Abhanga 2682
One who mixes (kālavī) dung (śēṇa), filth (mala), and urine (mūtra) in water — by what does he become pure?
The verse
उदकीं कालवी शेण मलमूत्र । तो होय पवित्र कासयानें ॥१॥
उद्धारासी ठाव नाहीं भाग्यहीना । विन्मुख चरणां संतांचिया ॥ध्रु.॥
दुखवी तो बुडे सांगडीचा तापा । अतित्याईं पापाची च मूर्ति ॥२॥
तुका म्हणे जेव्हां फिरतें कपाळ । तरी अमंगळ योग होतो ॥३॥
Literal translation
One who mixes (kālavī) dung (śēṇa), filth (mala), and urine (mūtra) in water — by what does he become pure? The bhāgya-hīnā (misfortunate one) who is vimukha (turned-away) from sants' feet has no ṭhāva (place) for uddhāra (uplift). The one who pains-others (dukhavī) — drowns by the sāngaḍīcā tāpa (cluster-fever); he is atityāī-pāpāñcī chi mūrti (the very image of excess-sin). Tukā says: when the kapāḷa (forehead, fate-line) fiṛatē (turns), the amangaḷa-yōga (inauspicious-conjunction) comes about.
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 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-from. The door of uddhāra is at those feet; closing it means no uplifting-route remains. The image of mixing-filth-in-water is a useful mirror for spiritual-self-deception: trying to purify by methods that themselves contaminate.
Where this applies
- Warning against self-purification attempts while turning-away-from-the-worthy
- Recognizing the cluster-fever mechanism of pain-causing
- The kapāḷa-fiṛaṇē (forehead-turning) as the warning-sign of amangaḷa-yōga
- Diagnostic-mirror: are my purification-methods adding-filth-to-the-water?