Abhanga 2692
Some situations are actively harmful, and the wise response is distance, because mixing something good into what is truly toxic only wastes the good without fixing the harm.
The verse
मेला तरी जावो सुखें नरकासी । कळंकी याविशीं शिवों नये ॥१॥
रजस्वला करी वेलासी आघात । अंतरें तों हित दुरी बरें ॥ध्रु.॥
उगी च कां आलीं नासवावीं फळें । विटाळ विटाळें कालवूनि ॥२॥
तुका म्हणे लोणी घालोनि शेणांत । उपेगाची मात काय असे ॥३॥
Literal translation
If he dies — let him happily go to hell; don't touch the kaḷankī (defiler) at all. The rajasvalā (menstruating-woman) damages the vine; the inner-hita (welfare) is better at a durī (distance). For nothing why have these come — to nāsavāvīm (spoil) the unripe fruits — viṭāḷa-viṭāḷēm kālavūnī (pollution mixed with pollution). Tukā says: putting lōṇī (butter) into śēṇa (cow-dung) — what is the use of that?
What it means
A strong protection-of-the-pure verse. The opening line is unsparing: mēlā tarī jāvō sukhē narakāsī — kaḷankī yāviṣīm śivōm nayē — if he dies, let him happily go to hell — don't touch thekaḷankī(defiler) at all. Kaḷankī — one carrying a stain, a moral-blemish-active-defiler. The instruction is firm: even at the cost of letting him go to hell, do not touch him; the touch itself is the harm.
The dhrūpada uses a traditional folk-image: rajasvalā karī velāsī āghāta — antarē tōm hita durī barē — the rajasvalā (menstruating-woman) damages the vine; the inner-welfare is better at a distance. In traditional folk-belief, certain plants would not bear fruit if touched by a menstruating-woman during the right phase. (Note: this is folk-cultural-vocabulary; in modern reading, one substitutes any active-contaminator — the verse's point is not the menstrual-rule but the structural principle that some active states contaminate by-contact, regardless of fault). Hita durī barē — welfare is better-at-a-distance.
The second verse: ugī chi kām ālīm nāsavāvīm phaḷē — viṭāḷa viṭāḷēm kālavūnī — for no good reason why have they come to spoil the fruits — pollution mixed with pollution. Viṭāḷa viṭāḷēm kālavūnī — defilement-mixed-with-defilement — the act of mixing pollution-with-pollution does not produce purity; it just contaminates more.
The close gives the visceral-image: lōṇī ghālōnī śēṇāmta — upēgāñcī māta kāya asē — butter put into cow-dung — what is the use? The fresh-butter is wasted by being mixed-with-dung; the dung is not improved by butter. The mismatch is total-waste.
For someone today
This verse names a hard-edged principle: some situations and some people's ongoing conduct are actively harmful, and the wise response is distance, not contact, even when you feel for what's involved. Trying to purify a genuinely toxic situation by adding something good to it doesn't work; you just waste what was good, the way stirring butter into dung ruins the butter without improving anything else. This isn't the whole of Tukārām's teaching; elsewhere he preaches compassion for all beings. Here he names its counterpart: knowing when closeness itself does harm, and choosing to protect what's still whole instead.
मराठी: हा अभंग एक कठोर तत्त्व सांगतो: काही परिस्थिती आणि काही माणसांचं सतत चाललेलं वर्तन खरोखर हानिकारक असतं, आणि अशा वेळी शहाणपणाचा मार्ग म्हणजे अंतर राखणे, संपर्क साधणे नव्हे — जरी त्या गोष्टीबद्दल कणव वाटत असली तरी. खरोखर विषारी असलेल्या परिस्थितीत काहीतरी चांगलं मिसळून ती सुधारण्याचा प्रयत्न केला, तर तो फसतोच — जसं शेणात लोणी मिसळलं तर लोणीच वाया जातं, बाकी काहीच सुधारत नाही. हे तुकारामांच्या संपूर्ण शिकवणीचं प्रतिनिधित्व नाही — इतरत्र ते सर्व जीवांबद्दल करुणा शिकवतात. इथे मात्र ते त्याची दुसरी बाजू सांगत आहेत: जवळीक स्वतःच कधी हानिकारक ठरते हे ओळखणं, आणि जे अजून शाबूत आहे त्याचं रक्षण करणं निवडणं.
Where this applies
- The protection-of-the-pure ethic vis-à-vis active-defilers
- The butter-in-shit test for whether one's intervention is wise
- Recognizing that some active states damage by-contact — independent of fault
- The complementary-tension with the compassion-for-creatures principle (2657, 2687)