Abhanga 2701
The thief's brand settles in his attention as a mark. What should we do — let the rain rain by its own rule. The one on whose wound it lands — feels the sting. Tukā: whose own fault — his own joining troubles him.
The verse
चोराचिया धुडका मनीं । वसे ध्यानीं लंछन ॥१॥
ऐशा आम्हीं करणें काय । वरसो न्यायें पर्जन्य ॥ध्रु.॥
ज्याच्या बैसे खतावरी । ते चुरचुरी दुखवूनि ॥२॥
तुका म्हणे ज्याची खोडी । त्याची जोडी त्या पीडी ॥३॥
Literal translation
The chōra (thief)'s ḍhuḍhakā (small-mark, brand, telltale) settles in his dhyāna (attention) as a lamchhana (mark, blot). What should we do — let the parjanya (rain-cloud) varasō nyāyē (rain by its rule). The one on whose khata (wound) it baisē (lands) — churchurī (feels the sting) — dukhavūnī (in being pained). Tukā says: jyāñcī khōḍī — tyāñcī jōḍī tyā pīḍī — whose fault — his own joining troubles him.
What it means
A psychology-of-guilt diagnostic verse. Chōrāchiyā ḍhuḍhakā manīm — vasē dhyānīm lamchhana — the thief's small-brand settles in his attention as a lamchhana (mark, blot, telltale). The thief who has done the deed carries the mark in his own dhyāna (attention) — the deed becomes a self-watching-mark.
The dhrūpada: aiśā āmhī karaṇē kāya — varasō nyāyē parjanya — what should we do — let the rain-cloud rain by its rule. The bhakta declines to adjudicate; let the parjanya (rain) fall nyāyē — by its own rule. The rain falls on guilty and innocent alike; how it lands depends on the wound.
The second verse names the specific-effect: jyāñcā baisē khatāvarī — tē churchurī dukhavūnī — the one on whose wound (khata) it lands — feels the sting (churchurī), pained. The same-rain that is harmless-on-unwounded-skin is churchurī (sting-burning) on the khata (wound, sore). The pain is from the wound, not from the rain's-injustice.
The close states the general-principle: jyāñcī khōḍī — tyāñcī jōḍī tyā pīḍī — whose fault — his own joining troubles him. Khōḍī (fault, defect, vice). Jōḍī — joining, possession (the fault-attached-to-the-person). Tyā pīḍī — troubles him. The fault one carries is itself what troubles one; one's own joining-with-the-fault is the source of one's pain.
For someone today
The verse offers a sharp psychology: the thief's own mark settles in his attention as a blot; let rain fall by its rule; whoever has a wound feels the sting on it; whose fault — his own joining troubles him. The implication: the same event-or-utterance hurts different people differently because of what wounds they are carrying. The thief finds thief-content in casual-talk; the innocent doesn't notice. We don't have to manage what others hear from us; the parjanya rains by its rule, and the wound-bearer feels the sting on his own wound. This is also a small mirror: what hurts me, where does the wound it lands on, come from?
Where this applies
- Recognizing why the same impartial-event hurts the guilty and not the innocent
- The let-rain-rain-by-its-rule impartial-distribution principle
- The mirror-question: what hurts me — where is the wound it lands on?
- The diagnostic: whose fault — his own joining troubles him