संत साहित्य · Tukārām · Abhanga 4028 of 4582

Abhanga 4028

Keeping God's Name on your lips daily, spoken with real feeling, has the power to save even the fallen and to blunt the grip of death itself.

When you keep returning to the same simple prayer or name in hard moments

When you notice how a person's quiet faith seems to steady everyone nearby

When you choose to hold something sacred privately in your heart rather than show it off

The verse

विठोबाचें नाम ज्याचे मुखीं नित्य । त्या देखिल्या पतित उद्धरिलि ॥१॥ विठ्ठलविठ्ठल भावें म्हणे वाचे । तरी तो काळाचे दांत ठेंसी ॥ध्रु.॥ बहुत तारिले सांगों किती आतां । ऐसा कोणी दाता दुजा नाहीं ॥२॥ तुका म्हणे म्यां ही ऐकोनियां कीर्ती । धरिला एकांतीं हृदयामाजी ॥३॥

Literal translation

Viṭhōbā-Nāma-in-mouth-daily — sees-patita-saved. Viṭṭhal-bhāve-vāchē — Kāḷa's-teeth-stuck. Many-saved-no-other-dātā. Tukā: heard-kīrti — held-in-hrdaya-ēkānta.

What it means

A 3-verse Nāma-praise text. The one on whose mouth Viṭhōbā's Name is daily — on seeing him, fallen ones are saved. When one says Viṭṭhal-Viṭṭhal by speech with bhāva, then Kāḷa's teeth get stuck. He has saved many — how many shall I tell — no other giver like this. I too, on hearing this glory, have held him in my heart alone.

For someone today

Tukaram says that a person who keeps Vitthal's Name on their lips every day carries a kind of grace that spills onto others: just being seen by such a person can lift someone who has fallen far. When you say the Name with real feeling and not just habit, even death loses its bite, its teeth get stuck and cannot do harm. Tukaram insists there is no other giver as generous, one who has rescued so many that they are beyond counting. Hearing of this power himself, he says he has quietly kept that Name close in his own heart.

मराठी: तुकाराम म्हणतात की जो माणूस रोज विठोबाचे नाम मुखात ठेवतो, त्याच्याकडे अशी कृपा असते जी इतरांपर्यंतही पोहोचते, अशा माणसाला पाहूनच पडलेला माणूसही सावरतो. जेव्हा तुम्ही खऱ्या भावाने विठ्ठल-विठ्ठल म्हणता, तेव्हा काळाचेही दात अडकतात, तो इजा करू शकत नाही. तुकाराम सांगतात की याहून मोठा दाता दुसरा नाही, ज्याने इतक्यांना तारले आहे की मोजताही येत नाही. हे सामर्थ्य ऐकून, ते म्हणतात की त्यांनीही ते नाम एकांतात, आपल्या हृदयात जपून ठेवले आहे.

Where this applies

When you doubt whether a simple daily practice like a prayer or mantra actually matters
When you are near someone whose steady faith seems to lift the people around them
When you are afraid of death or loss and need something to hold onto
When you want a private, personal devotion rather than a public performance of faith