Abhanga 3178
When an outer venture collapses, the wise response is not more talk but turning inward, closing the public shopfront and lighting a quiet inner lamp.
The verse
निघालें दिवाळें । जालें देवाचें वाटोळें ॥१॥
आतां वेचूं नये वाणी । विचारावें मनिच्या मनीं ॥ध्रु.॥
गुंडाळिलीं पोतीं । भीतरी लावियेली वाती ॥२॥
तुका म्हणे करा । ऐसा राहे माजी घरा ॥३॥
Literal translation
Nighālēm divāḷēm — jālēm Devāchem vāṭōḷēm — the divāḷē has gone out — Deva's vāṭōḷē has happened. Ātām vēchūm nayē vāṇī — vichārāvem manichyā manīm — now do not spend vāṇī — consider in the mind's-mind. Guṇḍāḷilīm pōtīm — bhītarī lāviyēlī vātī — the sacks have been rolled up — a wick has been lit inside. Tukā mhaṇe karā — aisā rāhē mājī gharā — Tukā says: do (this) — such-(a-one) abides within the house.
What it means
A 4-verse text built on the merchant-image of divāḷē (bankruptcy declared). When the outer business has failed — when the vāṭōḷē (collapse) of one's "Deva-affairs" (worldly transactions claiming sacred names) has happened — the response is not more talk. It is rolling up the pōtī (sacks) and lighting a vāti (wick) inside. The interior shop now opens.
For someone today
When the outer venture collapses, the inner shop opens. Don't waste speech in lament — close the public face, light an inner wick, and abide in the house. Many great inward turns begin in business-failure.
Where this applies
- Tukārām's outer-bankruptcy = inward-wick; abide-in-the-house canonical
- Resonates with Tukārām's own bankruptcy/famine-experience around 1629