Abhanga 2685
I do not know japa (recitation), tapa (austerity), anuṣṭhāna (formal-practice), yāga (sacrifice); meanwhile, kāḷa (death/time) has caught me by the thread.
The verse
नेणें जप तप अनुष्ठान याग । काळें तंव लाग घेतलासे ॥१॥
रिघालो या भेणें देवाचे पाठीसी । लागे त्याचें त्यासी सांभाळणें ॥ध्रु.॥
मापें माप सळे चालिली चढती । जाली मग राती काय चाले ॥२॥
तुका म्हणे चोरा हातीं जे वांचलें । लाभावरी आलें वारिलेशु ॥३॥
Literal translation
I do not know japa (recitation), tapa (austerity), anuṣṭhāna (formal-practice), yāga (sacrifice); meanwhile, kāḷa (death/time) has caught me by the thread. Out of this fear I have crawled (righalōm) behind Deva — let him preserve what is his. The māpē māpa saḷē (measure-against-measure ascent) — has gone climbing; once rātī (night) has fallen, what runs? Tukā says: what was saved from the thief's hand — the gain that came has been vāriliśu (warded off, prevented).
What it means
A striking, honest disclaimer-and-shelter verse. Nēṇē japa tapa anuṣṭhāna yāga — I don't know japa, tapa, anuṣṭhāna, yāga. The four formal-practices are listed and disclaimed in turn: recitation, austerity, observance, sacrifice. None of these has been mastered by the bhakta. Kāḷē tanva lāga ghētalāsē — meanwhile, death/time has caught me by the thread — the urgency that produced the shelter-decision.
The dhrūpada: righalōm yā bhēṇē Devāñce pāṭhīsī — lāgē tyāñche tyāsī sāmbhāḷaṇē — out of this fear I have crawled behind Deva — let him preserve what is his. Righalōm (crawled, slipped-behind) — a humble-physical word. Pāṭhīsī — at his back — sheltering behind the Lord. The argument: what is mine has become his; let him preserve what is his. The bhakta hands over the preservation-work by saying it's yours now.
The second verse contains a difficult-but-striking image: māpē māpa saḷē chālilī chaḍhatī — jālī mag rātī kāya chālē — the measure-against-measure ascent (saḷē) has gone climbing — once night has fallen, what runs? The image is from grain-measuring at a market: measure-after-measure accumulates upward (chaḍhatī). The bhakta has been accumulating, but once night falls, what runs? — once the time runs out, no further measuring is possible. The karmic accumulation-by-measurement must end somewhere.
The close: chōrā hātīm jē vāñcalē — lābhāvarī ālē vāriliśu — what was saved from the thief's hand — the gain that came has been warded off. The Marathi vāriliśu (warded-off, prevented) is unusual. The general sense: what one had saved-from-the-thief, that gain has been kept-safe. The shelter-behind-Deva is precisely this thief-evasion.
For someone today
The verse is the honest disclaimer for anyone whose practice is plain bhakti-shelter rather than formal-yogic discipline. I don't know japa-tapa-anuṣṭhāna-yāga; what I know is that death is chasing me; out of fear I have crawled behind Deva; what was mine has become his; let him preserve his. The bhakti-shelter is permitted as a fear-driven decision, not a qualifications-based one. Death-thread caught me is sufficient warrant for crawling behind the protector. The accumulation-by-measure has an end-point — once night falls, no further runs — so the shelter-decision is now, not after-more-measurement.
Where this applies
- Honest disclaimer for those without yogic-formal-practice qualifications
- Recognizing fear-of-death as legitimate motive for taking-shelter
- The crawled-behind-Deva humble-physical posture
- The measure-against-measure accumulation-image — accumulating-without-arriving