Abhanga 4225
Once you subtract childhood ignorance, years lost to desire, years lost to attachment, and years lost to daily distraction, almost none of a hundred-year life is actually left for turning toward the divine.
The verse
बारावर्षे बाळपण । तें ही वेचलें अज्ञानें ॥१॥
ऐसा जन्म गेला वांयां । न भजतां पंढरिराया ॥ध्रु.॥
बाकी उरलीं आठ्याशीं । तीस वेचलीं कामासी ॥२॥
बाकी उरलीं आठावन्न । तीस वेचली ममतेनें ॥३॥
बाकी उरलीं आठावीस । देहगेह विसरलास ॥४॥
तुका म्हणे ऐसा झाडा । संसार हा आहे थोडा ॥५॥
Literal translation
12-years-bāḷapaṇa-in-ajñāna. Janma-in-vain — not-bhajatā-Paṇḍharī-rāyā. Bāki-88 — 30-on-kāma. Bāki-58 — 30-on-mamatā. Bāki-28 — forgot-deha-gēha. Tukā: such-jhāḍā — samsāra-is-little.
What it means
THE canonical 5-verse life-budget-accounting text. Twelve years of childhood — already lost to ignorance. Such a life passed in vain — not adoring Paṇḍharī-rāyā. Balance 88 — 30 spent on desire. Balance 58 — 30 spent on attachment. Balance 28 — you forgot the body-and-house (didn't tend to either). Tukā says: with such an account, this samsāra is very little. Total: 12+30+30+28 = 100 years. The brilliance is the iterative budget-arithmetic — each remaining-period is consumed by a different attachment, leaving the bhajana-time miniscule. Pair with 4087 (wasted-life family), 3071-3073 (3-stage-of-life biographical cluster).
For someone today
Tukārām does the arithmetic of a hundred-year life. Twelve years go to childhood, spent in ignorance. Of what remains, thirty years are consumed by desire, another thirty by attachment and possessiveness, and the final twenty-eight slip away while you forget to even tend to your own body and household. Add it up, Tukārām says, and almost nothing is left over for actually turning toward God — this worldly life, once you subtract it all, is very little indeed.
मराठी: तुकाराम शंभर वर्षांच्या आयुष्याचा हिशेब मांडतात. बारा वर्षे बालपणात अज्ञानात जातात. उरलेल्यांपैकी तीस वर्षे कामवासनेत, आणखी तीस वर्षे ममत्वात आणि आसक्तीत खर्च होतात, आणि उरलेली अठ्ठावीस वर्षे देहाची आणि घराची काळजी करण्यातच निघून जातात. हा सगळा हिशेब केला, तुकाराम म्हणतात, तर देवाकडे वळण्यासाठी जवळजवळ काहीच वेळ शिल्लक राहत नाही — हा सगळा संसार, वजाबाकी केल्यावर, खरोखर फार थोडा उरतो.
Where this applies
- Tukārām's THE life-budget-accounting canonical foundational