Abhanga 3189
The bond between the flawed devotee and the purifying Divine is old and settled, so you can call out boldly, as one who belongs, rather than beg timidly.
The verse
आम्ही पापी तूं पावन । हें तों पूर्वापार जाण ॥१॥
नवें करूं नये जुनें । सांभाळावें ज्याचें तेणें ॥ध्रु.॥
राखावा तो ठाव । मिरासी करोनि उपाव ॥२॥
वादें मारी हाका । देवा आइकवी तुका ॥३॥
Literal translation
Āmhī pāpī tūm pāvana — hēm tōm pūrvāpāra jāṇa — we (are) pāpī, you (are) pāvana — know this as pūrvāpāra. Navēm karūm nayē junēm — sāmbhāḷāvēm jyāchēm tēṇē — do not make the old into new — let each guard what is his. Rākhāvā tō ṭhāva — mirāsī karōnī upāva — guard that ṭhāva — making the upāya mirāsī. Vādēm mārī hākā — Devā āikavī Tukā — (I) strike shouts in vāda — Tukā makes Deva hear.
What it means
A 4-verse text using the rural-administrative term mirāsī (hereditary tenure of office or land, common in 17th-c Maharashtra). Tukārām claims a hereditary bhakti-station: pāpī-and-pāvana is the eternal contract — we sin, you purify — and this should not be renovated into something new. Each side guards its own ṭhāva. The bhakta makes the Lord hear by hākā (sharp shouts) in dispute.
For someone today
Some arrangements are best left intact. You sin, the One who purifies purifies — don't try to flip roles, don't innovate. Stay in your hereditary station of bhakta and let Deva stay in his of pāvana. Address him with the boldness of an inheritor, not a beggar.
Where this applies
- When you feel unsure whether you are allowed to ask boldly for help from someone who loves you
- When a long relationship has settled into roles that work and you feel tempted to overcomplicate it
- When you want to trust that your struggles are met by someone else's steady patience, without needing to prove yourself
- When you find yourself pleading timidly instead of speaking up with the confidence of someone who belongs