Abhanga 3983
Care that fails to answer a real need when it matters most is not really care at all, and it is honest, not disloyal, to say so.
The verse
कोड आवडीचें । पुरवीना बाळकाचें ॥१॥
तेव्हां कैसी ते माउली । जाणा काशासाटीं व्याली ॥ध्रु.॥
वत्साचिये आसे । धेनु धांवेना गोरसें ॥२॥
तुका म्हणे धरि । बाळ टाकिलें वानरीं ॥३॥
Literal translation
Kōḍa āvaḍīcēm — puravīnā bāḷakāñcēm — (she) doesn't fulfill baby's kōḍa-āvaḍī. Tevhām kaisī te māulī — jāṇā kāśāsāṭīm vyālī — then what māulī is she — know for what she bore (it). Vatsācīye āse — dhenu dhāvenā gōrasēm — for the calf's longing — the cow doesn't run with milk. Tukā mhaṇe dhari — bāḷa ṭākilēm vānarīm — Tukā says: hold this — the baby was thrown by a monkey-mother.
What it means
A 3-verse sharp-rebuke. The-mother-who-doesn't-fulfill-baby's-fondness — what-mother-is-she; cow-that-doesn't-run-with-milk-for-calf-craving; the-baby-was-thrown-away by-a-monkey-mother. Pointed metaphor — the negligent-Lord is-like a-mother-monkey who-discards her-young. Companion to 3959 (positive mother-image), in dialectic tension.
For someone today
Tukaram does not hold back his frustration here. He says that a mother who does not meet her child's longing is not really acting like a mother at all, and you might as well ask why she bore the child in the first place. He points to a cow that does not come running with milk when her calf cries out for it, and to a monkey mother who simply throws her baby aside, as examples of care that fails when it is needed most. This is Tukaram speaking honestly to God about feeling neglected, and it shows that devotion can include real anger and complaint, not just quiet acceptance, when love does not show up the way it should.
मराठी: तुकाराम इथे आपली निराशा लपवत नाहीत. ते म्हणतात की जी आई आपल्या मुलाची ओढ पुरी करत नाही, ती खरी आई नाहीच, आणि मग तिने मुलाला जन्मच का दिला असा प्रश्न पडतो. ते अशा गाईचे उदाहरण देतात जी वासराच्या हाकेला दूध घेऊन धावत येत नाही, आणि अशा माकडिणीचे जी आपल्या पिल्लाला सहज टाकून देते — गरजेच्या क्षणी अपुरी पडणारी काळजी दाखवण्यासाठी. हे तुकाराम देवाशी उघडपणे बोलत आहेत, दुर्लक्षित झाल्याची भावना व्यक्त करत आहेत, आणि यातून हे दिसते की भक्तीमध्ये फक्त शांत स्वीकार नाही तर खरा राग आणि तक्रारसुद्धा असू शकते, जेव्हा प्रेम अपेक्षेप्रमाणे उभे राहत नाही.
Where this applies
- Tukārām's sharp-rebuke corpus
- Dialectic-companion to 3959 (positive mother-image)