Abhanga 3388
Loving to be praised and honored distracts you while pride and greed quietly rob you, and clinging to that vanity only leads to eventual ruin.
The verse
देहबुद्धि वसे जयाचियें अंगीं । पूज्यता त्या जगीं सुख मानी ॥१॥
थोर असे दगा जाला त्यासी हाटीं । सोडोनिया गांठी चोरीं नेली ॥ध्रु.॥
गांठीचें जाउनि नव्हे तो मोकळा । बांधिलासे गळा दंभलोभें ॥२॥
पुढिल्या उदिमा जालेंसे खंडण । दिसे नागवण पडे गांठी ॥३॥
तुका म्हणे ऐसे बोलतील संत । जाणूनियां घात कोण करी ॥४॥
Literal translation
Deha-buddhi-in-anga — takes-sukha-in-being-pūjyatā. Great-dagā at-hāṭ — gāṇṭhī-loosed thieves-take. Gāṇṭhī-gone — not-mokḷā — bound-by-dambha-lobha. Ahead-udima broken — nāgavaṇa-paḍē-gāṇṭhī. Tukā: sants-say-so — knowing-this who-does-self-ghāta.
What it means
A 5-verse extended life-as-market analogy. Deha-buddhi makes one love being-honored — at the market of life this becomes the deceit that steals one's savings; even after the loss, the dambha-lobha keeps him bound.
For someone today
Tukaram compares life to a busy marketplace, where anyone caught up in identifying with the body starts loving the pleasure of being honored and praised by others. That very love of being admired, he says, is exactly what pickpockets use to slip in and steal what really matters, while the person is distracted by the flattery. Even after the loss, they still are not free, because pride and greed keep the leash tied around their neck. In the end their whole trade collapses and they are left stripped bare, and Tukaram asks, once the sants have pointed this out so clearly, who would still choose to bring this ruin on themselves?
मराठी: तुकाराम आयुष्याची तुलना गजबजलेल्या बाजाराशी करतात, जिथे देहबुद्धीत अडकलेला माणूस इतरांकडून मिळणाऱ्या मान-सन्मानाच्या सुखात रमतो. तेच मान-सन्मानाचं प्रेम, ते म्हणतात, नेमकं तेच आहे जे चोरांना घुसण्याची संधी देतं आणि खरं मोलाचं काय आहे ते चोरून नेतं, कारण माणूस स्तुतीने गाफील झालेला असतो. नुकसान झाल्यावरही तो मोकळा होत नाही, कारण अहंकार आणि लोभ त्याच्या गळ्याभोवती फास आवळून ठेवतात. शेवटी त्याचा सगळा व्यवहार कोसळतो आणि तो पूर्णपणे उघडा पडतो, आणि तुकाराम विचारतात, संतांनी हे इतकं स्पष्ट सांगितल्यावरही कोण स्वतःच्या हाताने स्वतःचा घात करेल?
Where this applies
- Tukārām's deha-buddhi-cheated-at-life's-market canonical
- 5-verse extended hāṭ/udima/gāṇṭhī merchant-analogy
- Companion to other anti-dambha polemics