Abhanga 3373
The intimacies that the world offers come with stratagems attached — taking your mahimā (substance) while seeming to give. Genuine service is the only relation that doesn't dissolve when you turn your head.
The verse
लावुनियां गोठी । चुकवूं आदरिली दिठी । देउनियां मिठी । पळे महिमा थुलिया ॥१॥
पुढें तो चि करी आड । तिचा लोभ तिसी नाड । लावुनि चरफड । हात गोऊनि पळावें ॥ध्रु.॥
आधीं काकुलती । मोहो घालावा पुढती । तोंडीं पडे माती । फिरतां मागें कैचा तो ॥२॥
तुका म्हणे देवा । यासी रडवी याचा हेवा । भावें कां हे सेवा । सुखें तुम्हां नार्पिती ॥३॥
Literal translation
Lāvuniyām gōṭhī — chukavūm ādarilī diṭhī — deuniyām miṭhī — paḷe mahimā thuliyā — striking-up conversation — to avoid the respectful look — giving an embrace — flees the mahimā by trick. Puḍhē to-chi karī āḍa — tichā lobha tisī nāḍa — lāvuni charapaḍa — hāta goūni paḷāve — then he puts himself in your way — her own lobha is her snare — applying caress — hand stuck, must flee. Ādhīm kākulatī — moho ghālāvā puḍhatī — tomḍīm paḍe mātī — phiratām māge kaichā to — first pleading, then mōha — mouth fills with dust — turning back, where is he? Tukā mhaṇe devā — yāsī raḍavī yāchā hevā — bhāve kām he sevā — sukhe tumhām nārpitī — Tukā says: O Deva — his hevā makes him weep — why don't (they) with bhāva offer service, give you sukha?
What it means
A 3-verse text personifying māyā (and worldly relationships) as a seductress whose intimacies are stratagems. The pattern: conversation-to-avoid-real-gaze, embrace-then-flight, pleading-then-mōha, mouth-with-dust-when-you-turn-around. Only bhāva-sevā (devotional service with true emotion) is unfeigned.
For someone today
The intimacies that the world offers come with stratagems attached — taking your mahimā (substance) while seeming to give. Genuine service is the only relation that doesn't dissolve when you turn your head.
Where this applies
- Canonical māyā-as-seductress; bhāva-sevā-as-rescue polemic
- Companion to 2865 (laṭika-laṭika māyā refrain)