Abhanga 3473
Endless entanglement in worldly transactions, without ever tending your own inner life, keeps you trapped going back and forth in the same cycle.
The verse
किती चौघाचारें । येथें गोविलीं वेव्हारें ॥१॥
असे बांधविले गळे । होऊं न सकती निराळे ॥ध्रु.॥
आपलें आपण । केलें कां नाहीं जतन ॥२॥
तुका म्हणे खंडदंडें । येरझारीं लपती लंडें ॥३॥
Literal translation
Many-entangled-in-vyavahāra. Throats-bound — can't-become-nirāḷē. Why-no-jatana of-their-own. Tukā: by-khaṇḍa-daṇḍa, laṇḍē-hide-in-yēra-jharī.
What it means
A 3-verse anti-vyavahāra polemic. Many people, in crowds, are tied by their throats to worldly-affairs; they cannot break free; they didn't preserve their own; by the penalty-rod, the rascals just hide in the round of yera-jhāra (back-and-forth, transmigration).
For someone today
Tukaram looks at the crowds of people bound tightly by their daily dealings and transactions, as if tied by the throat and unable to break free. He asks pointedly why they never took the trouble to look after what was truly their own, meaning their inner life, while they were busy chasing after worldly business. Those who avoid this real work, he says, just keep hiding and paying the price again and again, caught in the endless back and forth of coming and going. It is a warning that constant absorption in worldly affairs, without ever tending your own inner life, keeps you stuck repeating the same cycle.
मराठी: तुकाराम रोजच्या व्यवहारांनी घट्ट बांधलेल्या लोकांच्या गर्दीकडे पाहतात, जणू त्यांचे गळे बांधलेले आहेत आणि ते सुटू शकत नाहीत. आपल्या स्वतःच्या, म्हणजे आपल्या अंतरंगाच्या, संगोपनाकडे या लोकांनी लक्षच का दिले नाही, असा सवाल ते करतात, कारण ते जगिक व्यवहारांच्या मागे धावण्यात व्यस्त होते. हे खरे काम टाळणारे लोक पुन्हा पुन्हा दंड भरत, येरझाऱ्यांच्या फेऱ्यात लपून बसतात, असे तुका म्हणतात. यातून हा इशारा मिळतो की केवळ जगिक व्यवहारांत गुंतून राहिल्याने, स्वतःच्या अंतरंगाची काळजी न घेतल्याने, माणूस त्याच फेऱ्यात अडकून राहतो.
Where this applies
- Tukārām's anti-vyavahāra; throats-bound canonical
- yēra-jharī (transmigration) reference