Abhanga 3368
Once you belong to God openly, God's own reputation for saving the fallen is at stake, so there is no need to fear that you are too small or too far gone to be helped.
The verse
तुझा दास मज म्हणती अंकित । अवघे सकळिक लहान थोर ॥१॥
हें चि आतां लागे करावें जतन । तुझें थोरपण तुज देवा ॥ध्रु.॥
होउनी निर्भर राहिलों निश्चिंतें । पावनपतित नाम तुझें ॥२॥
करितां तुज होय डोंगराची राईं । न लगतां कांहीं पात्या पातें ॥३॥
तुका म्हणे तुज काय ते आशंका । तारितां मशका मज दीना ॥४॥
Literal translation
Tujhā dāsa maja mhaṇatī ankita — avaghe sakaḷika lahāna thōra — they call me your dāsa, your ankita — everyone big-and-small. Hē-chi ātām lāge karāve jatana — tujhē thōrapaṇa tuja deva — now you need to take care — your greatness is for you to keep, Deva. Hounī nirbhara rāhilōm niścinte — pāvana-patita nāma tujhe — having become nirbhara (free-of-burden) I have stayed niścinta — your Name is pāvana-patita. Karitām tuja hoya dongarāchī rāīm — na lagatām kāmhī pātyā pāte — when you act, mountain becomes a mustard-seed — without so much as a leaf-fluttering. Tukā mhaṇe tuja kāya te āśankā — tāritām maśakā maja dīnā — Tukā says: what worry have you — you ferried a mosquito, (now) me the dīna?
What it means
A 4-verse text of Lord's-reputation-shifted-onto-Lord. The clinch: people now identify me as your ankita — so your greatness depends on saving me. The mośaka (mosquito) image (small, weightless, easily lifted) shows: if you have already done the impossible for the smallest, why hesitate for this dīna?
For someone today
When you have publicly become someone's — the relationship now binds them too. This is faith's leverage: the Name is pāvana-patita; my fall would not just be my own.
Where this applies
- When you feel unworthy of being helped or saved and doubt you deserve grace
- When you have publicly committed to a path or a person and wonder if you can trust that bond
- When a difficult problem feels as big as a mountain and you need reassurance it can shrink
- When you compare your own smallness to how much good has already been done for others less significant than you