Abhanga 4328
Death sits as close as a neighbor at your pillow, so act now to free yourself, because this passing moment will never come again.
The verse
उपजला प्राणी न राहे संसारीं । बैसला सेजारी काळ उसां ॥१॥
पाहा तो उंदीर घेउनि जाय बोका । तैसा काळ लोका नेत असे ॥ध्रु.॥
खाटिकाचे घरीं अजापुत्र पाहें । कसाबाची गाय वांचे कैसी ॥२॥
तुका म्हणे कांहीं करा काढाकाढी । जाती ऐसी घडी पुन्हा नये ॥३॥
Literal translation
Upajalā prāṇī na rāhe samsārīm — the born-being does-not-stay in samsāra; baisalā sējārī kāḷa usām — Kāḷa sits as-neighbor at-bed-pillow. Pāhā tō undīra ghēuni jāya bōkā — see, the cat takes-and-goes the mouse; taisā kāḷa lōkā nēta ase — so Kāḷa takes people. Khāṭikāñchē gharīm ajāputra pāhēm — see the goat-son in butcher's house; kasābāchī gāya vāñche kaisī — how does the kasāī's cow survive? Tukā mhaṇe kāmhīm karā kāḍhākāḍhī — Tukā says: do some kāḍhākāḍhī (extraction); jātī aisī ghaḍī punhā na ye — this passing ghaḍī does not return again.
What it means
A stark 3-verse mortality-rebuke. Born-one cannot stay; Kāḷa sits at the bed-pillow like a neighbor; cat takes mouse — Kāḷa takes people; goat-and-cow in butcher's house cannot survive; do some rescue-extraction quickly — this moment once gone does not come back.
For someone today
Tukārām warns: Time sits at your pillow. The moment you have is non-recurring. Do something for liberation now.
Where this applies
- Tukārām's canonical Kāḷa-sits-as-neighbor; moment-once-only mortality-urgency text
- Companion to 2797, 2884 (mortality-warnings)