Abhanga 3797
Let the mind take one deep, complete plunge into devotion instead of chasing scattered pleasures, and treat obsessive attachment to wealth or a partner as poison.
The verse
देवाचिये पायीं देई मना बुडी । नको धांवों वोढी इंिद्रयांचे ॥१॥
सर्व सुखें तेथें होती एकवेळे । न सरती काळें कल्पांतीं ही ॥ध्रु.॥
जाणें येणें खुंटे धांवे वेरजार । न लगे डोंगर उसंतावे ॥२॥
सांगन तें तुज इतुलें चि आतां । मानी धन कांता विषतुल्य ॥३॥
तुका म्हणे तुझे होती उपकार । उतरों हा पार भवसिंधु ॥४॥
Literal translation
Give-mana-buḍī-at-Deva's-feet — don't-run-after-indriyas. All-sukhas-there-at-once — never-fade-even-at-kalpānta. Coming-going-khuṇṭē — no-mountain-to-rest. Tell-you-this-only — treat-dhana-kāntā-as-viṣa-tulya. Tukā: your-upakāra — cross-bhava-sindhu.
What it means
A 4-verse mana-dive prayer. Give the mind a deep-plunge at Deva's feet — don't be pulled by the senses. All forms of sukha arrive there at once — they don't even fade at the end of the cosmos. Coming and going is stopped; no mountain to climb-and-rest-on. I tell you just this now — treat wealth and wife as poison. Your favour carries us across the bhava-ocean. The image mana-buḍī (a complete plunge of the mind, like a swimmer's deep-dive) is striking.
For someone today
Tukaram tells the mind to take a full, deep plunge at God's feet instead of constantly being dragged around by the pull of the senses. Once you're truly there, he says, every kind of happiness arrives together, and none of it fades even when the world itself ends — the endless back and forth of coming and going simply stops, with nowhere left to climb toward and no more restlessness. His one blunt piece of advice: treat obsession with wealth and desire for a partner as if they were poison, because they keep pulling you back into that cycle. He ends by saying it is God's grace, not personal effort, that finally carries a person across the ocean of worldly existence.
मराठी: तुकाराम मनाला सांगतात की इंद्रियांच्या ओढीने सतत भरकटत राहण्याऐवजी देवाच्या पायी पूर्णपणे बुडी घ्यावी. एकदा खरोखर तिथे पोहोचलात की सर्व प्रकारचे सुख एकाच वेळी मिळते आणि हे जग संपले तरीही ते सुख मावळत नाही — येणे-जाणे थांबते, चढण्यासाठी उरलेला डोंगर संपतो आणि अस्वस्थता उरत नाही. त्यांचा एक स्पष्ट सल्ला आहे: संपत्तीचा आणि जोडीदाराच्या आसक्तीचा हव्यास विषासारखा माना, कारण तो हव्यासच माणसाला त्या फेऱ्यात परत खेचतो. शेवटी ते म्हणतात की भवसागर पार करणे हे स्वतःच्या प्रयत्नाने नव्हे तर देवाच्या कृपेनेच घडते.
Where this applies
- When your attention keeps getting pulled away by cravings and small distractions
- When you're chasing happiness in bits and pieces instead of finding one steady source of it
- When money or a relationship has become something you cling to obsessively
- When you feel exhausted by an endless cycle of striving and want it to simply stop