Abhanga 3436
Honest self-examination sometimes reveals real flaws, and true humility means not exempting yourself from the same judgment you'd give others.
The verse
अनंताचे मुखीं होसील गाइला । अमुप विठ्ठला दास तुम्हां ॥१॥
माझें कोठें आलें होईंल विचारा । तरीं च अव्हेरा योग्य जालों ॥ध्रु.॥
सर्वकाळ तुम्ही असा जी संपन्न । चतुरा नारायण शिरोमणि ॥२॥
तुका म्हणे ऐसे कलियुगींचे जीव । तरी नये कीव बहुपापी ॥३॥
Literal translation
Lord-sung-in-mouth-of-ananta — amupa-dāsas. My-case-only-worthy-of-avhēra. You-sampanna-at-all-times — Nārāyaṇa-śirōmaṇi. Tukā: Kali-yuga-jīvas — no-kīva — bahu-pāpī.
What it means
A 3-verse self-deprecation. Your dāsas are uncountable; my own case is worth rejecting; you are always endowed; Kali-yuga's jīvas don't even deserve pity.
For someone today
Tukaram reflects on how countless devotees across time sing God's praise, an endless crowd of the faithful, while he singles himself out as the one who might actually deserve to be turned away. He isn't fishing for compliments here, he's being honest about his own flaws when he really examines them closely. Meanwhile God remains constant and complete at every moment, the wisest and most excellent of all. He ends with a hard, self-critical thought about people caught up in the confusions of this age, that their wrongdoing runs so deep it hardly even earns sympathy, and he includes himself in that reckoning rather than exempting himself from it.
मराठी: तुकाराम विचार करतात की काळाच्या ओघात असंख्य भक्त देवाची स्तुती गातात, विश्वासू लोकांची अंतहीन रांग, तर स्वतःला ते असे व्यक्त करतात की खरोखर नाकारले जाण्यास ते पात्र असतील. ते इथे कौतुक मिळवण्याचा प्रयत्न करत नाहीत, तर स्वतःच्या दोषांकडे बारकाईने पाहताना प्रामाणिकपणे बोलत आहेत. दरम्यान देव प्रत्येक क्षणी स्थिर आणि परिपूर्ण राहतो, सर्वांत ज्ञानी आणि श्रेष्ठ. शेवटी ते या युगातील गोंधळलेल्या माणसांबद्दल कठोर, स्वतःवरही टीका करणारा विचार मांडतात, की त्यांचे पाप इतके खोलवर आहे की त्याला सहानुभूतीही मिळू नये, आणि ते स्वतःलाही या मोजणीतून वगळत नाहीत.
Where this applies
- When you compare yourself to countless others who seem more faithful or worthy than you
- When honest self-examination reveals flaws you'd rather not admit
- When you find comfort in something being reliably constant even while you feel unsteady
- When you hold yourself to the same harsh standard you might apply to others