Abhanga 3010
Long simmering grief can be voiced as an unpaid debt, warning that a reckoning left unattended only grows heavier with time.
The verse
हळूहळू जाड । होत चालिलें लिगाड । जाणवेल निवाड । न करिसी परी पुढें ॥१॥
मी तों सांगून उतराईं । जालों आतां तुज काईं । कळों येईंल भाईं । तैसा करीं विचार ॥ध्रु.॥
मागें युगें अठ्ठाविस । जालीं दिवसाचा दिवस । मुदल व्याज कासावीस । होसी देवा ये कामें ॥२॥
तुकयाबंधु म्हणे राखें । आतां टाकीं तुझीं तीं सुखें । जगजाहिर ठाउकें । जालें नाहीं खंडलेंसें ॥३॥
Literal translation
Haḷū-haḷū jāḍa — slowly-slowlyjāḍa(heavy, thick); hōta chālile ligāḍa — theligāḍa(entanglement, sticky-thing) has been-becoming; jāṇavela nivāḍā — (you) will be noticed by (the)nivāḍa(decision, resolution); na karisī parī puḍhe — (if you) don't (do something) ahead. Mī tōm sāngūna utarāī jālōm ātām tuja kāī — I am telling-(you) and becomingutarāī(debt-cleared) — now to you, what (matters); kaḷōm yeīmla bhāī — taisā karī vichāra — (it) will come-to-knowing, brother — makevichāraaccordingly. Māge yuge aṭṭhāvīsa — behind, twenty-eightyugas; jālīm divasāñcā divasa — (have) become days-and-days; mudala vyāja kāsāvīsa — (over the)mudala(principal) andvyāja(interest), (you have become)kāsāvīsa(troubled, anxious); hōsī Devā ye kāme — you become (so), Deva, in this work. Tukayā-bandhu mhaṇe rākhe — Tukārām's-brother says: save (yourself); ātām ṭākīm tujhīm tīm sukhe — now throw-away thosesukhasof yours; jagajāhira ṭhāuke — jāle nāhīm khaṇḍalese — thejaga-jāhira(publicly-revealed) — has not beenkhaṇḍalese(broken, settled).
What it means
A striking 3-verse account-and-time-image verse by Tukyā-bandhu. NON-Tukārām.
The brother employs commercial-language: the entanglement is becoming-heavy slowly; the nivāḍa (decision, resolution-of-dispute) will-arrive; I've-discharged-my-duty-by-telling-you; consider-accordingly. The cosmic-account-image: for 28-yugas, the principal-and-interest has been accumulating; you-are-troubled-by-this-work. The closing-warning: throw-away-your-pleasures; the public-record has-not-been-settled.
For someone today
Kānhobā speaks here like a creditor calling in an old debt from God. He warns that this entanglement is quietly getting heavier by the day, and that a reckoning will come whether the Lord acts now or not — he's simply telling him plainly and considers his own duty discharged. He casts the grief in the language of accounts: for twenty-eight ages, principal and interest have been piling up on this debt, and it's clearly been weighing on the Lord too. His closing warning is blunt — set aside your comforts, because this public account has still not been settled. It shows how long-simmering grief can be voiced as an unpaid debt, warning that a reckoning left unattended only grows heavier with time.
मराठी: येथे कान्होबा जणू परमेश्वराकडून जुने कर्ज वसूल करणाऱ्या सावकारासारखा बोलतो. हा गुंता हळूहळू अधिकच जड होत चालला आहे, असा तो इशारा देतो, आणि परमेश्वराने आताच काही केले नाही तरी निकाल एक ना एक दिवस समोर येणारच आहे — आपण फक्त स्पष्टपणे सांगून आपले कर्तव्य पार पाडले आहे, असे तो म्हणतो. दुःखाला तो हिशेबाच्या भाषेत मांडतो — अठ्ठावीस युगांपासून मुद्दल आणि व्याज साचत आले आहे, आणि याचमुळे परमेश्वरही अस्वस्थ झाला आहे, हे उघड आहे. शेवटी तो स्पष्टपणे बजावतो — आपली सुखे बाजूला ठेव, कारण हा जगजाहीर हिशेब अजून चुकता झालेला नाही. दीर्घकाळ साचलेले दुःख न फेडलेल्या कर्जासारखे मांडता येते, आणि दुर्लक्षित ठेवलेला हिशेब काळाबरोबर अधिकच जड होत जातो, हेच हा अभंग सांगतो.
Where this applies
- When your grief over losing someone turns into blunt anger, even anger you want to direct at God.
- When you feel you have warned someone clearly and the outcome is now out of your hands.
- When an old unresolved hurt in a relationship feels like interest quietly piling up.
- When you need to tell someone plainly that delaying a problem now will only make the reckoning heavier later.