Abhanga 2961
Aikā kalīñce he phaḷa — hear this fruit of Kali; puḍhe hōīla brahma-gōḷa — ahead, there will be brahma-gōḷa (cosmic-upheaval).
The verse
ऐका कलीचें हें फळ । पुढें होइल ब्रम्हगोळ ॥१॥
चारी वर्ण अठरा याती । भोजन करिती एके पंक्ती ॥ध्रु.॥
पूजितीअसुरा रांडा । मद्य प्राशितील पेंढा ॥२॥
वामकवळ मार्जन । जन जाईंल अधोपतन ॥३॥
तुका हरिभक्ति करी । शक्ति पाणी वाहे घरीं ॥४॥
Literal translation
Aikā kalīñce he phaḷa — hear this fruit of Kali; puḍhe hōīla brahma-gōḷa — ahead, there will be brahma-gōḷa (cosmic-upheaval). Chārī varṇa aṭhārā yātī — the four varṇas (and) eighteen yāti; bhōjana karitī eke panktī — will eat bhojana at the same pankti (row). Pūjitī asurā rāṇḍā — lewd-women will worship asura; madya prāśitīla peṇḍhā — (and) drink madya (alcohol) in peṇḍhā (containers, bundles). Vāma-kavaḷa mārjana — (with) vāma-kavaḷa (left-eating, or wrong-side morsel) and mārjana (sprinkling-purification); jana jāīla adhō-patana — people will fall to adhō-patana (downward-fall). Tukā Hari-bhakti karī — does Hari-bhakti; śakti pāṇī vāhe gharī — śakti (his-power, or-the-goddess-Śakti) carries water at (his) house.
What it means
A canonical 4-verse Tukārām Kali-prophecy verse. This is one of the most-specific social-criticism / decline-prophecy texts in the corpus, documenting Tukārām's perception-of-17th-c-Maharashtra-society.
Verse 1: Aikā kalīñce he phaḷa — puḍhe hōīla brahma-gōḷa — hear Kali's fruit — ahead, cosmic-upheaval. The opening eschatological-claim.
Dhrūpada: Chārī varṇa aṭhārā yātī — bhōjana karitī eke panktī — four varṇas and eighteen yāti eat at one pankti. The varṇa-mixing-prophecy: all-castes-eating-together. (In Tukārām's brahminical-framework, this is decline.) However, note that Tukārām himself was bhakti-democratic — pairs with 2864 all-have-adhikāra in Kali-yuga. So this is prophetic-irony: what some-see-as-decline (caste-mixing) is also what-bhakti-makes-possible.
Verse 2: Pūjitī asurā rāṇḍā — madya prāśitīla peṇḍhā — (lewd) women worship asuras — drink madya. The image: cult-of-asura-deities (lower-tantric-cult) with-alcohol-consumption. (Tukārām polemicizes-against the asura-cult-with-mad-pāna.)
Verse 3: Vāma-kavaḷa mārjana — jana jāīla adhō-patana — vāma-kavaḷa + mārjana — people fall down. Vāma-kavaḷa — possibly left-handed eating or vāma-mārga (left-hand-tantra). The mārjana (purification-sprinkling) accompanies. People will fall.
Close: Tukā Hari-bhakti karī — śakti pāṇī vāhe gharī — Tukā does Hari-bhakti — śakti carries water at house. The radical-claim: Tukā doing Hari-bhakti has even-Śakti (the goddess-of-power) carrying-water-at-his-house. (Pairs with 2934 Vedānta-vāhe-pāṇī — same kind of high-thing-as-water-carrier image.)
Note on social-context: This verse is bound-to-its-17th-c-time. The criticism of caste-mixing sits-uneasily with Tukārām's-own-bhakti-democratization (2864, 2369, 2810). The criticism of asura-cult-with-alcohol is consistent with his anti-folk-deity polemic (2374). The verse documents-his-times rather-than-prescribing-modern-norms.
For someone today
A canonical Tukārām Kali-prophecy + 17th-c-social-criticism. Hear the fruit of Kali — ahead, brahma-gōḷa (cosmic-upheaval). The four-varṇas and eighteen-yāti will eat at one pankti. Lewd-women will worship asuras — and drink alcohol. With vāma-kavaḷa + mārjana, people will fall to adhō-patana. Tukā does Hari-bhakti — Śakti carries water at (his) house. The verse documents Tukārām's perception of social-decay in his time. The closing-claim: amid-decay, Hari-bhakti has-even-Śakti as-water-carrier. Modern-readers should-contextualize the caste-comment within-its-17th-c framework (and note Tukārām's-own-democratizing-bhakti elsewhere).
Where this applies
- The canonical Tukārām Kali-prophecy of social-decay
- Recognizing 17th-c social-criticism in the corpus
- Tukā-Hari-bhakti — śakti-carries-water — bhakti-supremacy claim
- Pairs with 2934 (Vedānta-carries-water), 2374 (anti-folk-deity polemic)
- Documentary-evidence of 17th-c Maharashtra society