संत साहित्य · Tukārām · Abhanga 3803 of 4582

Abhanga 3803

Staying quietly at home without arguing or asserting yourself costs you nothing real, and the true secret is simply fixing your attention on God and sitting still.

When you choose silence instead of insisting on having the last word

When you resist the temptation to gossip or speak ill of someone at home

When you sit quietly and turn your attention toward God instead of chasing arguments

The verse

मुकें होतां तुझ्या पदरीचें जातें । मूर्ख तें भोगितें मीमीपण ॥१॥ आपुलिये घरीं मैंद होऊनी बसे । कवण कवणासी बोलों नका ॥२॥ तुका म्हणे तुम्हां सांगतों मी खुण । देवासी तें ध्यान लावुनि बसा ॥३॥

Literal translation

Becoming-mute — what's-yours-by-padara-doesn't-go. Mūrkha-suffers-mī-mī-paṇa. In-own-house-become-mainda — don't-speak-of-anyone. Tukā: I-tell-the-khuṇa — fix-dhyāna-on-Deva-and-sit.

What it means

A 3-verse anti-self-assertion text. By becoming silent, what is yours doesn't go away — but the fool suffers through I-I-ness (constant self-assertion). In your own house, become a knowing-silent-one and sit — don't speak (badly) of anyone or to anyone. I tell you the sign — fix the meditation on Deva and sit. The image of becoming a mainda (a silent-wise-one, or a 'pretend-foolish-but-secretly-wise' figure in folk usage) at home is a renunciate-prescription against household-talk.

For someone today

Tukaram makes a simple but sharp observation: staying quiet doesn't cost you anything that was truly yours, but a fool suffers needlessly from constantly asserting himself, always insisting on being heard and being right. His advice is to sit quietly in your own home like someone wise who has nothing to prove, and not to gossip about others or argue with anyone. The real secret, he says, is far simpler than all that talk: just fix your attention on God and sit still with it.

मराठी: तुकाराम इथे एक साधी पण मार्मिक गोष्ट सांगतात: गप्प राहिल्याने खरोखर आपले असलेले काहीही हरवत नाही, पण मूर्ख माणूस सतत स्वतःला सिद्ध करण्याच्या, सतत आपलेच म्हणणे खरे ठरवण्याच्या नादात उगाच त्रास सहन करतो. त्यांचा सल्ला असा आहे की स्वतःच्या घरात ज्याला काही सिद्ध करायचे नाही अशा शहाण्या माणसासारखे शांतपणे बसावे, आणि इतरांबद्दल गॉसिप किंवा कोणाशीही वाद घालू नये. खरे रहस्य, ते म्हणतात, या सगळ्या बोलण्यापेक्षा खूपच साधे आहे — फक्त आपले लक्ष देवावर स्थिर करा आणि शांत बसा.

Where this applies

When you feel the urge to argue just to prove you're right
When gossip or family talk tempts you to speak badly of someone
When you worry that staying quiet means you'll lose something that matters
When your mind is restless and you need a simple way to settle it

Cosmology / Avatāra Autobiographical