Abhanga 2902
Ekā mhaṇe bhale — (when) one is said-to-be bhale (good); āṇikā sahaja chi nindile — others are naturally nindile (criticized).
The verse
एका म्हणे भलें । आणिका सहज चि निंदिलें ॥१॥
कांहीं न करितां आयास । सहज घडले ते दोष ॥ध्रु.॥
बरें वाइटाचें । नाहीं मज कांहीं साचें ॥२॥
तुका म्हणे वाणी । खंडोनि राहावें चिंतनीं ॥३॥
Literal translation
Ekā mhaṇe bhale — (when) one is said-to-be bhale (good); āṇikā sahaja chi nindile — others are naturally nindile (criticized). Kāmhī na karitām āyāsa — without doing any āyāsa (effort); sahaja ghaḍale te dōṣa — naturally those dōṣa (faults) have come about. Bare vāīṭāñce — of bare (good) (and) vāīṭa (bad); nāhī maja kāmhī sāñce — there is no (good-or-bad) truly for me. Tukā says: vāṇī — (the) speech; khaṇḍōnī rāhāve chintanī — break (it off) and stay in chintana (meditation).
What it means
A 3-verse anti-comparison discipline verse. Ekā mhaṇe bhale — āṇikā sahaja chi nindile — (when) one is praised, others are naturally criticized. The diagnostic: praising-one-person implicitly-criticizes-others. (Comparative-praise is structurally-judgmental.)
Kāmhī na karitām āyāsa — sahaja ghaḍale te dōṣa — without effort, those defects come about. The dōṣa (faults of comparative-criticism) emerge naturally — without conscious-effort. (Just by praising X, you've-criticized-not-X.)
Bare vāīṭāñce — nāhī maja kāmhī sāñce — there is no good-and-bad truly for me. The bhakta's-position: I have no true good-bad-distinction. (The Lord's-equanimity-image from 2889 sun-shōṣī-but-not-limped-by-guṇa-dōṣa applied to the bhakta.)
The close: Tukā mhaṇe vāṇī — khaṇḍōnī rāhāve chintanī — break the speech — stay in chintana. The discipline: don't speak (in comparative-praise-and-blame) — stay in chintana (meditation). The vow-of-silence-as-bhakti-discipline.
For someone today
A useful anti-comparison-discipline. (When) one is said-to-be good — naturally others are criticized. Without effort, those defects have come about. There is no good-and-bad truly for me. Break (off) the speech — stay in chintana. The verse names a structural-feature of language: praising-one inevitably criticizes-others. Even without intending-criticism, the comparative-grammar contains-it. The discipline: break-the-comparative-speech; stay-in-chintana. The bhakta's claim: for me, there is no truly-good-or-bad distinction — like the sun, equanimous-toward-all.
Where this applies
- The anti-comparing-good-and-bad; stay-in-chintana discipline
- Recognizing praising-one inevitably criticizes-others
- Break-speech, stay-in-chintana as discipline
- Pairs with 2889 (sun-equanimity), 2895 (sharp-uttara-for-future-good)