संत साहित्य · Tukārām · Abhanga 3158 of 4582

Abhanga 3158

Freedom from a grinding, oppressive situation can arrive suddenly and completely, like a daughter finally leaving her in-laws' house for good.

When you have endured a demanding household or workplace for years and finally get to walk away

When you wonder whether real freedom comes slowly or can happen all at once

When you feel worn down by obligations that never seem to let up

The verse

अखंड मुडतर । सासुरवास करकर ॥१॥ याची जाली बोळवण । आतां न देखों तो शीण ॥ध्रु.॥ बहुतांची दासी । तये घरीं सासुरवासी ॥२॥ तुका म्हणे मुळें । खंड जाला एका वेळें ॥३॥

Literal translation

Akhaṇḍa muḍatara — unending oppression; sāsura-vāsa karakara — in-laws-stay grinding-harsh. Yāchī jālī bōḷavaṇa — this one's bōḷavaṇa has happened; ātām na dekhōm tō śīṇa — now I won't see that sīṇa. Bahutāmñcī dāsī — was dāsī of many; taye gharīm sāsuravāsī — in that house, sāsuravāsī. Tukā mhaṇe mūḷe — Tukā says: at source; khaṇḍa jālā ekā veḷem — khaṇḍa happened in one stroke.

What it means

Bhakta-as-young-bride-finally-leaving-the-tormenting-in-laws-of-samsāra. The bōḷavaṇa (the ceremony when a married daughter is taken back to-her-father's-house) has-happened; suffering ends ekā-veḷem (in-one-stroke) at-the-root.

For someone today

This verse pictures liberation as a young bride who has finally left a house where she was worked and mistreated without end. The farewell ceremony has happened, and she knows she will never again see that particular suffering. Tukaram insists the ending was not gradual: at the very root, the whole burden broke in a single stroke, once and for all. Whatever in your life has made you feel like an unpaid servant, trust that real release, when it comes, can be complete and sudden rather than a slow trickle.

मराठी: हा अभंग मुक्तीचे चित्रण अशा सुनेच्या रूपात करतो जी अखेर सासरच्या अखंड त्रासातून बाहेर पडली आहे. तिचा निरोप-समारंभ झाला आहे आणि आता ती पुन्हा तो त्रास पाहणार नाही. तुकाराम सांगतात की हा शेवट हळूहळू झाला नाही; मुळापासूनच संपूर्ण ओझे एकाच क्षणी, एकाच वेळी तुटले. संसाराने तुम्हाला जरी विनावेतन सेवकासारखे राबवले असेल, तरी खरी मुक्ती जेव्हा येते तेव्हा ती हळूहळू नव्हे तर पूर्ण आणि तात्काळ असू शकते हे लक्षात ठेवा.

Where this applies

When you finally leave a relationship or household that wore you down with endless demands
When you fear that healing must always be slow and partial, and need to trust a clean, total ending
When you feel like an unpaid servant in your own life and long for a real break
When you are near the end of a hard chapter and need hope that suffering can end all at once

Bhakti