संत साहित्य · Tukārām · Abhanga 2746 of 4582

Abhanga 2746

A useful prompt for redirecting attention. When you lose a key, you light a lamp and sit by the eye to find it; do the same for your own welfare — light the wick of attention and sit where the key to your welfare is. Notice: your mind is entangled wherever your wealth is deposited. All your intense effort is for the perishable. This asks you to do two things: (1) trace where your mind actually lives; (2) check what kind of deposits live there. The verse permits this honest audit without prescribing where the deposits should be — leave that to the recognition of āpuliyā hita (one's own welfare).

When you notice your mind keeps drifting back to money or possessions whenever it is left unoccupied

When you want to redirect wandering attention toward your own real wellbeing, the way you would search for a lost key

When you realize how much of your daily struggle goes toward protecting things that cannot last

The verse

चुकलिया ताळा । वाती घालुनि बैसे डोळां ॥१॥ तैसें जागें करीं चित्ता । कांहीं आपुलिया हिता ॥ध्रु.॥ निक्षेपिलें धन । तेथें गुंतलेसे मन ॥२॥ नाशिवंतासाटीं । तुका म्हणे करिसी आटी ॥३॥

Literal translation

Chukaliyā tāḷā — when thetāḷā(key) is lost/missed; vātī ghālunī baisē ḍōḷām — light thevātī(wick) and sit at theḍōḷām(eye, gaze). Taisē jāgē karī chitta — thus rouse the chitta; kāmhī āpuliyā hita — for one's ownhita(welfare). Nikṣēpilē dhana — thenikṣēpa(deposit) of wealth; tēthē gumtalēsē mana — there the mind isgumtalēsē(entangled). Tukā says: nāśivantāsāṭī — for thenāśivanta(perishable); karisī āṭī — you do theāṭī(struggle, intense effort).

What it means

A short attention-redirection verse. Chukaliyā tāḷā — vātī ghālunī baisē ḍōḷām — when the key is lost — light the wick and sit at the eye (where it was last). The household-image: when you lose a key, you light a lamp and sit-watching-by-the-eye (the place it was last seen). The principle: direct attention to where the thing is.

The dhrūpada applies it: taisē jāgē karī chitta — kāmhī āpuliyā hita — thus rouse the chitta — for one's own welfare. Apply the attention-discipline to your own chitta. Light-the-wick-of-attention and sit-where your welfare-key is.

The second verse names where the mind actually-sits: nikṣēpilē dhana — tēthē gumtalēsē mana — where wealth has been deposited — there the mind is entangled. The mind goes naturally to where wealth has been laid-up. This is the diagnostic-test: where my mind actually-goes when not-directed — that is where my deposits are. The location-of-entanglement reveals the location-of-my-investment.

The close: nāśivantāsāṭī — karisī āṭī — for the perishable, you do the struggle. The lament: all this āṭī (intense-effort) is for the perishable. The energy that goes-into-protecting-perishable-deposits could have gone-into-the-imperishable.

For someone today

मराठी: लक्ष पुन्हा योग्य दिशेला वळवण्यासाठी हा एक उपयुक्त इशारा आहे. किल्ली हरवली की आपण दिवा लावून, ती जिथे शेवटची दिसली तिथे बसून शोधतो; तसंच आपल्या हितासाठीही करावं — लक्षाचा दिवा लावावा आणि जिथे आपल्या हिताची किल्ली आहे तिथे बसावं. लक्षात घे: तुझं मन जिथे तुझं धन साठवलं आहे तिथेच गुंतलेलं आहे. तुझी सगळी तीव्र मेहनत नाशवंतासाठी खर्च होते आहे. यातून दोन गोष्टी करायच्या आहेत: (१) तुझं मन प्रत्यक्षात कुठे राहतं ते शोधणं; (२) तिथे कशा प्रकारच्या ठेवी आहेत ते तपासणं. ठेवी कुठे असाव्यात हे न सांगता हा अभंग ही प्रामाणिक तपासणी करण्याची मुभा देतो — ते ठरवणं 'आपुलिया हिता' (स्वतःच्या खऱ्या हिता)च्या जाणिवेवर सोडलं आहे.

Where this applies

When you feel anxious about protecting money or possessions and don't notice the toll it takes on you
When you want a simple test for what you are truly attached to, by watching where your mind drifts when it is unoccupied
When you are trying to redirect scattered attention toward your own deeper wellbeing
When you realize you are pouring enormous energy into things that will not last