Abhanga 3805
Giving your whole heart to God can feel like an uneven, restless exchange, and Tukaram voices that honestly, with teasing affection rather than real complaint.
The verse
देऊनियां प्रेम मागितलें चित्त । जाली फिटाफिट तुम्हां आम्हां ॥१॥
काशानें उदार तुम्हांसी म्हणावें । एक नेसी भावें एक देसी ॥ध्रु.॥
देऊनियां थोडें नेसील हें फार । कुंटिसी विचार अवघियांचा ॥२॥
तुका म्हणे आम्हां भांडवल चित्त । देउनी दुश्चित पाडियेलें ॥३॥
Literal translation
Gave-prema — took-chitta — phiṭā-phiṭa-settled. How-udāra — take-one-give-one. Give-little — take-much — get-into-vichāra-with-all. Tukā: our-capital-chitta — gave — became-duśchita.
What it means
A 3-verse playful bhakta-grievance text. You gave us prema, but you asked for chitta back — and so it became a settled exchange between us. By what can we call you generous? You take one (thing) by bhāva — you give one (thing). You give little, you take much — and you get into negotiation with everyone. Our only capital is the chitta — by giving it, you have made us anxious. The accounting-language (phiṭā-phiṭa = balanced-out, bhāṇḍavala = capital, vichāra = negotiate-calculate) is striking — Tukārām the kuṇabī-turned-trader speaks Lord's exchange in market-terms. Affectionate, not bitter.
For someone today
Tukaram teases God with the language of a marketplace deal: you gave us love, sure, but you also took our whole heart in return, so really it just evened out — nothing to boast about. He jokingly asks how God can be called generous when God takes a lot and gives only a little, haggling with everyone like a shrewd trader rather than simply being lavish. His only real capital, he says, was his own heart and mind, and having handed that over completely, he's left restless and unsettled, not calm. It's a loving complaint, not real anger — the grumble of someone utterly devoted who still can't resist teasing the one he loves.
मराठी: तुकाराम इथे देवाला बाजारातील व्यवहाराच्या भाषेत गमतीने खोचून बोलतात: तू आम्हांला प्रेम दिलेस खरे, पण त्या बदल्यात आमचे संपूर्ण मन घेतलेस, म्हणजे हिशोब बरोबरीत बसला — यात फार अभिमान बाळगण्यासारखे काही नाही. देव जास्त घेतो आणि कमी देतो, प्रत्येकाशी हुशार व्यापाऱ्यासारखा घासाघीस करतो, मग त्याला उदार तरी कसे म्हणावे असे ते गमतीने विचारतात. आपले खरे भांडवल फक्त आपले मन होते, असे ते म्हणतात, आणि ते पूर्णपणे देऊन टाकल्यामुळे आता ते शांत नसून अस्वस्थ झाले आहेत. हा एक प्रेमळ तक्रारीचा सूर आहे, खरा राग नाही — ज्याचे पूर्ण मन देवाला वाहिलेले आहे तोच असा गमतीने खोचून बोलू शकतो.
Where this applies
- When you love someone so completely that even your playful complaints are full of affection
- When you feel you've given everything of yourself and wonder what you got in return
- When you want to express devotion honestly, including its confusion and restlessness, rather than pretending it's always calm
- When a close relationship feels like an uneven exchange but you stay in it out of love anyway