Abhanga 3172
In the depths of despair, help can rise from within your own heart, and the very pain you suffer can be what restores your sense of being alive.
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)