संत साहित्य · Tukārām · Abhanga 3499 of 4582

Abhanga 3499

A person consumed by greed and blind to death's approach piles up suffering for themselves and never thinks to help anyone else.

When you catch yourself grasping anxiously for more instead of thinking about what actually matters.

When you face death or crisis and realize that accumulated wealth or power cannot help you.

When you are tempted to take from others without ever thinking of giving something back.

The verse

ऐसें ठावें नाहीं मूढा । सोस काकुलती पुढां ॥१॥ माझीं नका जाळूं भांडीं । पोटीं भय सोस तोंडीं ॥ध्रु.॥ पातलिया काळ । तेव्हां काय चाले बळ ॥२॥ संचित तें करी । नरका जाया मेल्यावरी ॥३॥ परउपकार । न घडावा हा विचार ॥४॥ तुका म्हणे लांसी । आतां भेटों नये ऐसी ॥५॥

Literal translation

Mūḍha-doesn't-know — sōsa-kākulatī-ahead. Don't-burn-my-bhāṇḍī — bhaya-in-pōṭa, sōsa-on-tōṇḍa. Kāḷa-arrived — no-baḷa-flows. Samchita-takes-to-naraka. No-parōpakāra-vichāra. Tukā: lāmsi — not-to-meet-such-again.

What it means

A 5-verse anti-mūḍha text. The mūḍha can't see what's-ahead-longing-frantically; don't burn my vessels-of-shelter; when Kāḷa comes no power helps; samchita takes to naraka; no thought of helping others; let me not meet such again.

For someone today

Tukaram describes a deluded person who anxiously craves more and more without ever seeing what lies ahead, and he pleads not to be made destitute by such greed, since fear sits in the belly while craving sits on the tongue. He warns that when death arrives, no strength or power will help at all, and the karma a person has piled up carries them toward suffering after they die. The deeper problem is that such a person never once thinks of helping others. Tukaram ends by saying he hopes never to meet someone like that again.

मराठी: तुकाराम अशा एका मूढ माणसाचे वर्णन करतात जो पुढे काय वाढून ठेवले आहे हे न पाहता सतत अधिकाधिक हावेने झुरत राहतो, आणि अशा हावेमुळे स्वतःला उघड्यावर पडावे लागू नये अशी ते विनवणी करतात, कारण पोटात भीती आणि जिभेवर हाव असते. ते बजावतात की मृत्यू येतो तेव्हा कोणतेही बळ उपयोगी पडत नाही, आणि माणसाने साठवलेले संचित कर्मच मेल्यानंतर त्याला दुःखाकडे घेऊन जाते. खरी अडचण ही की अशा माणसाला दुसऱ्याला मदत करावी असा विचारही कधी सुचत नाही. तुकाराम शेवटी म्हणतात की अशा माणसाची पुन्हा गाठ पडू नये अशी त्यांची इच्छा आहे.

Where this applies

When greed makes you careless about the wellbeing of the people around you
When you live only for present cravings and ignore that death will one day erase all of it
When you keep accumulating wrongdoing without thinking about the consequences
When you notice someone completely absorbed in themselves, never once thinking of helping others

Mortality / Vairāgya Autobiographical