Abhanga 3883
Feeling like an orphaned outsider, Tukaram asks only to be claimed and gazed upon like a turtle-mother watches her young, and offers total surrender in return.
The verse
अनाथ परदेशी हीन दीन भोळें । उगलें चि लोळे तुझे रंगीं ॥१॥
आपुलें म्हणावें मज नुपेक्षावें । प्रेमसुख द्यावें मायबापा ॥ध्रु.॥
कासवीचे परि दृष्टी पाहें मज । विज्ञानीं उमज दावुनियां ॥२॥
तुका म्हणे तुझा जालों शरणागत । काया वाचा चित्त दुजें नाहीं ॥३॥
Literal translation
Anātha-paradēśī-hīna-dīna-bhōḷē — rolling-in-your-rangī. Call-me-yours-don't-upekṣa — prema-sukha-māyabāpa. Like-kāsavī-gaze-show-vijñāna-spark. Tukā: kāyā-vāchā-chitta-śaraṇāgata-no-other.
What it means
A 3-verse anātha-prayer. I am an orphan, a foreigner, low, helpless, simple — just rolling aimlessly in your assembly. Call me your own, don't neglect me — give me love-joy, mother-father. Gaze upon me like the turtle-mother — show me the awakening-spark of wisdom. I have become your refugee — by body, speech, mind — no other. The image of kāsavī-drṣṭi (the turtle-mother's gaze) is a tender Marathi devotional-image: it is said that the kāsavī (turtle/tortoise mother) nourishes her young by mere gaze from a distance — she doesn't physically suckle them. So the prayer asks: just gaze upon me, and that will suffice.
For someone today
Tukaram prays as someone who feels genuinely alone: orphaned, out of place, humble, and simply drifting without direction in the presence of God. He asks not for grand gifts, only to be claimed as God's own, not overlooked, and to receive the warmth of a parent's love. He uses the tender image of the mother turtle, who is said to nourish her young simply by gazing at them from a distance, and asks God to look at him that way, letting that gaze alone awaken understanding in him. He closes by declaring total surrender, in body, speech, and mind, with nothing else to fall back on.
मराठी: तुकाराम खरोखर एकाकी वाटणाऱ्या माणसाप्रमाणे प्रार्थना करतात: अनाथ, परका, नम्र, आणि देवाच्या सान्निध्यात नुसतेच दिशाहीन भटकणारे. ते काही मोठे मागत नाहीत, फक्त आपले म्हणून स्वीकारले जावे, दुर्लक्षित न व्हावे, आणि माय-बापाच्या प्रेमाची ऊब मिळावी इतकीच मागणी करतात. ते कासवीच्या मायेच्या नजरेची कोमल प्रतिमा वापरतात, जी म्हणे केवळ दुरून पाहूनच आपल्या पिल्लांचे पोषण करते, आणि देवालाही तसेच पाहण्याची विनंती करतात, जेणेकरून त्या नजरेनेच त्यांच्यात जाणीव जागृत व्हावी. शेवटी ते काया, वाचा आणि चित्त यांनी संपूर्ण शरणागती जाहीर करतात, दुसरा कोणताही आधार नसल्याचे सांगत.
Where this applies
- When you feel like an outsider or drifting alone, without any real sense of belonging
- When you long to simply be noticed and claimed rather than achieve something spectacular
- When you're going through a hard time and just need someone's steady attention, not grand gestures
- When you're ready to fully commit yourself, holding nothing back, because you have nowhere else to turn