Abhanga 3359
People trust and pour themselves into cravings, relationships, and social fear far more readily than into devotion, and a whole life can slip away wasted for lack of it.
The verse
देवाचें भजन कां रे न करीसी । अखंड हव्यासीं पीडतोसी ॥१॥
देवासी शरण कां रे न वजवे तैसा । बक मीना जैसा मनुष्यालागीं ॥ध्रु.॥
देवाचा विश्वास कां रे नाहीं तैसा । पुत्रस्नेहें जैसा गुंतलासी ॥२॥
कां रे नाहीं तैसी देवाची हे गोडी । नागवूनी सोडी पत्नी तैसी ॥३॥
कां रे नाहीं तैसे देवाचे उपकार । माया मिथ्या भार पितृपूजना ॥४॥
कां रे भय वाहासी लोकांचा धाक । विसरोनि एक नारायण ॥५॥
तुका म्हणे कां रे घातलें वांयां । अवघें आयुष्य जाया भक्तिविण ॥६॥
Literal translation
Devāchem bhajana kām re na karīsī — why O-man don't you do Deva's bhajana?; akhaṇḍa havyāsīm pīḍatosī — ceaselessly tormented by craving. Why don't you go-to-śaraṇa as baka-mīna (crane-fish) go to manuṣya? Why no viśvāsa (trust) — as you are tangled in putra-sneha (son-attachment)? Why no Deva-godī — as wife strips-and-leaves? Why are Deva's upakāra not (felt) — māyā-mithyā-bhāra in pitr-pūjana? Kām re bhaya vāhāsī lokāñchā dhāka — visarōni eka Nārāyaṇa — why do you bear fear of people, forgetting one Nārāyaṇa? Tukā mhaṇe kām re ghātalē vāmyām — avaghē āyuṣya jāyā bhakti-viṇa — Tukā says: why thrown-in-vain — whole āyuṣya passes without bhakti?
What it means
A 6-verse drumbeat of kām-re (why-O-man) rebukes. Each verse compares the energy lavished on lesser objects (cravings, sons, wives, ancestral-rites, social-fear) with the missing energy toward Deva. Climax: the whole life passes without bhakti.
For someone today
What you spend yourself on reveals what you trust. The honest accounting: where does the havyāsa go? Why is it everywhere except where it counts?
Where this applies
- Canonical kām-re-rebuke; misplaced-energy polemic
- Companion to 2744 (pōṭāsāṭhī khaṭapaṭa anti-Name-laziness)