Abhanga 3523
Blaming the powerless does not suit anyone who claims real power; true greatness means owning responsibility instead of assigning blame.
The verse
आम्हां बोल लावा । तुम्हां अनुचित हें देवा ॥१॥
ऐसें सांगा कां व्यालेती । काय नाहीं तुम्हां हातीं ॥ध्रु.॥
आतां धरा दुरी । वांयां दवडाया थोरी ॥२॥
तुका म्हणे ठायीं । ऐसें विचारावें पायीं ॥३॥
Literal translation
Blaming-us — unfit-for-you, Deva. Why-give-birth — what's-not-in-your-hand. Keep-far — to-waste-thōrī. Tukā: at-the-place — consider-at-feet.
What it means
A 3-verse complaint. Why blame us? — that doesn't fit you; why did you give birth at all? — everything is in your hand; keep this far away — you're wasting your greatness.
For someone today
Tukaram protests to God that placing blame on people who are struggling does not suit a God who is supposedly all-powerful. If everything really rests in God's hands, he asks, then why bring people into being at all, only to find fault with them later? He tells God to set the unfair blame aside, since holding onto it only wastes God's own greatness. He ends by urging that the whole matter be weighed honestly, right at God's own feet.
मराठी: आम्हाला दोष देणे तुला शोभत नाही देवा, असे तुकाराम सांगतात. मग जन्माला तरी का घातलेस, सगळे काही तर तुझ्याच हातात आहे, असा प्रश्न ते विचारतात. आता हा अन्याय बाजूला ठेव, यामुळे तुझी थोरवीच वाया जाते असे ते म्हणतात. शेवटी तुकाराम सांगतात, हे सगळे तुझ्याच पायाशी नीट विचारून बघ.
Where this applies
- When someone in authority blames those who are struggling instead of taking responsibility themselves
- When you want to push back respectfully against unfair blame directed at you
- When you question why you were put in a difficult situation only to be later criticized for it
- When you ask someone with power to reconsider their judgment honestly