Abhanga 4209
Even when danger seems to surround you from every side with no way to escape, that is precisely the moment when rescue can still arrive.
The verse
ते काय पवाडे नाहीं म्यां ऐकिले । गोपाळ रक्षिले वनांतरीं ॥१॥
मावेचा वोणवा होऊनि राक्षस । लागला वनास चहूंकडे ॥ध्रु.॥
गगनासी ज्वाळा लागती तुंबळ । गोधनें गोपाळ वेडावलीं ॥२॥
तुका म्हणे तेथें पळावया वाट । नाहीं वा निपट ऐसें जालें ॥३॥
Literal translation
Haven't-I-heard-pravāḍē — gopāḷas-saved-vanāntarī. Māvēchā-vōṇavā-rākṣasa — engulfs-forest. Flames-sky-tumbaḷa — cattle-gopāḷas-veḍāvale. Tukā: no-escape-path — utterly.
What it means
Verse-2 of dāvānala-grasana cluster. Haven't I heard these glories? The gopāḷas were saved in the forest. The māyā-fire became a rākṣasa, attaching itself to the forest on all sides. Flames touched the sky, surging; the cattle-herds and gopāḷas were disoriented. There was no path to flee — utterly so. Sets the crisis — frames the upcoming Krṣṇa-intervention.
For someone today
Tukaram recalls a story he has heard, how the young cowherds were once saved when a forest fire, born of illusion, turned into a raging monster and closed in on the forest from every side. The flames rose so high they seemed to touch the sky, and the cattle and cowherd boys were thrown into panic, with no way to escape. He tells the story to set the stage for the deliverance that follows: even when the danger closing in seems both fierce and completely inescapable, that is exactly when protection arrives.
मराठी: तुकाराम एक ऐकलेली कथा आठवतात — कशी लहान गोपाळांना एकदा वाचवलं गेलं होतं, जेव्हा मायेतून जन्मलेला वणवा एखाद्या राक्षसासारखा बनून जंगलाला चारही बाजूंनी वेढून टाकतो. ज्वाळा इतक्या उंच जातात की जणू आकाशालाच भिडतात, आणि गुरं व गोपाळ मुलं घाबरून गोंधळून जातात, पळून जायला वाटच उरत नाही. ही कथा पुढे येणाऱ्या तारणाच्या प्रसंगासाठी पार्श्वभूमी तयार करते — संकट कितीही भीषण आणि सुटकेचा मार्गच नाही असं वाटत असलं, तरी नेमकं त्याच क्षणी रक्षण येतं, हेच यातून सुचवलं आहे.
Where this applies
- Verse-2 of 10-abhang dāvānala-grasana cluster (4208-4217)