संत साहित्य · Tukārām · Abhanga 3230 of 4582

Abhanga 3230

Knowing you should be alert doesn't make alertness come; when you've fallen and feel wasted, honest admission that you need real help is what matters.

When you know exactly what you should do but can't muster the alertness to do it.

When you've fallen into a bad pull or habit and feel like no one is helping you out.

When you finally admit you can't rescue yourself and need real help from someone else.

The verse

स्मरणाचे वेळे । व्हावें सावध न कळे ॥१॥ पडिलों विषयांचे ओढीं । कोणी न दिसेसें काढी ॥ध्रु.॥ भांडवल माझें । वेच जालें भूमी ओझें ॥२॥ तुका म्हणे कळे । तूं चि धावें ऐसें वेळे ॥३॥

Literal translation

At-smaraṇa-time should-be-savadhāna, doesn't-come. Fell-into-viṣaya-pull; no-one-pulls-out. My-capital spent — bhūmī-ōjhe. Tukā: known — you-yourself must-run at-this-time.

What it means

A short 3-verse petition. I've-fallen; only-the-Lord-himself can-pull-me-out.

For someone today

Tukaram admits plainly that he knows he should stay alert in moments of remembrance, but that alertness just doesn't come to him. He's fallen into the pull of worldly temptations, and no one seems to be there to pull him back out. His resources, his effort, feel spent and wasted, like dead weight on the earth, and he knows only one thing for certain: at a moment like this, God himself has to be the one who comes running.

मराठी: तुकाराम स्पष्टपणे कबूल करतात की स्मरणाच्या क्षणी सावध राहायला हवं हे त्यांना माहीत आहे, पण ती सावधता येतच नाही. ते विषयवासनांच्या ओढीत सापडले आहेत, आणि त्यांना बाहेर काढणारं कुणीही दिसत नाही. त्यांचं भांडवल, त्यांचे प्रयत्न, वाया गेल्यासारखे वाटतात, जणू पृथ्वीवरचं निव्वळ ओझं, आणि त्यांना एकच गोष्ट खात्रीने माहीत आहे: अशा क्षणी देवालाच स्वतः धावून यावं लागेल.

Where this applies

Tukārām's fell-into-viṣaya; only-Lord-rescues petition