Abhanga 4377
When you are stranded with no way back and no safe way forward, let your mind rest on the presence that lives within your own heart rather than on the danger around you.
The verse
एकली वना चालली राना । चोरुनि जना घराचारी ॥१॥
कोणी नाहीं संगीसवें । देहभावें उदास ॥ध्रु.॥
जाउनि पडे दुर्घटवनीं । श्वापदांनीं वेढिली ॥२॥
मार्ग न चले जातां पुढें । भय गाढें उदेलें ॥३॥
मागील मागें अंतरलीं । पुढील चाली खोळंबा ॥४॥
तुका म्हणे चित्ती यासि । हृदयस्थासी आपुल्या ॥५॥
Literal translation
She-alone-into-rāna — stealing-from-jana-of-house. No-sanga — deha-bhāva-udāsa. Falls-durghaṭa-vana — surrounded-śvāpadas. Mārga-doesn't-walk — bhaya-dense. Behind-far-left — ahead-walk-blocked. Tukā: chitti — hrdayastha-of-own.
What it means
A 6-verse rare extended-narrative of woman-alone-in-vana-besieged. Alone, she went into the wild — stealing-away from the house-folk. No one with her in company — udāsa in body-mode. Going on, she falls into an impassable forest — surrounded by wild-beasts. The path doesn't walk forward — dense fear arises. The behind has receded far — the forward-walk is blocked. Tukā says: the consciousness of this one — is with her own in-heart indweller. A psychological-spiritual allegory: the soul (feminized) leaves the household-of-attachments alone-and-stealthily, enters the wilderness-of-self-exploration, gets-surrounded-by-wild-instincts, finds-the-path-blocked-both-behind-and-ahead-with-fear-arising — but her chitti remains-with-the-indweller-in-her-own-heart. The narrative-suspense (besieged-in-impassable-forest) resolves only in the indweller-presence. Pair with 4359 (fawn-lost-in-vana), 4267 (only-you-cut-loka-lāja).
For someone today
Tukaram tells a vivid little story here: a woman slips away alone from her household, unnoticed, and walks into the wilderness with no one beside her. Deep in, she stumbles into a truly difficult stretch of forest and finds herself surrounded by wild animals. She cannot go forward, the way back is now too far gone, and a thick fear rises up in her because she is stuck with no clear direction either way. Yet Tukaram says her mind does not break, because it stays fixed on the one who dwells within her own heart. The teaching is that when life strands you between a path you cannot retrace and a way forward blocked by danger, your anchor is not the route out but the presence you carry inside you.
मराठी: तुकाराम इथे एक ठळक गोष्ट सांगतात: एक स्त्री घरातून कोणालाही न कळता एकटीच निघून रानात जाते, तिच्यासोबत कोणीच नसते. आत खोलवर गेल्यावर ती एका दुर्गम वनात अडकते आणि तिच्याभोवती हिंस्र पशू जमा होतात. पुढे जाताही येत नाही, मागचा रस्ताही खूप दूर निघून गेलेला असतो, आणि दोन्ही बाजूंनी अडकल्यामुळे तिच्या मनात दाट भीती दाटून येते. तरीही तुकाराम म्हणतात की तिचे मन ढासळत नाही, कारण ते आपल्या हृदयात वसलेल्या त्या अंतर्यामीशी स्थिर राहते. यातून हाच बोध मिळतो की जेव्हा जीवन तुम्हाला मागे फिरता न येण्याजोग्या आणि पुढे धोक्याने अडलेल्या वाटेच्या मध्ये अडकवते, तेव्हा तुमचा आधार बाहेरचा मार्ग नसून तुमच्या आतच वसलेली उपस्थिती असते.
Where this applies
- When you feel trapped between a past you cannot return to and a future that looks frightening or blocked
- When you find yourself facing a crisis completely alone, with no one by your side to help
- When fear closes in from every direction and there seems to be no safe way forward
- When you need to remember that your inner steadiness matters more than the outer situation you are stuck in