Abhanga 3615
Naming honest grievance against relentless misfortune, and asking why suffering costs so much of a life, is itself a valid form of prayer.
The verse
जेथें जातों तेथें पडतो मतोळा । न देखिजे डोळां लाभ कांहीं ॥१॥
कपाळीची रेखा असती उत्तम । तरि कां हा श्रम पावतों मी ॥ध्रु.॥
नव्हे चि तुम्हांस माझा अंगीकार । थीता संवसार अंतरला ॥२॥
भोग तंव जाला खरा भोगावया तो । भांडवल नेतो आयुष्य काळ ॥३॥
कोठें तुझी कीर्ती आइकिली देवा । मुकतों कां जीवा तुका म्हणे ॥४॥
Literal translation
Wherever-go-matōḷā-falls — no-lābha-with-eyes. If-kapāḷa-rēkhā-uttama-why-bear-śrama. No-angīkāra — samsāra-distanced. Bhōga-real — Kāḷa-takes-āyuṣya-as-bhāṇḍavala. Tukā: where-heard-your-kīrti — losing-jīva.
What it means
A 4-verse grievance-petition. Wherever I go disaster falls; if my fate-line were good, why this fatigue; you haven't taken me as your own; the body's experience is real; Kāḷa takes my life as capital; where did I even hear of your kīrti?
For someone today
This verse is Tukārām's honest complaint against misfortune, wherever he goes, calamity seems to fall on him, and he sees no real gain no matter how hard he looks. He wonders aloud, if his fate were genuinely good, why would he keep bearing this exhausting struggle? He feels God hasn't fully claimed him as his own, and even ordinary worldly life has slipped out of reach. What is undeniably real, he says, is suffering itself, and time keeps spending his very lifespan as if it were capital being drained away. He ends with a bitter, searching question, where did he even hear of God's greatness, if this is what living costs him?
मराठी: ही ओवी तुकारामांची दुर्दैवाविरुद्धची प्रामाणिक तक्रार आहे, जिथे जातात तिथे संकट कोसळतं, आणि कितीही शोधलं तरी खरा फायदा कुठे दिसत नाही. जर माझं नशीब खरोखर चांगलं असतं, तर मी हा थकवणारा संघर्ष का सोसतोय, असं ते मोठ्याने विचारतात. देवाने त्यांना पूर्णपणे स्वतःचं मानलेलं नाही असं त्यांना वाटतं, आणि साधं संसारिक जीवनही आवाक्याबाहेर गेलं आहे. निर्विवादपणे खरं आहे ते म्हणजे दुःख, आणि काळ त्यांचं आयुष्यच भांडवलासारखं खर्च करत आहे असं ते म्हणतात. शेवटी ते कडवट, शोधक प्रश्न विचारतात, जगण्याची किंमत जर ही असेल, तर देवाची कीर्ती त्यांनी कुठे ऐकली होती?
Where this applies
- When misfortune keeps following you no matter where you go or what you try
- When you wonder why life feels so hard despite believing you deserve better
- When you feel unclaimed or unsupported by the very source you've trusted
- When you notice time slipping away without the gains you hoped your effort would bring