Abhanga 4008
Tukaram offers comfort to a mind weighed down by worry about fate. Look closely at the body, he says, and you find it has no fixed, solid reality, so how can predetermined destiny have any real footing there either. He asks directly, why are you crying, mind, when the answer is simply to turn toward Vitthal's feet. Even the sense of separateness between yourself and the divine dissolves under this kind of looking, since it has no true place anywhere in the world. His advice is to look truly, see the divine clearly, and rest there instead of continuing to worry.
The verse
आधीं देह पाहता वाव । कैचा प्रारब्धासी ठाव ॥१॥
कां रे रडतोसी माना । लागें विठ्ठलचरणा ॥ध्रु.॥
दुजेपण जालें वाव । त्रिभुवनासि नाहीं ठाव ॥२॥
तुका म्हणे खरे पाहें । विठ्ठल पाहोनियां राहें ॥३॥
Literal translation
First-deha-vāva — no-prārabdha-ṭhāva. Why-cry-mana — go-to-Viṭṭhal-charaṇa. Dvaita-vāva — no-ṭhāva-in-trailokya. Tukā: see-truly — see-Viṭṭhal-stay.
What it means
A 3-verse non-dual text. First, when you look at the body, it's void — where is the place for prārabdha (predetermined-karma)? Why cry, mind? — go to Viṭṭhal's feet. Twoness has become void; no place (for it) in the three worlds. See truly: see Viṭṭhal, and stay there. The argument is bracing: body-is-empty, therefore prārabdha has no foothold; twoness is void; only Viṭṭhal remains.
For someone today
Tukaram offers comfort to a mind weighed down by worry about fate. Look closely at the body, he says, and you find it has no fixed, solid reality, so how can predetermined destiny have any real footing there either. He asks directly, why are you crying, mind, when the answer is simply to turn toward Vitthal's feet. Even the sense of separateness between yourself and the divine dissolves under this kind of looking, since it has no true place anywhere in the world. His advice is to look truly, see the divine clearly, and rest there instead of continuing to worry.
मराठी: तुकाराम नशिबाच्या काळजीने भारावलेल्या मनाला दिलासा देतात. शरीराकडे नीट पाहा, ते म्हणतात, आणि लक्षात येईल की त्याला काही निश्चित, ठोस अस्तित्वच नाही, मग पूर्वनियोजित प्राक्तनालाही तिथे खरी जागा कशी असेल. ते थेट विचारतात, मना, तू का रडतोस, जेव्हा उत्तर इतकेच आहे की विठ्ठलाच्या चरणांकडे वळावे. अशा प्रकारे पाहिल्यावर स्वतःमधील आणि परमेश्वरातील वेगळेपणाची जाणीवही विरघळून जाते, कारण तिला जगात कुठेही खरी जागा नाही. त्यांचा सल्ला आहे, खरोखर पाहा, परमेश्वराला स्पष्ट पाहा, आणि काळजी करत राहण्याऐवजी तिथेच विसावा घ्या.
Where this applies
- When you are anxious about fate or destiny and feel like nothing you do matters
- When your mind keeps worrying in circles and you need a way to interrupt it
- When you feel separated from what you love or believe in and need a way back to closeness
- When you want a simple practice of looking clearly instead of spinning in anxious thought