Abhanga 3330
Even guilt, striving, and suffering are part of a larger illusion, so appeal directly to God to end the game and reveal what is real.
The verse
अमच्या कपाळें तुज ऐसी बुद्धि । धरावी ते शुद्धी योगा नये ॥१॥
काय या राहिलें विनोदावांचून । आपुलिया भिन्न केलें आम्हां ॥ध्रु.॥
कोठें मूर्तिमंत दावीं पुण्यपाप । काशासी संकल्प वाहाविसी ॥२॥
तुका म्हणे आतां आवरावा चेडा । लटिकी च पीडा पांडुरंगा ॥३॥
Literal translation
By-our-kapāḷa-you-got-such-buddhi — shuddhī-doesn't-come-to-yoga. What-remains-without-vinōda — separated-us-from-yourself. Where-mūrtimanta-puṇya-pāpa — why-bear-sankalpa. Tukā: now-restrain-chēḍa — false-pīḍā Pāṇḍurangā.
What it means
A 3-verse companion to 3329's māyā-cosmology lament. The world is Pāṇḍuranga's sport; puṇya-pāpa have no mūrti; the suffering itself is false — close to Vedānta-bhakti.
For someone today
Tukaram continues his bold argument with God, our own limited minds were shaped by whatever fortune gave us, so whatever purity we manage to reach for never quite comes together. He asks pointedly, what is all of this really, except some kind of divine play, since it is you yourself who made us feel cut off and separate from your own being? He challenges the whole moral framework, show me where virtue and sin actually exist as solid, visible things, why should we carry the burden of striving and intending at all? He ends with a plea rooted in trust, stop the teasing now, Pandurang, because in the end, this suffering itself is not even real.
मराठी: तुकाराम देवाशी हाच धाडसी वाद पुढे नेतात, आमचं मर्यादित मन आमच्या नशिबानेच घडवलं, म्हणून आम्ही कितीही शुद्धतेसाठी झटलो तरी ती नीट साधत नाही. ते थेट विचारतात, हे सगळं काय आहे, तुझा एक खेळच नाही का, कारण तूच आम्हाला स्वतःपासून वेगळं केलं आहेस? ते संपूर्ण नैतिक चौकटीलाच आव्हान देतात, पुण्य आणि पाप मूर्त स्वरूपात कुठे दाखवशील, आम्ही संकल्पाचं ओझं का वहावं? शेवटी विश्वासावर आधारित विनंती करतात, आता ही चेष्टा थांबव पांडुरंगा, कारण हे दुःखच मुळात खोटं आहे.
Where this applies
- When you feel your struggles and shortcomings were shaped by circumstances beyond your control, not only your own failing
- When you wonder whether life's ups and downs are ultimately part of a larger play rather than something to take too seriously
- When you are weighed down by guilt over right and wrong and want to be reminded these categories are not the final truth
- When you need comfort that current suffering is temporary, even illusory, against the backdrop of divine reality