Abhanga 3197
Remembering the Divine Name is medicine for the mind's deeper sickness, working immediately and without the hard restrictions that other remedies require.
The verse
ज्वरल्यासी काढा औषध पाचन । मूढां नारायण स्मरवितो ॥१॥
भवव्याधि येणें तुटेल रोकडी । करूनियां झाडी निश्चयेसी ॥ध्रु.॥
आणिकां उपायां अनुपान कठिण । भाग्यें बरें सीण शीघ्रवत ॥२॥
तुका म्हणे केला उघडा पसारा । भाग्य आलें घरा दारावरी ॥३॥
Literal translation
Jvaralyāsī kāḍhā auṣadha pāchana — mūḍhām Nārāyaṇa smaravitō — for the fevered, kāḍhā, auṣadha, pāchana — to the mūḍha, Nārāyaṇa is made-to-remember. Bhava-vyādhi yēṇēm tuṭēla rōkaḍī — karūniyām jhāḍī niśchayēsī — the bhava-vyādhi will break, cash-on-the-spot — making a sweep by niścaya. Āṇikām upāyām anupāna kaṭhīṇa — bhāgyēm barē sīṇa śīghravata — for other upāyas, the anupāna is hard — by bhāgya, the sīṇa (ends) quickly. Tukā mhaṇe kēlā ughaḍā pasārā — bhāgya ālēm gharā dārāvarī — Tukā says: an open pasārā was laid out — bhāgya has come home to the door.
What it means
A 4-verse Name-as-medicine text using full Āyurvedic vocabulary: kāḍhā (decoction), auṣadha (medicine), pāchana (digestive), anupāna (the post-medicine restriction-routine that often makes other treatments hard). The comparison: for the body's fever — physical treatment; for the mūḍha-jīva — Nārāyaṇa-smaraṇa is administered. The bhava-vyādhi is broken rōkaḍī (immediately, cash-on-the-spot, in current coin). The closing image — ughaḍā pasārā (open shop-spread) — picks up the bhakti-market motif: the shop is open, and bhāgya itself has come home to the door.
For someone today
Different sicknesses need different medicines. The body's fever needs decoction; the mind's mūḍha-fever needs Name-remembrance. Conventional remedies come with hard post-restrictions — the Name has none. When you spread the open shop, fortune walks up to your door on its own.
Where this applies
- When you feel overwhelmed by confusion or worry and want a remedy that does not require complicated conditions
- When you notice that other solutions to your problems come with difficult restrictions or slow progress
- When you commit fully to a simple practice and want to trust that it will work quickly and completely
- When you feel like good fortune is distant and want to believe it can still arrive readily if you open yourself to it