Abhanga 2897
Satya āmhām manī — satya (truth) (is) in our mind; navhō gabāḷāñce dhanī — we are not the dhanī (owners) of gabāḷa (clutter, junk, accumulated-rubbish).
The verse
सत्य आम्हां मनीं । नव्हों गाबाळाचे धनी ॥१॥
ऐसें जाणा रे सकळ । भरा शुद्ध टांका मळ ॥ध्रु.॥
देतों तीक्ष्ण उत्तरें । पुढें व्हावयासी बरें ॥२॥
तुका म्हणे बरें घडे । देशोदेशीं चाले कोडें ॥३॥
Literal translation
Satya āmhām manī — satya (truth) (is) in our mind; navhō gabāḷāñce dhanī — we are not the dhanī (owners) of gabāḷa (clutter, junk, accumulated-rubbish). Aise jāṇā re sakaḷa — know this, O all of you; bharā śuddha ṭānkā maḷa — fill (your) pure (state); ṭānkā (throw off) the maḷa (dirt, impurity). Detōm tīkṣṇa uttare — we give tīkṣṇa (sharp) uttare (responses, words); puḍhe hvāvayāsī bare — for bare (good) (coming) ahead. Tukā says: bare ghaḍe — good comes about; deśa-deśī chāle kōḍe — across deśa-deśa (country-to-country), the kōḍa (mystery, curiosity, riddle) chāle (travels).
What it means
A short anti-clutter purity-discipline verse. Satya āmhām manī — navhō gabāḷāñce dhanī — truth (is) in our mind — we are not the owners of gabāḷa (clutter, junk). The opening: we hold truth, not clutter. Gabāḷa — a Marathi-word for accumulated rubbish-and-junk. The bhakta-claim: I am not the keeper-of-junk-and-clutter — only the truth.
Aise jāṇā re sakaḷa — bharā śuddha ṭānkā maḷa — know this, all of you — fill the pure, throw off the dirt. The instruction: fill-the-pure (state), throw-off-the-dirt. (The image: a container — empty it of dirt; fill it with pure.)
Detōm tīkṣṇa uttare — puḍhe hvāvayāsī bare — we give sharp words — for (the listener's) future good. The self-defense: my sharp-criticism is for-your-future-good. (Tukārām often gave-sharp-words; this defends-the-style.)
The close: Tukā mhaṇe bare ghaḍe — deśa-deśī chāle kōḍe — good happens — across countries the kōḍa (curiosity, riddle-like-quality) travels. The bhakti-prophecy: good will come — Tukārām's-words-and-curious-stories will-travel country-to-country. (This-itself-is-prophetic: Tukārām's abhangs have indeed traveled-across-Maharashtra-and-beyond.)
For someone today
A useful anti-clutter purity-discipline. Truth in our mind — we are not owners of clutter. Know this, all of you — fill the pure, throw off the dirt. We give sharp words — for (the listener's) future good. Good happens — across countries, the curiosity travels. The verse permits the sharp-uttara mode in bhakti-tradition — Tukārām's-style of giving-sharp-truth is for-future-good. The closing-line is striking: Tukārām's-words-are-curiously-traveling country-to-country — a self-recognition of the trans-regional spread of his abhangs.
Where this applies
- The we-are-not-owners-of-clutter; fill-pure-throw-dirt; sharp-uttara-for-future-good purity-discipline
- Recognizing Tukārām's-sharp-uttara is for the-listener's-future-good
- Bare-ghaḍe; deśa-deśī chāle koḍa — Tukārām's-words-travel-curiously
- Anti-clutter discipline + defense-of-sharp-speech