Abhanga 4004
Many-games-behind — strength-gone.
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
Tukārām: my-body-is-an-empty-pot-a-folded-burnt-cloth-that-can't-bear-pull — what-remains-is-angārā-for-the-world.
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