Abhanga 3877
The verse
दर्दुराचें पिलुं म्हणे रामराम । नाहीं उदक उष्ण होऊं दिलें ॥१॥
कढेमाजी बाळ करी तळमळ । गोविंद गोपाळ पावें वेगीं ॥ध्रु.॥
आज्ञा तये काळीं केली पावकासी । झणी पिलीयासी तापवीसी ॥२॥
तुका म्हणे तुझे ऐसे हे पवाडे । वणिऩतां निवाडे सुख वाटे ॥३॥
Literal translation
Frog's-baby-says-Rāma-Rāma — water-not-let-become-uṣṇa. Baby-in-kadhī-taḷamaḷa — Govinda-Gōpāḷa-came-quickly. Gave-āgnyā-to-pāvaka: don't-heat-up-baby. Tukā: your-pavāḍē-describing-gives-niḍaḍē-sukha.
What it means
★★ A 3-verse rare frog-baby protection narrative. The frog's baby says Rāma-Rāma — and the Lord did not let the water become hot. The baby in the boiler-pot was in anxious-thrashing — Govinda-Gōpāḷa came quickly. At that very time he ordered the fire — don't heat up the little one (don't burn the baby). To describe such heroic stories of yours gives a settled, calm joy. A lesser-known but striking bhakta-protection narrative: the frog-baby caught in a boiling-pot (perhaps a household-cooking-pot or a heat-trap), calling out Rāma-Rāma — and Govinda intervenes by ordering the fire to not heat the water. Companion to 2540 (Kurukṣetra-sparrows — bhakta-rakṣaka protecting birds-on-battlefield); both stories share the Lord-protects-the-helpless-by-intervening-in-nature motif.
For someone today
Tukārām: even-a-frog-baby-calling-Rāma — the-Lord-orders-the-fire-not-to-heat-the-water.
Where this applies
- ★★ Tukārām's rare frog-baby Rāma-Rāma protection narrative
- anāthāñchyā-Nātha (Lord-of-the-helpless) theology
- Pair with 2540 (Kurukṣetra-sparrows-narrative)