Abhanga 4117
Real understanding often comes through the guidance of those who walked the path before you, revealing that only the deeper truth is real while everything else is passing performance.
The verse
तुझें वर्म आम्हां कळों आलें सुखें । संतांचिया मुखें पांडुरंगा ॥१॥
अवघा चि नट वाउगा पसारा । चेईला तूं खरा तूं चि एक ॥ध्रु.॥
म्हणउनि देहबुद्धि नासिवंता । नातळे या चित्ता नेदावया ॥२॥
सोय हे लागली पुढिलांची वाट । पावले जे नीट तुजपाशीं ॥३॥
तुका म्हणे नाहीं कोणासवें काज । बोलायाचें मज अंतरींचें ॥४॥
Literal translation
Your-varma-came-by-santa-mouth-Pāṇḍuranga. All-naṭa-vāuga-pasara — only-you-kharā. Deha-buddhi-nāśivanta-don't-let-touch-chitta. Sōya-forerunners-vāṭa — directly-to-you. Tukā: no-business — speak-antarīmchē.
What it means
A 4-verse sant-revelation text. Your essence came known to us with joy through the mouth of the santas, Pāṇḍuranga. All else is mere acting, vain spread; you alone are the awake-real one. Therefore the perishable body-consciousness — let it not touch this mind. The path is the way of the forerunners — those who reached directly to you. I have no business with anyone — what I say is from the inner.
For someone today
Tukaram says he came to understand the deepest truth with real joy, but not through his own effort alone, it reached him through the words of the saints who came before him. He realizes that everything else in the world is a kind of performance, a passing show, and only the divine presence is truly real and awake. Because of this, he refuses to let his sense of being just a perishable body dominate his mind any longer, choosing instead to follow the same direct path that earlier seekers walked straight to that truth. He closes by saying he owes no one else an explanation, what he speaks now comes straight from his own inner conviction.
मराठी: तुकाराम म्हणतात की त्यांना खोल सत्य आनंदाने उमगले, पण ते स्वतःच्या प्रयत्नाने नव्हे, तर आधीच्या संतांच्या शब्दांतून त्यांच्यापर्यंत पोहोचले. त्यांना जाणवते की जगातील बाकी सगळे एक प्रकारचे नाटक आहे, क्षणभंगुर देखावा आहे, आणि फक्त देवाची उपस्थितीच खरी आणि जागृत आहे. यामुळे ते आपली फक्त नाशवंत शरीर असल्याची भावना मनावर पुन्हा वर्चस्व गाजवू देत नाहीत, आणि आधीच्या साधकांनी थेट त्या सत्यापर्यंत चाललेल्या त्याच मार्गाने जायचे ठरवतात. शेवटी ते म्हणतात की त्यांना इतर कोणालाही स्पष्टीकरण द्यायचे नाही, आता जे बोलतात ते त्यांच्या अंतःकरणातूनच थेट येते.
Where this applies
- When wisdom finally makes sense to you because someone you trust explained it, not because you figured it out alone
- When you realize how much of daily life is just performance and distraction compared to what truly matters
- When you catch yourself over-identifying with your body or circumstances instead of something deeper
- When you decide to speak your own truth without needing anyone else's approval