Abhanga 3471
Even when surrender feels like being taken by force, look closely and you may find it was your own hand that opened the door.
The verse
नेलें सळेंबळें । चित्तावित्ताचें गांठोळें ॥१॥
साहए जालीं घरिच्या घरीं । होतां ठायीं च कुठोरी ॥ध्रु.॥
मी पातलों या भावा । कपट तें नेणें देवा ॥२॥
तुका म्हणे उघडें केलें । माझें माझ्या हातें नेलें ॥३॥
Literal translation
Took-by-force — chitta-vitta-bundle. Help-came-at-home-itself. I-reached-bhāva — don't-know-kapaṭa, Deva. Tukā: opened-everything — took-mine-by-my-own-hand.
What it means
A 3-verse surrender-narrative. He took the bundle of my mind-wealth by force; I don't know any cunning, Deva; he opened my home and took mine by my-own-hand — companion to 3465 (vēṭha — forced-labor canonical).
For someone today
Tukaram again describes surrender as something taken from him, but here he adds a twist: it happened quietly, right inside his own home, with help that arrived from within the very place he lived. He insists he came to this devotion honestly, with no cunning or hidden motive. In the end he admits that everything was opened up and that it was his own hand that let his possessions go. It is a reminder that what looks like being robbed of control can turn out, on closer look, to be something we ourselves quietly agreed to.
मराठी: तुकाराम पुन्हा एकदा शरणागतीचे वर्णन बळजबरीने घेतले गेल्यासारखे करतात, पण इथे एक वेगळेपण आहे, हे सगळे शांतपणे, स्वतःच्याच घरात, घरातूनच आलेल्या मदतीने घडले. आपण या भावापर्यंत प्रामाणिकपणे पोहोचलो, कुठलीही कपट-युक्ती केली नाही, असे ते ठामपणे सांगतात. शेवटी ते कबूल करतात की सगळे उघडे केले गेले आणि माझे स्वतःच्या हातानेच नेले गेले. यातून हे शिकायला मिळते की जे बाहेरून बळजबरीने हिसकावल्यासारखे वाटते, ते खोलात पाहिले तर आपणच शांतपणे मान्य केलेले असते.
Where this applies
- When you feel torn between resisting change and quietly letting go of control
- When you realize your own hand played a part in a loss you first blamed entirely on someone else
- When you want to insist your intentions were honest, without hidden motives
- When surrender to something greater happens quietly, at home, in small ordinary moments