Abhanga 4422
Once you have truly been accepted by God, your flaws and unworthiness do not cancel that care, just as a mother's love for her child does not depend on the child being clean or perfect.
The verse
हातीं धरिलियाची लाज । देवा असोंदे गा तुज ॥१॥
आहें अमंगळ दुर्बळ । होई दीन तूं दयाळ ॥ध्रु.॥
बाळ सेंबडें मातेसि । काय नावडे तियेसि ॥२॥
तुका म्हणे जाणें । करोनि देहाचें सांडणें ॥३॥
Literal translation
Hand-held — lāja-yours-Deva. Amangaḷa-durbaḷa — be-dīna-dayāḷa. Snotty-baby — mother-still-loves. Tukā: knowing — leave-deha.
What it means
A 3-verse hand-held-bhrida text. The lāja of having held (my) hand — Deva, let it be (your concern). I am inauspicious, weak — be a friend-of-the-low, gracious-one. A snotty-faced baby — what (in him) doesn't the mother love? Tukā says: I know — the leaving-of-body (will happen in your care). The image bāḷa-sēmbaḍē-mātēsi-kāya-nāvaḍē: what is there in a snotty-faced baby that the mother does not love? — striking unconditional-mother's-love image, applied to Lord-as-mother accepting-the-inauspicious-bhakta.
For someone today
Tukaram says once God has taken his hand, it becomes God's own responsibility, God's own honor, not to let go, no matter how unworthy or weak Tukaram feels. He admits he is inauspicious and weak, and asks God to still be gracious to someone that low. He offers the tender image of a baby with a dirty, runny-nosed face, asking what mother would ever stop loving her child over something like that. He closes with quiet trust, saying he knows even his death, the leaving of this body, will happen safely in God's care.
मराठी: तुकाराम म्हणतात की एकदा देवाने त्यांचा हात धरला की तो हात सोडणे ही आता देवाचीच जबाबदारी, देवाचीच अब्रू बनते, तुकाराम कितीही अयोग्य किंवा दुर्बळ असला तरी. ते कबूल करतात की मी अमंगळ आणि दुर्बळ आहे, तरीही देवाने अशा दीनावरही दया करावी अशी विनवणी करतात. एका शेंबड्या तोंडाच्या बाळाची कोमल प्रतिमा देऊन ते विचारतात - अशा बाळावरही आई प्रेम करणे कधी सोडते का? शेवटी ते शांत विश्वासाने म्हणतात की हे शरीर सोडतानाही, म्हणजे मृत्यूच्या वेळीही, आपण देवाच्या आश्रयातच सुरक्षित असू हे त्यांना ठाऊक आहे.
Where this applies
- When you feel unworthy of love because of your flaws or mistakes
- When you have committed to someone and wonder if you can still rely on their continued care
- When you need to be reminded that real love does not withdraw over small imperfections
- When you are afraid of death or the unknown and want reassurance you will not face it alone