Abhanga 3704
Clinging to craving and the mine-versus-others divide keeps you bound to suffering, while chasing illusions instead of what is real only leads to a painful fall.
The verse
जों जों घ्यावा सोस । माझे वारीं गर्भवास । लटिक्याचा दोष । अधिक जडे अंगेसीं ॥१॥
आतां आहे तैसें असो । अनुताप अंगीं वसो । येवढें चि नसो । माझें आणि परावें ॥ध्रु.॥
जागाजालेपणें । काय नासावें स्वप्न । शब्दाचिया शिणें । कष्ट मिथ्या मानावे ॥२॥
छाये माकड विटे । धांवे कुपीं काय भेटे । तुका म्हणे फुटे । डोईं गुडघे कोंपर ॥३॥
Literal translation
More-sōsa-garbha-vāsa-rounds — laṭika-dōṣa-attaches. Let-it-be — anutāpa-in-anga — no-mine-no-parā. Awakened-why-perish-svapna — śabda-śiṇa-mithyā-kaṣṭa. Monkey-shadow-on-brick — runs-to-kūpa — what-meets — Tukā: head-knees-elbows-broken.
What it means
A 4-verse text with a striking closing-image. The more I take suffering, the more garbha-vāsa makes its rounds with me; the laṭika-fault attaches more. Let it be — let only this not-be: mine-and-other. When awake, why try to-perish the dream? Words' fatigue is mithyā-kaṣṭa. The monkey jumping for its shadow on a brick runs to the well — what does it meet? Head, knees, elbows broken. The monkey-and-shadow-and-well image: chasing shadows on bricks leads-to-falling-into-wells.
For someone today
Tukārām says that the more he clings to suffering and craving, the more he stays bound to the cycle of birth after birth, and the fault of living falsely only grows heavier on him. His response is to let real remorse settle into him, and to drop the constant dividing of the world into what is mine and what belongs to others. He asks why, once truly awake, anyone would keep chasing a dream, since the exhaustion from empty words is a needless kind of suffering. He closes with a vivid warning, a monkey leaping after its own shadow on a brick runs straight into a well and ends up with its head, knees, and elbows broken, a sharp picture of what happens when you chase illusions instead of what is real.
मराठी: तुकाराम म्हणतात की जितके अधिक ते दुःख आणि हावेला धरून राहतात, तितकेच ते जन्मामागून जन्माच्या फेऱ्यात अधिक अडकत जातात, आणि खोट्याने जगण्याचा दोष त्यांच्यावर अधिकच जड होत जातो. यावर त्यांचा उपाय म्हणजे खरा पश्चात्ताप अंगी वसू देणे, आणि 'माझे' आणि 'दुसऱ्याचे' असा सतत भेद करणे सोडून देणे. ते विचारतात की खरोखर जागे झाल्यावर स्वप्नाच्या मागे कोणी का धावत राहावे, कारण पोकळ शब्दांचा शीण म्हणजे विनाकारण भोगलेले दुःखच आहे. ते शेवटी एका ठळक इशाऱ्याने संपवतात, विटेवरच्या स्वतःच्याच सावलीमागे उडी मारणारे माकड थेट विहिरीत धावते आणि डोके, गुडघे, कोपर फुटून बसते, हे भ्रमामागे धावल्यावर काय होते याचे स्पष्ट चित्र आहे.
Where this applies
- When craving and suffering keep pulling you back into the same painful cycles again and again
- When you find yourself dividing everything into what is mine and what belongs to others, and it only causes more friction
- When you know you have already woken up to a truth but keep chasing the old dream anyway
- When you chase an illusion so hard that you end up hurting yourself, like reaching for a reflection instead of the real thing