Abhanga 3518
Real strength shows itself not by avoiding a heavy burden but by carrying it for someone who is crushed under it.
The verse
सेवट तो होती तुझियानें गोड । म्हणऊनि चाड धरीतसों ॥१॥
देऊं भोगाभोग कलिवरचा भार । साहों तुज थार त्याचमधीं ॥ध्रु.॥
तुझ्या बळें कांहीं खटपट काम । वाढवावा श्रम न लगे तो ॥२॥
तुका म्हणे आम्ही चेंपलों या भारें । तुमचें तें खरें देवपण ॥३॥
Literal translation
Sevaṭa-gōḍa-through-you — therefore-chāḍa. Give-bhōga-bhāra-of-kalivara — you-take-thāra-within. By-your-baḷa, no-need-grow-śrama. Tukā: pressed-down-by-bhāra — your-true-dēva-paṇa.
What it means
A 3-verse end-becomes-sweet text. The end is sweet through you; let me give you the body's load to bear; by your strength, no need for extra effort; we're crushed under this — your true godhood would be to bear it for us.
For someone today
Tukaram tells God that everything ends up sweet only through God's presence, and that is why he keeps holding on with longing. He offers to hand over the whole heavy load of bodily experience, the pleasures and pains of this life, so that God can settle right within that burden. With God's strength, he says, the struggle itself becomes light and no extra effort is needed. He closes by admitting we are crushed under this load, and that God's true divinity would show itself precisely by carrying it for us.
मराठी: देवा, तुझ्यामुळेच सगळ्या गोष्टींचा शेवट गोड होतो, म्हणून मी तुझी आस धरतो असे तुकाराम सांगतात. या देहाचे सगळे भोग आणि दुःखाचे ओझे मी तुला देतो, आणि त्या ओझ्यातच तू आधार दे, अशी विनंती ते करतात. तुझ्या बळावर हा संघर्षही हलका होईल, त्यासाठी वेगळे कष्ट करावे लागणार नाहीत असे ते सांगतात. शेवटी तुकाराम म्हणतात, आम्ही या ओझ्याखाली दबलो आहोत, आणि हे ओझे आमच्यासाठी वाहणे हेच तुझे खरे देवपण ठरेल.
Where this applies
- When you're weighed down by illness, grief, or responsibility and want to hand the burden to something larger than yourself
- When you feel that only a bigger presence, a person or a practice, can make hardship bearable
- When you long for relief but recognize you cannot carry it entirely on your own strength
- When you want to trust that real support, once truly present, would make the struggle lighter