Abhanga 4213
Real power, when it finally reveals itself, is overwhelming enough to frighten even the truest devotee, and admitting that fear is honest, not a failure of faith.
The verse
चहुंकडूनियां येती ते कलोळ । सभोंवते जाळ जवळि आले ॥१॥
सकुमार मूर्ति श्रीकृष्ण धाकुटी । घोंगडी आणि काठी खांद्यावरि ॥ध्रु.॥
लहान लेंकरूं होत ते सगुण । विक्राळ वदन पसरिलें ॥२॥
चाभाड तें एक गगनीं लागलें । एक तें ठेविलें भूमीवरि ॥३॥
तये वेळे अवघे गोपाळ ही भ्याले । तुकें ही लपालें भेऊनियां ॥४॥
Literal translation
Flames-from-all-sides — surround-jāḷa-close. Sukumāra-Śrī-Krṣṇa-dhākuṭī — ghongaḍī-stick-on-shoulder. Small-child-became-sagunā — vikrāḷa-vadana-spread. One-jaw-sky — one-jaw-earth. All-gopāḷas-frightened — Tukā-too-hid-in-fear.
What it means
Verse-6 of dāvānala-grasana cluster — the climax-moment. From all sides the twisting-flames came; the surrounding net came close. The tender form of Śrī-Krṣṇa, the little-one — with blanket and stick on his shoulder — the small-child suddenly became saguṇa-(form); he spread out the terrible mouth. One jaw touched the sky, the other was set on the earth. At that moment all the gopāḷas got frightened — Tukā too hid in fear. The comic-bhakti touch: Tukēm-hī-lapālēm-bhēūnīyām — Tukā too hid in fear — inserts the narrator-bhakta into the scene with humorous-affection. The one-jaw-sky-one-jaw-earth image echoes the Viśva-rūpa scenes in the Gītā.
For someone today
In the moment of crisis, the small, tender child Krishna, dressed simply with a blanket and stick like any village boy, suddenly reveals his true vastness: he opens a mouth so enormous that one jaw touches the sky and the other rests on the earth. Every cowherd present is terrified by this sight, and Tukaram admits with disarming honesty that even he, the poet telling the story, would have hidden in fear too. The verse captures how divine power, when it actually shows itself, is overwhelming and even frightening, not comfortable or tame, and it takes real courage to stay present when the truth of something vast reveals itself.
मराठी: संकटाच्या क्षणी, अंगावर घोंगडी आणि खांद्यावर काठी घेतलेला तो लहान, कोवळा कृष्ण अचानक आपलं खरं अफाट रूप दाखवतो — तो इतका प्रचंड जबडा उघडतो की एक जबडा आकाशाला भिडतो आणि दुसरा जमिनीला टेकतो. हे दृश्य पाहून सगळे गोपाळ भयभीत होतात, आणि तुकाराम अगदी प्रामाणिकपणे कबूल करतात की ही कथा सांगणारा मीसुद्धा भीतीने लपून बसलो असतो. या अभंगातून दिसतं की खरी दैवी शक्ती जेव्हा प्रत्यक्ष प्रकट होते, तेव्हा ती सुखद किंवा सौम्य नसते, तर भारावून टाकणारी आणि भीतीदायकही असते, आणि अशा अफाट सत्याला सामोरं राहण्यासाठी खरं धैर्य लागतं.
Where this applies
- Verse-6 of 10-abhang dāvānala-grasana cluster (4208-4217)