Abhanga 3184
What you truly deserve arrives at once because a discernment older than you separates the worthy from the unworthy, so fix what you carry inside rather than blaming the outcome.
The verse
इच्छिलें ते शकुनवंती । होय देती तात्काळ ॥१॥
क्षीरा नीरा निवाड करी । वरावरी विठ्ठल ॥ध्रु.॥
भाग्याविण कैचें फळ । अंतर मळमूत्राचें ॥२॥
तुका म्हणे संचित कुडें । तें बापुडें करीतसे ॥३॥
Literal translation
Ichchhilēm tē śakunavantī — hōya dētī tātkāḷa — what is wished, the śakunavantī gives at once. Kṣīrā nīrā nivāḍa karī — varāvarī Viṭhṭhala — (he) separates kṣīra-nīra — Viṭhṭhala above-all. Bhāgyāviṇa kaiñchem phaḷa — antara maḷamūtrāche — without bhāgya, whence the phala — (only) an antara of maḷa-mūtra. Tukā mhaṇe samchita kuḍēm — tem bāpuḍē karītasē — Tukā says: when samchita is bad — that wretched (one) makes (it appear).
What it means
A 4-verse text on the moral economy of bhāgya/samchita. The śakunavantī — the one whose śakuna is right, whose merit-grace is aligned — receives instantly. Viṭhṭhala does the kṣīra-nīra discernment (the hamsa-image: only the swan separates milk from water). Without bhāgya the very fruit fails — what remains is a belly of maḷa-mūtra (excreta). When samchita (stored karma) is kuḍē (corrupt), the poor little wretch of it generates these results.
For someone today
You don't always get what you want — and the test of why is whether your bhāgya (stored merit and current bhāva) is aligned. Don't blame outcomes — they are kṣīra-nīra separated by a discernment older than yourself. The fix is at the samchita-end, not the wish-end.
Where this applies
- Tukārām's Viṭhṭhal-kṣīra-nīra; bhāgya-required; bad-samchita-bears-fruit canonical
- 17th-c bhakti karma-doctrine using hamsa-discrimination image