Abhanga 3186
When you feel someone you love is pulling back because they fear you'll be a burden — say: I asked you for nothing big. The smallest petition (only residence at the feet) is sometimes the hardest to grant — because the bar is so low that any refusal exposes the withdrawal.
The verse
नाहीं तुम्हां कांहीं लाविलें मागणें । कांटाळ्याच्या भेणें त्रासलेती ॥१॥
एखादिये परी टाळावीं करकर । हा नका विचार देखों कांहीं ॥ध्रु.॥
पायांच्या वियोगें प्राणासवें साटी । ने घवेसी तुटी जाली आतां ॥२॥
तुका म्हणे तुम्हां मागेन तें आतां । हें चि कृपावंता चरणीं वास ॥३॥
Literal translation
Nāhīm tumhām kāmhī lāvilēm māgaṇēm — kāmṭāḷyāchyā bhēṇēm trāsalētī — no big māgaṇē have I laid on you — (yet) you are troubled by fear of kāmṭāḷā. Ēkhādiyē parī ṭāḷāvīm karakara — hā nakā vichāra dēkhōm kāmhī — somehow avoid the karakara — let no such vichāra be seen anywhere. Pāyāñchyā viyōgēm prāṇāsavēm sāṭī — nē ghavēsī tuṭī jālī ātām — by viyōga of feet, prāṇa is on the block — do not accept (this) tuṭī now. Tukā mhaṇe tumhām māgēna tēm ātām — hēm chi kṛpāvanta charaṇīm vāsa — Tukā says: what I now beg of you, O kṛpāvanta — only this — residence at (your) charaṇa.
What it means
A 4-verse companion to 3185. The tone shifts from protest to pleading-minimum: I asked for nothing big, why are you flinching as if I've become a nuisance? The reproach is gentle: don't let this vichāra (the idea of me as a burden) show anywhere. Then the petition shrinks to its smallest point — just let me reside at your feet. The viyōga (separation) is described as prāṇa on the butcher's block.
For someone today
When you feel someone you love is pulling back because they fear you'll be a burden — say: I asked you for nothing big. The smallest petition (only residence at the feet) is sometimes the hardest to grant — because the bar is so low that any refusal exposes the withdrawal.
Where this applies
- Tukārām's I-asked-nothing-big; only-charaṇa-vāsa canonical minimal-petition
- Pair with 3185 (full lover's-protest) — these read as sequence