Abhanga 4084
Taking satisfaction in another's downfall stains your own character and erodes your goodness, so let go of such wishes and trust that events unfold on their own.
The verse
आणिकांच्या घातें मानितां संतोष । सुखदुःख दोष अंगीं लागे ॥१॥
ऐसें मनीं वाहूं नयेती संकल्प । करूं नये पाप भांडवल ॥ध्रु.॥
क्लेशाची चित्तीं राहाते कांचणी । अग्नींत टाकोनी ठाव जाळी ॥२॥
तुका म्हणे येणें घडे पुण्यक्षय । होणार तें होय प्रारब्धें चि ॥३॥
Literal translation
Rejoicing-others'-ghāta — dōṣa-on-own-anga. Don't-carry-samkalpa — don't-make-pāpa-bhāṇḍavala. Klēśa-kānchaṇī-burns-place-in-agni. Tukā: puṇya-kṣaya — prārabdha-determines.
What it means
A 3-verse anti-schadenfreude text. Feeling satisfaction at others' downfall — the defect of their suffering attaches to your own body. Don't carry such resolves in mind; don't make sin into capital. The smouldering-residue of suffering stays in the chitti; thrown into fire, it burns its own place. By this, puṇya-decay happens; what will happen happens by prārabdha anyway. The image klēśa-kānchaṇī-burns-the-place — suffering as a smouldering ember-residue that even when thrown into the fire of forgetting still burns its own seat. Anti-schadenfreude with subtle psychological insight.
For someone today
Tukaram warns that feeling glad about someone else's downfall doesn't stay outside you, it actually sticks to you and stains your own character. Don't hold onto that kind of wish in your mind or treat cruelty like something worth banking on. He compares this smouldering satisfaction to embers that keep burning even after you try to throw them away, they scorch the very place where they sit. In the end, feeding on another's suffering only wears away your own goodness, while whatever is destined to happen will happen on its own anyway, so there's no need to help it along with ill will.
मराठी: तुकाराम सावध करतात की दुसऱ्याच्या पडझडीत आनंद मानणे हे बाहेरच राहत नाही, ते तुमच्या स्वतःच्या स्वभावालाही डाग लावते. असा विचार मनात बाळगू नये किंवा क्रूरतेला भांडवल समजू नये. ते या धगधगत्या समाधानाची तुलना विस्तवाशी करतात, जो टाकून दिला तरी जळत राहतो आणि ज्या जागी तो पडतो तीच जागा भाजून काढतो. शेवटी, दुसऱ्याच्या दुःखावर पोसले जाणे तुमच्याच पुण्याचा नाश करते, आणि जे व्हायचे आहे ते प्रारब्धाने आपोआप घडणारच आहे, त्यामुळे त्याला वाईट इच्छेने पुढे ढकलण्याची गरज नाही.
Where this applies
- When you feel a flash of satisfaction seeing someone you dislike fail or suffer
- When you catch yourself wishing harm on someone instead of simply letting things unfold
- When old resentment keeps smouldering in you long after the situation that caused it
- When you are tempted to believe cruelty toward others benefits you in some way