Abhanga 2683
Should I make the body wail? — I don't know what is inside your belly. You don't give an answer; the inside is kept sorrowful. Let me go to the forest — with that intention, Giver. Tukā: let the mountain — serve me the cave.
The verse
शोकवावा म्यां देहे । ऐसें नेणों पोटीं आहे ॥१॥
तरी च नेदा जी उत्तर । दुःखी राखिलें अंतर ॥ध्रु.॥
जावें वनांतरा । येणें उद्देशें दातारा ॥२॥
तुका म्हणे गिरी । मज सेववावी दरी ॥३॥
Literal translation
Should I make my body śōkavāvā (wail, weep) — I do not know what is in your pōṭa (belly, hidden-mind). You do not give an uttara (answer); the inside is kept duḥkhī (sorrowful). Let me go to vanāntarā (deep-forest) — with this intention, Giver. Tukā says: the girī (mountain) — let it serve me the darī (cave).
What it means
A small impatient-protest verse with a forest-retreat threat. Śōkavāvā myām dēhē — aisēm nēṇōm pōṭīm āhē — should I make the body wail? — I don't know what is in your belly. The bhakta is uncertain what response is required, because the Lord's pōṭa (the hidden-inside, the intentions) is opaque. The petition is open: should I escalate to bodily-wailing?
The dhrūpada offers the diagnosis: tarī chi nēdā jī uttara — duḥkhī rākhilē antara — you don't give an answer — the inside is kept sorrowful. The bhakta has waited; no uttara has arrived; therefore antara (the inside) is duḥkhī (sorrowful). The non-response is the cause.
The second verse names the threat: jāvē vanāntarā — yēṇē uddēśē dātārā — let me go to the deep-forest — with this intention, Giver. The half-threat: if you don't answer, I will leave for the forest. Vanāntara — the interior-of-the-forest, the wilderness retreat. The bhakta has the uddēśa (intention) to retreat.
The close: girī — maja sēvavāvī darī — the mountain — let it serve me the cave. Girī (mountain) — darī (mountain-cave). The bhakta asks the mountain to serve him the cave — to take him in. The retreat-to-the-wilderness is named explicitly as the alternative-refuge if Pāṇḍuranga continues silent.
For someone today
When you have asked, waited, and gotten no answer, this verse offers the language of half-protest, half-threat: should I escalate to bodily-wailing? You don't answer; the inside is sorrowful; let me go to the forest with this intention; let the mountain serve me the cave. The petition is honest about its impatience and explicit about the alternative. The bhakta is not pretending stoic-patience; he is naming what he is considering. The wilderness-threat is a legitimate part of bhakti-protest: if you don't show up here, I will go where you cannot avoid me.
Where this applies
- The impatient protest-prayer when no answer has come
- The half-threat of wilderness-retreat as petition-pressure
- Should I make the body wail — naming the escalation-option
- The honest I don't know what is in your belly uncertainty about what response would actually move the Lord