Abhanga 3472
When public shame comes to you, you can choose to accept it as your due rather than fight it, and even call it good.
The verse
जाला हा डांगोरा । मुखीं लहानाचे थोरा ॥१॥
नागविलों जनाचारीं । कोणी बैसों नेदी दारी ॥ध्रु.॥
संचिताचा ठेवा। आतां आला तैसा घ्यावा ॥२॥
तुका म्हणे देवें । म्हणों केलें हें बरवें ॥३॥
Literal translation
ḍāngōrā-arose — in-mouths-of-lahānā-thōrā. Disrobed-in-janāchāra — no-one-lets-sit-at-door. Take-samchita-as-comes. Tukā: Deva — let-us-say-this-was-done-well.
What it means
A 3-verse public-shame-acceptance text. The clamor about me has arisen on everyone's lips, child or grown; I've been stripped in public; no door welcomes me — I'll take the samchita-treasure as it comes; let me say Deva did this well. Compare 3332 (petition-for-fajītī).
For someone today
Tukaram faces open public disgrace here, gossip about him spoken by children and elders alike, and doors that no longer let him sit inside. Instead of fighting to defend his reputation, he decides to accept it as a treasure simply arriving, his own stored destiny coming due. He chooses to call even this humiliation good, treating it as something God has arranged rather than a wrong done to him. It shows a way of meeting public shame not with bitterness but with quiet acceptance, receiving disgrace the same way you would receive anything else that comes to you.
मराठी: तुकाराम इथे उघड सार्वजनिक अपमानाला सामोरे जातात, लहान-थोर सर्वांच्या तोंडी त्यांची चर्चा होते आणि कोणीही त्यांना दारात बसू देत नाही. आपली प्रतिष्ठा वाचवण्यासाठी झगडण्याऐवजी, ते हे स्वीकारतात की हे जणू आपले साठवलेले संचित आता समोर आले आहे, ते जसे येईल तसे घ्यावे. या अपमानालाही ते चांगले म्हणतात, कारण ते मानतात की हे देवानेच घडवले आहे, कोणी अन्याय केलेला नाही. यातून हे दिसते की सार्वजनिक अपमानाला कटुतेने नव्हे तर शांत स्वीकाराने सामोरे जाता येते, जे येईल ते जसेच्या तसे स्वीकारून.
Where this applies
- When your reputation is being talked about and you cannot control the gossip
- When doors that used to be open to you have closed because of what people think
- When you are tempted to fight public shame instead of simply accepting it
- When you choose to trust that even humiliation has some purpose you cannot yet see