Abhanga 3172
When you cannot find any door out, stop trying to think your way out alone. The help comes from inside (the hrdaya-nivāsī), not from outside the situation. Sometimes duḥkha itself is what re-awakens the life-feeling.
The verse
विचारिलें आधीं आपुल्या मानसीं । वांचों येथें कैसीं कोण्या द्वारें ॥१॥
तंव जाला साहए हृदयनिवासी । बुद्धि दिली ऐसी नास नाहीं ॥ध्रु.॥
उद्वेगाचे होतों पडिलों समुद्रीं । कोण रीती तरी पाविजेल ॥२॥
तुका म्हणे दुःखें आला आयुर्भाव । जाला बहु जीव कासावीस ॥३॥
Literal translation
Vichārilēm ādhīm āpulyā mānasīm — (I) first considered in my own mānasa; vāmchōm yēthē kaisīm kōṇyā dvārēm — how shall (I) survive here, by which door. Tamva jālā sāhaya hrdaya-nivāsī — then the hrdaya-nivāsī became (my) sāhāya; buddhi dilī aisī nāsa nāhīm — (he) gave such buddhi that there is no nāśa. Udvegāche hōtōm paḍilōm samudrīm — I had fallen into the sea of udvega; kōṇa rītī tarī pāvijēla — by what rīti shall (I) cross. Tukā mhaṇe duḥkhēm ālā āyurbhāva — Tukā says: by duḥkha the āyurbhāva came; jālā bahu jīva kāsāvīsa — the jīva became greatly anxious.
What it means
A 4-verse autobiographical despair-and-rescue text. Tukārām sketches the trajectory: deliberation within → drowning in udvega (anguish) → the hrdaya-nivāsī (Inner Resident, antaryāmin) supplying a buddhi that cannot be destroyed → life-feeling returning through (rather than despite) duḥkha. The "which-door" question is the existential gate.
For someone today
When you cannot find any door out, stop trying to think your way out alone. The help comes from inside (the hrdaya-nivāsī), not from outside the situation. Sometimes duḥkha itself is what re-awakens the life-feeling.
Where this applies
- Tukārām's autobiographical udvega-sea; Inner-Resident-rescue canonical
- Companion to 2867 (ṭhevilē-Anantē) and 2730 (extreme-humility)