Abhanga 3925
Having just listed seven kinds of fake renunciates, Tukaram now asks the real question: who has actually renounced the world? He answers with the sage Shuka, who is said to have let go of the world the very moment he was born, without ever holding on in the first place. Shuka alone, Tukaram says, is truly spotless. The lesson is that real renunciation is not a costume you put on later in life to impress others; it is a total absence of grasping, and that is rare.
The verse
ऐसे नाना भेष घेऊनी हिंडती । पोटासाटीं घेती प्रतिग्रह ॥१॥
परमार्थासी कोण त्यजी संवसार । सांगापां साचार नांव त्याचें ॥२॥
जन्मतां संसार त्यजियेला शुकें । तोचि निष्कळंक तुका म्हणे ॥३॥
Literal translation
Various-bhēṣas — roam — for-belly-take-pratigraha. Who-truly-renounces-samsāra — tell-its-name. Śuka-renounced-at-birth — alone-niṣkaḷanka.
What it means
The closing-coda to the 7-abhang anti-fake-renunciate-type catalog (3918-3924). They take various costumes and roam; they take alms only for the belly. Who in real paramārtha actually renounces the world? — tell the real name. (Sage) Śuka renounced the world at the very moment of birth — he alone is spotless, says Tukā. Śuka (the son of Vyāsa) is the paradigmatic born-renunciate of Bhāgavata tradition — he renounced the world from the womb, instantly upon birth, without any intermediate-stage. Tukārām holds him up as the only real renunciate against the seven fake-types just catalogued.
For someone today
Having just listed seven kinds of fake renunciates, Tukaram now asks the real question: who has actually renounced the world? He answers with the sage Shuka, who is said to have let go of the world the very moment he was born, without ever holding on in the first place. Shuka alone, Tukaram says, is truly spotless. The lesson is that real renunciation is not a costume you put on later in life to impress others; it is a total absence of grasping, and that is rare.
मराठी: आधी सांगितलेल्या सात बनावट संन्याशांच्या प्रकारांनंतर तुकाराम खरा प्रश्न विचारतात: खरोखर संसार सोडला कोणी? या प्रश्नाचे उत्तर ते शुक ऋषींच्या उदाहरणाने देतात, ज्यांनी जन्मताक्षणीच संसार सोडला, कधी त्याला धरलेच नाही. तुकाराम म्हणतात की केवळ शुकच खरोखर निष्कलंक आहे. यातून हे शिकायला मिळते की खरा त्याग म्हणजे नंतर घातलेला वेष नव्हे, तर मुळातच काहीही न धरण्याची अवस्था आहे, आणि ती दुर्मिळ आहे.
Where this applies
- Closing-coda of 7-abhang anti-fake-renunciate cluster (3918-3924)
- Śuka-renounced-at-birth paradigm of true-renunciation
- Pair with 2844-2847 (other anti-fake-renunciate cluster)