha-from-sants posture is itself the fate-turning.

For someone today

The verse is sharp diagnostic. You cannot purify yourself by mixing filth into water; you cannot uddhāra-yourself by turning your face away from those who could lift you; the one who pains others becomes the statue of excess-sin and drowns in the cluster-fever; when the forehead turns, the inauspicious-conjunction follows. The lesson: be very careful about whose feet you turn your face away from. The door of uddhāra is at those feet; closing it means no uplifting-route remains. The image of mixing filth into water is a useful mirror for spiritual-self-deception: trying to purify by methods that themselves contaminate.

मराठी: हा अभंग एक तीक्ष्ण निदान देतो. पाण्यात घाण मिसळून तू स्वतःला शुद्ध करू शकत नाहीस; जे तुला वर उचलू शकतात त्यांच्याकडे पाठ फिरवून तू स्वतःचा उद्धार करू शकत नाहीस; जो इतरांना दुःख देतो तो अतिपापाची मूर्तीच बनतो आणि समूहाच्या तापात बुडतो; कपाळ फिरले की अमंगळ योग घडतो. यातून धडा हा: ज्या पायांपासून तू तोंड फिरवतोस, त्याबाबत फार जपून राहा. उद्धाराचे दार त्याच पायांशी आहे; ते बंद केले की वर जाण्याचा कोणताच मार्ग उरत नाही. पाण्यात घाण मिसळण्याची प्रतिमा आध्यात्मिक आत्मवंचनेसाठी एक उपयुक्त आरसा आहे — जी साधने स्वतःच अशुद्ध करतात, त्यांनीच शुद्ध होण्याचा प्रयत्न करणे.

Where this applies

• When you're trying to fix a mess in your life but avoid the honest people who'd tell you the truth about it
• When you keep causing pain to those around you and wonder why nothing in your life improves
• When you notice yourself avoiding good company right when you need it most
• When you look for shortcuts to feel better without changing what's actually wrong

Related verses

• Abhanga 2464 — For today: Pāṇḍuranga is sukha-rūpa ; no wandering, no shaving, no sādhana-pressure ; Chan
• Abhanga 2490 — The divine is most reachable through the living presence of a true saint, not through a di
• Abhanga 2494 — Living in devotion turns an ordinary day into a festival and removes the fear of birth and
• Abhanga 4481 — Tukaram promises that sincerely calling on the Lord's name, knowingly or unknowingly, with