Abhanga 4094
Self-rita — cries-others'-hita.
The verse
स्वयें आपण चि रिता । रडे पुढिलांच्या हिता ॥१॥
सेकीं हें ना तेंसें जालें । बोलणें तितुकें वांयां गेलें ॥ध्रु.॥
सुखसागरीं नेघे वस्ती । अंगीं ज्ञानपणाची मस्ती ॥२॥
तुका म्हणे गाढव लेखा । जेथें भेटेल तेथें ठोका ॥३॥
Literal translation
Self-rita — cries-others'-hita. Ends-half-and-half — talking-vain. Won't-stay-sukha-sāgara — jñāna-masti-on-anga. Tukā: gadhē-lēkhā — strike-wherever-meet.
What it means
★ A 3-verse anti-empty-jñānī polemic. Himself empty, he cries for others' welfare. In the end, it becomes neither-this-nor-that; all his talking goes vain. He won't take residence in the joy-ocean; on his body sits the intoxication of knowingness. Count him a donkey — strike him wherever you meet him. The harsh closing — gadhē-lēkhā-jētēm-bhēṭēla-tēthēm-ṭhōkā (count him a donkey — strike him wherever you meet him) — is among Tukārām's most-blunt anti-fake-teacher lines.
For someone today
Tukārām: don't-be-the-empty-vessel-crying-for-others'-welfare — strike-the-pretender.
Where this applies
- ★ Tukārām's self-empty-cries-others'-hita; gadhē-lēkhā-strike-wherever canonical anti-empty-jñānī