Abhanga 4067
Sort quickly what truly matters from what doesn't, keep the Name close at all times, and sincere devotion carries you and your whole family line to purification.
The verse
सारासार विचार करा उठाउठी । नाम धरा कंठीं विठोबाचें ॥१॥
तयाच्या चिंतनें निरसलें संकट । तरलों दुर्घट भवसिंधु ॥ध्रु.॥
जन्मोनियां कुळीं वाचे स्मरे राम । धरी हा चि नेम अहिर्निशीं ॥२॥
तुका म्हणे कोटी कुळें तीं पुनीत । भावें गातां गीत विठोबाचे ॥३॥
Literal translation
Sāra-asāra-quickly — Name-in-kaṇṭha-Viṭhōbā. Chintana-sankaṭa-cleared — crossed-durghaṭa-bhava-sindhu. Tongue-remembers-Rāma-day-night. Tukā: 100-million-kuḷās-purified — Viṭhōbā-gītī-bhāva.
What it means
A 3-verse vāchā-Name + kuḷa-purification text. Do the essence-non-essence reflection quickly; hold the Name of Viṭhōbā in your throat. By his meditation, distress was cleared; I crossed the hard-to-cross becoming-ocean. Being born into this clan, let the tongue remember Rāma; hold this vow day and night. A hundred-million clans are purified by singing Viṭhōbā's song with bhāva. The 100-million-kuḷās-purified is the great-multiplicative-claim of Vārkarī kīrtana — kīrtana-redeems-not-just-self-but-all-ancestors.
For someone today
Tukaram urges you not to delay: sort out right away what actually matters from what doesn't, and keep the Name of Vithoba close, on your very tongue. He testifies from his own experience that remembering God cleared away his distress and carried him across a life that had felt nearly impossible to get through. He says that once you're born into a family line, let your speech remember Rama constantly, day and night, as a steady discipline rather than an occasional habit. And he makes a striking claim, that singing Vithoba's praise with real feeling doesn't just help you, it purifies generations of your ancestors along with you.
मराठी: तुकाराम आग्रहाने सांगतात की उशीर करू नका: आत्ताच काय खरोखर महत्त्वाचे आणि काय नाही याचा विचार करा, आणि विठोबाचे नाम आपल्या जिभेवर सतत ठेवा. स्वतःच्या अनुभवावरून ते साक्ष देतात की देवाच्या स्मरणाने त्यांचे संकट दूर झाले आणि जवळजवळ अशक्य वाटणारे आयुष्य त्यांनी पार केले. ते म्हणतात की एकदा एखाद्या कुळात जन्म झाला की, वाणीने सतत रामाचे स्मरण करावे, अधूनमधून नव्हे तर रात्रंदिवस एक स्थिर नियम म्हणून. आणि ते एक विलक्षण दावा करतात, की खऱ्या भावाने विठोबाचे गुणगान गाणे केवळ स्वतःला उपयोगी पडत नाही, तर त्यासोबत आपल्या पूर्वजांच्या अनेक पिढ्याही पवित्र होतात.
Where this applies
- When you keep putting off deciding what truly matters in your life versus what's just noise
- When you're going through a period of real distress and need something steady to hold onto
- When you want a daily practice that isn't occasional but becomes a constant habit day and night
- When you wonder whether your own devotion could carry meaning beyond just your own life