Abhanga 3426
It is honest and human to admit you don't know how to grasp the deepest truth, even while still reaching for it.
The verse
काय तुज कैसें जाणवेल देवा । आणावें अनुभवा कैशा परी ॥१॥
सगुण निर्गुण थोर कीं लहान । न कळे अनुमान मज तुझा ॥ध्रु.॥
कोण तो निर्धार करूं हा विचार । भवसिंधु पार तरावया ॥२॥
तुका म्हणे कैसे पाय आतुडती । न पडे श्रीपती वर्म ठावें ॥३॥
Literal translation
How-can-I-know-you, Deva — how-bring-into-anubhava. Saguṇa-nirguṇa-thōra-or-lahāna — anumāna-doesn't-come. What-nirdhāra of-vichāra for-bhava-sindhu-pāra. Tukā: how-do-feet-come-to-hand — can't-grasp-your-varma, Śrīpati.
What it means
A 3-verse apophatic petition. I can't infer you saguṇa-or-nirguṇa, great-or-small; how do I get hold of your feet? A rare moment of philosophical-helplessness.
For someone today
Here Tukaram admits real confusion instead of certainty: how can God actually be known, he asks, and how could that knowledge ever become a lived, felt experience rather than just an idea? He can't settle whether God is with form or without form, immense or intimate, his reasoning simply doesn't reach that far. He wonders what conclusion could possibly help him cross the ocean of worldly struggle. In the end he confesses plainly that he doesn't know how to take hold of God's feet, the deepest secret still eludes him.
मराठी: इथे तुकाराम निश्चितीऐवजी खरा गोंधळ कबूल करतात, देव खरोखर कसा कळेल असे ते विचारतात, आणि हे ज्ञान केवळ कल्पना न राहता जिवंत अनुभव कसा बनेल? देव सगुण आहे की निर्गुण, मोठा आहे की जवळचा, हे ते ठरवू शकत नाहीत, त्यांचे तर्क तिथपर्यंत पोहोचत नाहीत. संसार-सागर पार करण्यासाठी कोणता निर्णय उपयोगी पडेल असे त्यांना वाटते. शेवटी ते स्पष्टपणे कबूल करतात की देवाचे चरण कसे धरावेत हे त्यांना कळत नाही, सर्वात मोठे गुपित अजूनही त्यांच्या हाती लागलेले नाही.
Where this applies
- When you honestly admit you don't understand something you deeply want to grasp
- When you can't decide between two ways of picturing something sacred or important
- When you're searching for a decision that will actually help you get through a hard passage in life
- When you feel the deepest answer keeps slipping just out of your reach, no matter how hard you try