Abhanga 2715
A useful urgent-petition for the moment when precious-life is being spent and the knots are still unresolved. I'm in the sticky-fly-paper; Kāḷa is pulling me; I have only my voice left to call. You came to untangle — do it in a moment. The verse names the urgency without melodrama: the fly in the resin is precise; the pulled by Kāḷa is precise. The petition is dhāmva ghālā — run! — the imperative to the protector.
The verse
मोलाचें आयुष्य वेचतसे सेवे । नुगवतां गोवे खेद होतो ॥१॥
उगवूं आलेति तुम्हीं नारायणा । परिहार या सिणा निमिस्यांत ॥ध्रु.॥
लिगाडाचे मासी न्यायें जाली परी । उरली ते उरी नाहीं कांहीं ॥२॥
तुका म्हणे लाहो साधीं वाचाबळें । ओढियेलों काळें धांव घाला ॥३॥
Literal translation
The mōla (precious, worth) of āyuṣya (life) is being vēchatasē (spent) in sēvā (service); not ugavatām (untying) the gōvē (knots, tangles), khēda (distress) comes. Ugavūm ālētī tumhī Nārāyaṇā — you have come to untangle, Nārāyaṇa; parihāra yā sīṇā nimiṣyāntā — the remedy for this distress in a nimiṣa (moment, blink). Ligāḍāñce māsī nyāyē jālī parī — like the sticky-fly-paper rule has become; uralī tē urī nāhī kāmhī — what remains has no further remainder. Tukā says: master by the vāchā-baḷa (mouth's-power); I have been ōḍhiyelōm kāḷē (pulled by Kāḷa); dhāmva ghālā — run (run-and-place-yourself).
What it means
A short urgent-petition verse. Mōlāñcē āyuṣya vēchatasē sēvē — nugavatām gōvē khēda hōtō — the precious life is being spent in service; without untying the knots, distress comes. Mōlāñcē āyuṣya — life of worth, precious-life — is being spent in service-work, but the gōvē (knots, tangles) are still unresolved, producing khēda (distress).
The dhrūpada: ugavūm ālētī tumhī Nārāyaṇā — parihāra yā sīṇā nimiṣyāntā — you have come to untangle, Nārāyaṇa — remedy for this distress in a moment. The petition: you came to do this work; let the remedy be in a single nimiṣa (blink). The Lord's-task is ugavaṇē (untangling); the bhakta asks for it to be done quickly.
The second verse: ligāḍāñce māsī nyāyē jālī parī — uralī tē urī nāhī — like the sticky-fly-paper-rule has become; what remains has no further remainder. Ligāḍa — sticky resin. Ligāḍāñce māsī — fly stuck-in-resin — the fly that has landed on sticky-fly-paper. The bhakta is the fly; samsāra is the ligāḍa. Urī nāhī kāmhī — no further remainder, no escape-margin.
The close: lāhō sādhī vāchā-baḷē — ōḍhiyelōm kāḷē — dhāmva ghālā — master by the mouth's power — I have been pulled by Kāḷa — run! Vāchā-baḷa — the power-of-the-mouth — the bhakta has only his vāchā (voice) left to master (sādhā) the Name. Ōḍhiyelōm kāḷē — I have been pulled by Kāḷa — kāḷa (death/time) is pulling. Dhāmva ghālā — run-and-place-yourself. The urgency.
For someone today
A useful urgent-petition for the moment when precious-life is being spent and the knots are still unresolved. I'm in the sticky-fly-paper; Kāḷa is pulling me; I have only my voice left to call. You came to untangle — do it in a moment. The verse names the urgency without melodrama: the fly in the resin is precise; the pulled by Kāḷa is precise. The petition is dhāmva ghālā — run! — the imperative to the protector.
Where this applies
- The precious-life-spent-untangle-my-knots-now urgent petition
- Recognizing the sticky-fly-paper image of life-bondage
- Calling on the Lord-who-came-to-untangle with his task-description
- The I-am-pulled-by-Kāḷa — run! close