Abhanga 3492
Fear losing your closeness to what matters most, treat everyone else as your own self, and let everything else go if it must.
The verse
धरावें तों भय । अंतरोनि जाती पाय ॥१॥
जाल्या तुटी देवासवें । काय वांचोनि करावें ॥ध्रु.॥
कोणासी पारिखें । लेखूं आपणासारिखें ॥२॥
तुका म्हणे असो । अथवा हें आतां नासो ॥३॥
Literal translation
The-bhaya-to-hold — feet-becoming-distant. Break-with-Deva — no-use-living. Whom-to-count-as-pārikhē — count-like-myself. Tukā: let-it-be — or-perish-now.
What it means
A 3-verse one-fear text. The only fear is that the feet become distant; if there's a break with Deva, life is useless; treat all as like-myself; let it be or perish.
For someone today
Tukaram says there is really only one fear worth carrying: that his feet might drift away from God's presence. If that closeness ever breaks, he says, there is no point in staying alive at all. He then widens this to how he treats people, saying he counts no one as a stranger and sees everyone as being just like himself. Everything else, he says, can be let go or even fall apart, as long as that one bond holds.
मराठी: तुकाराम म्हणतात की खरोखर जपण्यासारखी एकच भीती आहे, ती म्हणजे आपले पाय देवाच्या सान्निध्यापासून दूर जाण्याची. जर ती जवळीक कधी तुटलीच, तर जगण्याचा काही अर्थ उरत नाही, असे ते सांगतात. मग ते हे तत्त्व माणसांशी वागण्यातही आणतात आणि म्हणतात की ते कोणालाही परका मानत नाहीत, प्रत्येकाला स्वतःसारखेच लेखतात. बाकी सगळे सुटून गेले किंवा नष्ट झाले तरी चालेल, फक्त तो एक बंध टिकून राहावा.
Where this applies
- When you are anxious about many small things and need to see which fear actually matters
- When you meet someone very different from you and your first instinct is to keep your distance
- When your priorities feel scattered and you need to name the one thing you cannot afford to lose
- When you are facing loss and have to decide what is truly essential to hold onto