Abhanga 3190
If you must risk life or fortune, do it only in a true cause. Don't die small. The only inexhaustible treasure is freely available — loot it. Live so that your name (in the bhakti-sense, your reputation for being Deva-marked) walks ahead of you.
The verse
पाडावी ते बरी । गांठी धुरेसवें खरी ॥१॥
नये मरों लंडीपणें । काय बापुडें तें जिणें ॥ध्रु.॥
लुटावें भांडार । तरी जया नाहीं पार ॥२॥
तुका म्हणे नांवें । कीर्ती आगळीनें ज्यावें ॥३॥
Literal translation
Pāḍāvī tē barī — gāṇṭhī dhurēsavēm kharī — the pāḍa is good — (if) the gāṇṭhī is true with the dhurā. Nayē marōm laṇḍī-paṇē — kāya bāpuḍem tem jiṇēm — do not die in laṇḍī-paṇa — what (is) that pitiful life. Luṭāvem bhāṇḍāra — tarī jayā nāhīm pāra — loot the treasury — (the one) which has no pāra. Tukā mhaṇe nāmvēm — kīrtī āgaḷīnēm jyāvē — Tukā says: by Name — live with kīrti foremost.
What it means
A 4-verse heroism-text using Maratha warrior-vocabulary: gāṇṭhī-dhurā = the loyalty-knot between a soldier and his commander; laṇḍī-paṇa = the cowardice that flees; bhāṇḍāra-lūṭa = looting the enemy's treasury. Tukārām re-codes all three for bhakti: die only if your knot to Deva is true; the only treasury worth looting is the limitless Name-treasury; live so that kīrti — the bhakti-renown — goes ahead of you.
For someone today
If you must risk life or fortune, do it only in a true cause. Don't die small. The only inexhaustible treasure is freely available — loot it. Live so that your name (in the bhakti-sense, your reputation for being Deva-marked) walks ahead of you.
Where this applies
- Tukārām's bhakti-heroism: loot-the-limitless-Name-treasury canonical
- Companion to 2745 (Pandhari-hāṭa free-bhakti-market)