Abhanga 3736
Willpower alone cannot break inner disorder because there are too many doors for temptation, so real change comes only when grace fills you from within, not from empty words.
The verse
निरोधती परि न मोडे विकार । बहु हीं दुस्तर विषयद्वारें ॥१॥
राहातेति तुम्ही भरोनि अंतरीं । होतों तदाकारी निर्विषचि ॥ध्रु.॥
कृपेचिया साक्षी असती जवळी । वचनें मोकळीं सरत नाहीं ॥२॥
तुका म्हणे ताळा मेळवणीपाशीं । विनंती पायापाशीं हे चि करीं ॥३॥
Literal translation
Restraining-but-vikāra-doesn't-break — viṣaya-dvāra-many-dustara. You-fill-antara — we-become-tadākāra-nirviṣa. Krpā-sākṣī-close — loose-words-not-enough. Tukā: at-tāḷā-mēḷavaṇī — vinantī-at-feet.
What it means
A 3-verse surrender-text. I restrain (the senses) but the disorder doesn't break — the sense-doors are too many and too hard. When you fill the within, I become of-your-form, free-of-poison. The witness of your krpā is close — loose-words don't suffice. At the gathering, this request is made only at your feet.
For someone today
Tukaram admits that he keeps trying to restrain himself, but the inner disorder never actually breaks, because there are simply too many doors through which the senses pull him astray. He realizes that real change happens only when God fills him from within, and it is that filling, not his own willpower, that makes him free of the poison of craving. He knows that grace is already close and witnessing him, but empty words and promises on their own are not enough. So at the gathering of devotees, he says, the only request he makes is this one, offered humbly at God's feet.
मराठी: तुकाराम कबूल करतात की ते स्वतःला आवरण्याचा प्रयत्न करत राहतात, पण आतील गोंधळ काही केल्या तुटत नाही, कारण इंद्रियांना भरकटवणारे दरवाजे खूप जास्त आहेत. त्यांना जाणवते की खरा बदल तेव्हाच होतो जेव्हा देव त्यांना आतून भरून टाकतो, आणि तीच गोष्ट, स्वतःची इच्छाशक्ती नव्हे, त्यांना वासनेच्या विषापासून मुक्त करते. त्यांना ठाऊक आहे की कृपा आधीच जवळ आहे आणि साक्षी आहे, पण नुसते रिकामे शब्द आणि आश्वासने पुरेशी नाहीत. म्हणून भक्तांच्या मेळाव्यात ते म्हणतात, एकच विनंती ते नम्रपणे देवाच्या चरणांशी करतात.
Where this applies
- When willpower alone keeps failing to fix a habit or craving no matter how hard you try
- When you realize real change requires something beyond your own effort filling you from within
- When you catch yourself making promises you don't actually follow through on
- When you finally stop talking and simply, humbly ask for help instead