Abhanga 4254
Real devotion is not a performance of trance and charms; you can test a claimed power by whether it actually protects the person who claims it.
The verse
अंगीं घेऊनियां वारें दया देती । तया भक्ता हातीं चोट आहे ॥१॥
देव्हारा बैसोनि हालविती सुपें । ऐसीं पापी पापें लिंपताती ॥ध्रु.॥
एकीबेकीन्यायें होतसे प्रचित । तेणें लोक समस्त भुलताती ॥२॥
तयाचे स्वाधीन दैवतें असती । तरी कां मरती त्यांचीं पोरें ॥३॥
तुका म्हणे पाणी अंगारा जयाचा । भक्त कान्होबाचा तो ही नव्हे ॥४॥
Literal translation
Takes-vārā-gives-dayā — chōṭa-string-pull. Devhārā-sits-shakes-suppe — pāpis-lip-pāpa. Ēkī-bēkī-nyāya-fulfilment — fools-people. If-deities-controlled — why-children-die. Tukā: pāṇī-angārā-charms — not-Kānhōbā-bhakta.
What it means
A 4-verse 17th-century anti-occult-priest polemic. One takes the deity-possession-trance on his body, gives the mercy-blessing — but in his (bhakta's) hand is the string-puppet-pull. Sitting on the god-platform, they shake the winnowing-tray — thus these sinners smear sin (on others). By the rule of occasional-coincidence-fulfilment, all the people are fooled. If the deities are under his command — why then do his own children die? Tukā says: one whose (charms are mere) water and blessed-ash — he is not the bhakta of Kānhōbā. The decisive rebuttal: if the priest really commands the deities, why do his own children die? — a sharp empirical-test of charlatan-claims. Pair with 2962 (anti-fake-guru), 3049 (open-mantra-anti-occult), 2374 (anti-folk-deity-polemic).
For someone today
Tukaram takes aim at fake priests who put on a trance, act as if a deity has possessed them, and hand out blessings while secretly pulling the strings of the show themselves. Sitting at the shrine, shaking their winnowing tray for effect, they trade on the rare lucky coincidence that convinces a crowd, and in doing so they smear real sin onto people who trust them. He offers a simple, sharp test, if these people truly commanded the gods, why would their own children still fall sick and die like anyone else's. Someone who only sells you water and ash as magic charms, Tukaram says, is not a genuine devotee of Krishna at all.
मराठी: तुकाराम अशा भोंदू पुजाऱ्यांवर टीका करतात जे अंगात देवाचा संचार आल्याचं सोंग करतात, धाव्याच्या नावाखाली आशीर्वाद वाटतात, पण खरं तर स्वतःच सगळा खेळ पडद्यामागून चालवत असतात. देव्हाऱ्यात बसून सूप हलवत, ते एखाद्या अपघाती योगायोगाचा फायदा घेऊन गर्दीला भुलवतात, आणि असं करताना विश्वास ठेवणाऱ्या लोकांवर खरं पाप लादतात. ते एक साधी पण धारदार कसोटी लावतात, जर हे लोक खरंच देवांना ताब्यात ठेवत असतील, तर त्यांचीच मुलं का आजारी पडून मरतात, इतर सगळ्यांप्रमाणे? जो फक्त पाणी आणि अंगारा जादूचे चमत्कार म्हणून विकतो, तुकाराम म्हणतात, तो खरा कान्होबाचा भक्त नाहीच.
Where this applies
- Tukārām's anti-occult-priest empirical-test canonical