Abhanga 4087
A life spent only working to satisfy the family's comforts, with no room for your own inner growth, wastes the rare gift of a human life.
The verse
आयुष्य वेचूनि कुटुंब पोसिलें । काय हित केलें सांग बापा ॥१॥
फुकाचा चाकर जालासी काबाडी । नाहीं सुख घडी भोगावया ॥ध्रु.॥
दुर्लभ मनुष्यजन्म कष्टें पावलासी । दिला कुटुंबासी कामभोग ॥२॥
तुका म्हणे ऐसें आयुष्य नासिलें । पाप तें सांचिलें पतनासी ॥३॥
Literal translation
Āyuṣya-spent-kuṭumba-fed — what-hita-done? Free-chākara-kābāḍī — no-sukha-ghaḍī. Durlabha-mānuṣya-janma — given-kuṭumba-kāma-bhōga. Tukā: āyuṣya-spoiled — pāpa-collected-for-patana.
What it means
THE canonical 3-verse wasted-life polemic. Spending your life, you've fed the family — but tell, father, what welfare have you done? You've become a free-servant-and-laborer; you've not had a moment of joy to enjoy. The rare human-birth you attained through effort — you have given to the family for their pleasures. Such a life you've spoiled; you've collected sin for your downfall. The harshest possible diagnosis of the householder-life-spent-only-feeding-family-without-bhakti. The line phukāchā-chākara-kābāḍī (free-servant-laborer) is striking — the householder as the unpaid-permanent-employee of his own family. Pair with 3900 (precious-human-life), 3823 (mortality), 4034 (Rāvaṇa-mortality).
For someone today
Tukaram asks a hard question: after spending your whole life working to feed and support your family, what real good have you actually done for your own soul? He describes such a person as an unpaid, permanent laborer who never got even a moment of true joy for themselves. A rare and precious human life, meant for something deeper, gets handed over entirely to satisfying other people's wants. Tukaram's warning is blunt: living only to feed the family's comforts, with no room for inner growth, wastes the very life you were given and leaves you worse off, not better.
मराठी: तुकाराम एक कठीण प्रश्न विचारतात: संपूर्ण आयुष्य कुटुंबाला पोसण्यात घालवल्यानंतर, तुम्ही स्वतःच्या आत्म्यासाठी खरोखर काय भले केले? असा माणूस म्हणजे एक बिनपगारी, कायमचा मजूर आहे ज्याला स्वतःसाठी क्षणभरही खरा आनंद मिळाला नाही असे ते सांगतात. दुर्मिळ आणि मौल्यवान मानवी जन्म, जो खरे तर काहीतरी खोल गोष्टीसाठी मिळतो, तो संपूर्णपणे इतरांच्या इच्छा पूर्ण करण्यात खर्च होतो. तुकारामांचा इशारा स्पष्ट आहे: फक्त कुटुंबाची सुखे पुरवण्यासाठी जगणे, त्यात स्वतःच्या आंतरिक वाढीला जागाच न देणे, हे मिळालेले आयुष्य वाया घालवते आणि तुम्हाला अधिक चांगले नव्हे तर वाईट स्थितीत नेते.
Where this applies
- When you realize you've spent years working nonstop for your family with no time left for your own inner life
- When you feel like an unpaid laborer in your own household, giving everything and keeping nothing for yourself
- When you sense your precious years are slipping by spent entirely on others' comfort and demands
- When you want to ask yourself honestly what good you have actually done for your own growth