Abhanga 4087
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
Tukārām: you've-spent-your-life-feeding-family-no-bhakti-done — you-became-free-servant-of-family-for-their-pleasures — sin-collected-for-your-fall.
Where this applies
- ★★ Tukārām's THE canonical wasted-life-feeding-family polemic
- Pair with 3900 (precious-human-life), 3823 (mortality), 4034 (Rāvaṇa-mortality)