Abhanga 3319
Once you discover the real path of surrender, hold to it completely and stop wasting your life on illusions and unnecessary burdens.
The verse
आधी नाहीं कळों आला हा उपाय । नाहीं तरी काय चुकी होती ॥१॥
घालितो पायांसी मिठी एकसरें । नेदीं तो दुसरें आड येऊं ॥ध्रु.॥
कासया पडतों लटिक्याचे भरी । नव्हता का शिरीं भार घेतों ॥२॥
तुका म्हणे कां हे घेतों गर्भवास । कां या होतों दास कुटुंबाचा ॥३॥
Literal translation
Earlier-this-upāya-didn't-become-known, otherwise-what-chukī. I-embrace-feet-ēkasarē, won't-let-second-come-in-between. Why-fall-in-laṭika's-heap, take-bhāra-on-head. Tukā: why-take-this-garbha-vāsa, why-be-dāsa-of-kuṭumba.
What it means
A 3-verse retrospective regret-prayer with sharp existential rhetoric. Why should I have taken the womb-dwelling? Why be a servant of the family-cluster? — a strong vairāgya cry.
For someone today
Tukaram looks back with a pang of regret, if only he had known this simple method of surrender sooner, so much needless struggle might have been avoided. Now he resolves to hold onto God's feet completely, with nothing allowed to come between them again. He asks himself pointed questions, why keep chasing illusions, why keep carrying burdens that were never necessary. In raw frustration he even questions why he was born into a family at all, when that family life became a kind of servitude pulling him away from what actually mattered.
मराठी: तुकाराम मागे वळून पाहताना खंत व्यक्त करतात, हा शरणागतीचा साधा उपाय आधीच कळला असता तर इतका त्रास सहन करावा लागला नसता. आता ते ठरवतात की देवाच्या पायांना पूर्णपणे मिठी मारायची, आणि यापुढे मध्ये काहीही येऊ द्यायचं नाही. ते स्वतःला थेट प्रश्न विचारतात, खोट्या गोष्टींच्या मागे का धावायचं, नको तो भार डोक्यावर का घ्यायचा. शेवटी संतापाने ते विचारतात, हा गर्भवास तरी का घेतला, या कुटुंबाचा दास तरी का झालो.
Where this applies
- Tukārām's late-realization and embrace-feet-ēkasarē canonical
- Strong vairāgya questioning of garbha-vāsa and kuṭumba-dāsatva