संत साहित्य · Tukārām · Abhanga 3507 of 4582

Abhanga 3507

True honesty means admitting when your inner life still does not match your outer appearance, because what is genuine stays the same all the way through.

When you catch yourself performing goodness on the outside while nothing has changed within.

When you admit that effort or surrender has not yet fixed a stubborn part of yourself.

When you choose honesty over pretending to be further along than you actually are.

The verse

माझे तों स्वभाव मज अनावर । तुज ही देतां भार कांहीं नव्हे ॥१॥ ऐसें कळों आलें मज नारायणा । जागृती स्वपना ताळ नाहीं ॥ध्रु.॥ संपादितों तो अवघा बाहए रंग । तुझा नाहीं संग अभ्यंतरीं ॥२॥ तुका म्हणे सत्या नाहीं पाठी पोट । असतें निघोंट एकी जाती ॥३॥

Literal translation

My-svabhāva-uncontrollable — even-giving-bhāra-to-you-nothing. No-tāḷa-between-jāgrti-and-svapna. Arrange-only-outer-color — no-sanga-with-you-in-abhyantara. Tukā: satya-no-pāṭhī-pōṭa — niγhōṭa-stays-with-one-jāti.

What it means

A 3-verse self-honest confession text. My own nature is uncontrollable — even giving the load to you doesn't help; waking and dream don't coordinate; I arrange only the outer-color but have no inner-companionship with you; the genuine doesn't have a 'back-and-belly' (two-faces) — it stays one.

For someone today

Tukaram makes a rare, honest confession here: his own nature is still uncontrollable, and even handing that burden over to God has not fixed it. He admits that his waking life and his inner dream life do not line up with each other. He says he has only managed to arrange an outer appearance, without real inner companionship with God underneath it. He closes with a plain teaching, that truth has no front and back, no two faces, and that what is genuine stays exactly the same all the way through.

मराठी: तुकाराम इथे एक दुर्मीळ, प्रामाणिक कबुली देतात, त्यांचा स्वतःचा स्वभाव अजूनही आवरता येत नाही, आणि तो भार देवाच्या हाती दिल्यावरही काही फरक पडलेला नाही. ते कबूल करतात की त्यांचे जागेपणीचे जीवन आणि त्यांचे आतले स्वप्न एकमेकांशी जुळत नाहीत. ते म्हणतात की त्यांनी फक्त बाह्य रंग सजवला आहे, आतून देवाशी खरी सोबत अजून जमलेली नाही. शेवटी ते एक साधी शिकवण देतात, सत्याला पुढचा आणि मागचा असा दोन चेहरा नसतो, जे खरे असते ते शेवटपर्यंत तसेच एकसारखे राहते.

Where this applies

When you notice your public behavior does not match what is actually happening inside you
When surrender or practice has not yet tamed a stubborn part of your nature
When you feel a gap between what you believe and how you actually act
When you are tempted to fake spiritual progress instead of admitting where you are still stuck