Abhanga 4004
Old age strips away strength and mobility, leaving the body as fragile as burnt cloth, and it is possible to face this decline plainly, without denial or despair.
The verse
मागें बहुत जाले खेळ । आतां बळ वोसरलें ॥१॥
हालों नये चालों आतां । घट रिता पोकळ ॥ध्रु.॥
भाजल्याची दिसे घडी । पट ओढी न साहे ॥२॥
तुका म्हणे पाहतां घडी । जगा जोडी अंगारा ॥३॥
Literal translation
Many-games-behind — strength-gone. Can't-walk-can't-move — ghaṭa-rita-pokaḷa. Like-folded-burnt — can't-bear-pull. Tukā: this-moment — angārā-for-world.
What it means
THE canonical 3-verse old-age weakness text. Many games are behind me; strength has ebbed now. I can't move or walk — the pot is empty-hollow. (My body) looks like a folded piece of burnt-cloth — the fabric cannot bear any pull. Looking at this moment, it provides the angārā (sacred-ash / funeral-embers) for the world. Three searing images of bodily-decay: (1) games-played-strength-gone — life as games-already-played-out; (2) ghaṭa-rita-pokaḷa (the empty-hollow-pot) — the body as a hollow vessel that once carried something; (3) bhājalyā-chi-ghaḍī (folded burnt-cloth) — fabric that cannot bear even a tug, will tear at any touch. Closes with angārā-jōḍī-jagā — the body becoming the sacred-ash / funeral-embers for the world to take. Compare 2944-2945 (simple-life), 3823 (canonical mortality).
For someone today
Tukaram looks unflinchingly at what old age has done to his body. He says his playful years are behind him and his strength has drained away, leaving him unable to move or walk, like a pot that has gone empty and hollow. He compares his body to a piece of burnt cloth folded up, so fragile now that it cannot bear even a light tug without tearing. And in this stark moment he sees clearly what is coming, that his body will soon be nothing but ash returned to the world. It is a plain, unsentimental look at physical decline that neither hides from it nor despairs over it.
मराठी: तुकाराम वृद्धत्वाने आपल्या शरीराचे काय केले आहे हे न घाबरता पाहतात. ते म्हणतात, खेळाचे दिवस मागे राहिले आहेत आणि शक्ती संपली आहे, त्यामुळे आता चालणे-हलणेही जमत नाही, जणू घडा रिकामा आणि पोकळ झाला आहे. ते आपल्या शरीराची तुलना जळक्या कापडाच्या घडीशी करतात, इतके नाजूक की हलकासा ओढही सहन होत नाही, फाटून जाईल. आणि याच स्पष्ट क्षणी त्यांना पुढे काय होणार हे उमगते, की हे शरीर लवकरच जगाला परत मिळणारी राख होणार आहे. ही शारीरिक ऱ्हासाकडे पाहण्याची साधी, वास्तववादी नजर आहे, जी त्यापासून लपतही नाही आणि निराशही होत नाही.
Where this applies
- Tukārām's THE canonical old-age-weakness text
- Pair with 3823 (langōṭi-gōvarī-mortality), 2884 (māpārī-mortality)
- ghaṭa-rita-pokaḷa + bhājalyā-chi-ghaḍī striking images