Abhanga 4221
True protection is a promise to stand permanently at your door, offering everything, and refusing to leave until that promise is kept.
The verse
ऐसा मी अपार पार नाहीं अंत । परि कृपावंत भाविकांचा ॥१॥
दुर्जनां चांडाळां करीं निर्दाळण । करीं संरक्षण अंकितांचें ॥ध्रु.॥
भक्त माझे सखे जिवलग सांगाती । सर्वांग त्यांप्रति वोडवीन ॥२॥
पीतांबरछाया करीन त्यांवरी । सदा त्यांचे घरीं दारी उभा ॥३॥
माझे भक्त मज सदा जे रातले । त्यांघरीं घेतलें धरणें म्यां ॥४॥
कोठें हें वचन ठेविलें ये वेळे । तुका म्हणे डोळे झांकियेले ॥५॥
Literal translation
Apāra-no-pāra-anta — krpāvanta-to-bhāvika. Durjana-chāṇḍāḷa-nirdaḷaṇa — ankita-samrakṣaṇa. Bhakta-sakhē-jīvalaga-sāngātī — offer-sarvānga. Pītāmbara-chāyā-over — at-door-standing. Rātalē-bhaktas — at-house-took-dharaṇē. Tukā: where-this-vachana-placed — eyes-closed.
What it means
Closing verse-14 of dāvānala-grasana cluster — Krṣṇa's authoritative promise-of-protection. Such am I — boundless; no end-or-limit — yet gracious to the bhāvikas. The evil-doers, the outcastes (in moral-sense) I destroy; I protect my registered-(servants). My bhaktas are my close-companions, my dear-friends; I will offer my whole body to them. I will make a yellow-cloth-shade over them; I stand always at their door and gateway. To my bhaktas — those always immersed in me — at their house I have taken the dharaṇē (sit-in-protest). Where has this vachana been placed at this time? Tukā says: (his) eyes have closed. The protection-promise pentalogy: (1) destroy-durjanas, (2) protect-ankitas, (3) offer-whole-body, (4) yellow-cloth-shade-and-stand-at-door, (5) dharaṇē-at-bhakta's-house — settled-fast. The closing — Tukā's-eyes-closed — suggests the speaker is overwhelmed-by-the-promise. Pair with the anātha-vatsala line in 4216.
For someone today
Speaking through Tukaram, Krishna makes a sweeping promise: he is boundless and beyond measure, yet remains endlessly kind to those with genuine faith. He will actively oppose cruelty and wrongdoing while personally protecting those devoted to him, calling them his closest friends and companions, and offering his entire being to them. He promises to shelter them under his own protective shade and to stand always at their door, even to plant himself stubbornly at their home like someone refusing to leave until his word is kept. Tukaram closes overwhelmed, saying his eyes simply closed at the weight of this promise, a sign of how completely he was moved by such devotion.
मराठी: तुकारामांच्या मुखातून बोलताना कृष्ण एक विशाल वचन देतो — तो अपार आणि अमर्याद असला तरी खऱ्या श्रद्धाळूंसाठी अखंड कृपाळू राहतो. तो दुष्टपणा आणि अन्यायाला निर्दाळून टाकेल, आणि आपल्या भक्तांचं, ज्यांना तो आपले जिवलग सांगाती मानतो, त्यांचं स्वतः रक्षण करेल, त्यांच्यासाठी आपलं सर्वांग अर्पण करेल. तो त्यांच्यावर आपली पीतांबराची सावली धरेल आणि त्यांच्या दारी सदैव उभा राहील, इतकंच नव्हे तर त्यांच्या घरी जणू हट्टाने ठाण मांडून, वचन पाळेपर्यंत हलणार नाही असं दृढपणे बसेल. या वचनाच्या भारावलेपणाने तुकारामांचे डोळे मिटले जातात, असं ते शेवटी सांगतात — इतक्या मोठ्या भक्तिभावाने ते किती हेलावले होते, याची ही खूण आहे.
Where this applies
- Closing verse-14 of extended 14-abhang dāvānala-grasana cluster (4208-4221)
- dharaṇē-at-bhakta's-house canonical protection-promise