Abhanga 3345
Your part in devotion is sincere remembrance, while the outcome and grace belong to the divine, so trust the one who holds the thread of your life the way a tortoise's gaze is said to nourish its young from afar.
The verse
माझे हातीं आहे करावें चिंतन । तुम्ही कृपादान प्रेम द्यावें ॥१॥
मागति यां भांडवल आळवण । नामाची जतन दातियासी ॥ध्रु.॥
बाळक धांवोनि आड निघे स्तनीं । घालावा जननी कृपे पान्हां ॥२॥
तुका म्हणे करीं कासवाचे परी । आहे सूत्रदोरी तुझे हातीं ॥३॥
Literal translation
Mājhe hātīm āhe karāve chintana — in my hand is the doing of chintana; tumhī krpā-dāna prema dyāve — you should give prema by krpā-dāna. Māgati yām bhāṇḍavala āḷavaṇa — I ask, holding bhāṇḍavala and āḷavaṇa; nāmāñcī jatana dātiyāsī — keep the Name in jatana, o dātiyā. Bāḷaka dhāvōnī āḍa nighe stanīm — the child, running, presses to the breast; ghālāvā jananī krpe pānhām — the mother places pānhā by krpā. Tukā mhaṇe karīm kāsavāñce parī — Tukā says: do (it) like the kāsava; āhe sūtra-dōrī tujhe hātīm — the sūtra-dōrī is in your hand.
What it means
A 3-verse petition-with-mother-baby and kāsava (tortoise) images by Tukārām.
The division-of-labor: In my hand — doing-chintana. In your hand — giving-prema by krpā-dāna. The baby-mother image: child-presses-to-stana; mother-places-pānhā-by-krpā. The closing-kāsava-image: the tortoise (cares-for-its-young by-glance-alone, sustaining them at-a-distance); do-likewise; the-sūtra (string-of-fate) is-in-your-hand.
The kāsava-image is canonical Vārkarī — tortoise-mother sustains-its-babies just-by-looking; doesn't-need-physical-contact; mere-glance-is-feeding.
For someone today
Tukārām's division-of-labor. In my hand is the doing of remembrance; you should give love by compassion-gift. I ask, holding (this) capital and petition; keep the Name in safe-keeping, o giver. The child, running, presses to the breast; the mother places the milk-flow by compassion. Do (it) like the tortoise — the string is in your hand. The verse permits the bhakti-division: my chintana, your krpā; the tortoise's glance sustains the bhakta.
मराठी: तुकारामांची ही कार्यविभागणी आहे. माझ्या हाती फक्त चिंतन करणे आहे; कृपादान करून प्रेम देणे तुझ्या हाती आहे. हे भांडवल आणि ही आळवणी घेऊन मी मागतो — हे दात्या, नामाचे जतन कर. बाळ धावत जाऊन स्तनाशी लगटते, आणि आई कृपेने पान्हा फोडते. कासवाप्रमाणे कर, असे तुकाराम म्हणतात — सूत्राची दोरी तुझ्याच हातात आहे. माझे काम फक्त चिंतन करणे आहे, बाकी सर्व कृपा तुझी आहे — कासवाची नजरच जशी पिलांना पोसते, तशीच तुझी कृपा दुरूनही आपल्यापर्यंत पोहोचते, हीच या अभंगाची शिकवण आहे.
Where this applies
- When someone does their sincere best but has to trust an outcome they cannot control
- When a person feels like a child reaching for comfort, needing to trust that care will come without demanding it
- When you feel distant from someone you love yet trust their quiet care is still reaching you, like the tortoise's gaze
- When someone realizes that the direction of their life is not entirely in their own hands