Abhanga 4514
Staying in real companionship with the divine while fully living an ordinary family life is the true profit of life, while getting lost in wealth, pride, or endless argument is a loss.
The verse
नाहीं त्याची शंका वैकुंठनायका । नेणती ते एकाविण दुजा ॥१॥
जाणतियां सवें येऊं नेदी हरि । तर्कवादी दुरी दुराविले ॥२॥
वादियासि भेद निंदा अहंकार । देऊनियां दूर दुराविले ॥३॥
दुरावले दूर आशाबद्ध देवा । करितां या सवा कुटुंबाची ॥४॥
चित्ती द्रव्यदारा पुत्रादिसंपत्ती । समान ते होती पशु नर ॥५॥
नरक साधिले विसरोनि देवा । बुडाले ते भवा नदीमाजी ॥६॥
जीहीं हरिसंग केला संवसारीं । तुका म्हणे खरी खेप त्यांची ॥७॥
Literal translation
Nāhī tyācī śankā Vaikuṇṭha-nāyakā — neṇatī te ekāviṇa dujā — no doubt of Vaikuṇṭha-nāyaka; they don't-know a second besides one. Jāṇatiyām savē yeūm nedī Hari — tarkavādī durī durāvile — Hari doesn't allow knowers' company along; tarkavādīs are kept distant. Vādiyāsi bheda nindā ahamkāra — deūniyām dūra durāvile — to the disputer (he) gives bheda-nindā-ahamkāra, keeps distant. Durāvale dūra āśā-baddha Devā — karitām yā savā kuṭumbācī — the āśā-bound are distant from Deva, while doing family-business. Citti dravya-dārā putrādi-sampattī — samāna te hōtī paśu nara — in chitta wealth-wife-children-property; equal become paśu and nara. Naraka sādhile visarōni Devā — buḍāle te bhavā nadī-mājī — narakas were earned forgetting Deva; (they) drowned in the bhava-river. Jīhīm Hari-sanga kelā samvasārīm — Tukā mhaṇe kharī khepa tyāñcī — those who did Hari-company in samsāra — Tukā says: theirs is the true cargo-trip.
What it means
A 7-verse contrast-piece. Hari-takes-along only-those-without-second; tarkavādī-jñātās-vādīs are kept-far. The āśā-baddha in samsāra become paśu-nara-equal — drowned in bhava-river. Only those who did Hari-sanga in samsāra make a true khēpa (profitable cargo-trip). The khēpa image is the Marathi merchant's-load — life-as-a-trade-journey, profit measured-in-Hari-sanga.
For someone today
Tukaram contrasts two kinds of people living ordinary family lives: those who get so absorbed in wealth, spouse, children, and possessions that they forget God entirely, and those who keep God close even while carrying out the same daily duties. The first group, he says bluntly, live no differently from animals and end up drowning in the endless river of worldly struggle, while clever arguers and logicians who only debate ideas are kept at a distance too, because pride and endless disputing pull people away rather than closer. Only those who stay in real companionship with the divine while still living fully in the world make what Tukaram calls a truly profitable journey, life is like a trading trip, and the only real profit is that companionship, not the goods you accumulate along the way.
मराठी: तुकाराम दोन प्रकारच्या सामान्य कौटुंबिक आयुष्य जगणाऱ्या लोकांची तुलना करतात: एक असे जे धन, पत्नी, मुले आणि संपत्तीत इतके गुरफटतात की देवाला पूर्णपणे विसरतात, आणि दुसरे असे जे तेच रोजचे कर्तव्य पार पाडत असतानाही देवाला जवळ ठेवतात. पहिला गट, ते स्पष्टपणे सांगतात, पशूंपेक्षा वेगळा जगत नाही आणि संसाराच्या अखंड नदीत बुडून जातो, तर केवळ वाद-विवाद करणारे हुशार तर्कवादीही दूरच राहतात, कारण अहंकार आणि सतत वाद माणसाला जवळ न आणता दूर नेतो. जे संसारात पूर्णपणे राहूनही देवाशी खरा सहवास टिकवतात, तेच तुकारामांच्या मते खरा फायदेशीर प्रवास करतात, आयुष्य हे व्यापाऱ्याच्या फेरीसारखे आहे, आणि खरा नफा हा सहवासच आहे, वाटेत जमा केलेली संपत्ती नव्हे.
Where this applies
- Tukārām's Hari-sanga-in-samsāra has-true-khēpa canonical
- Anti-tarkavādī polemic
- Gopāḷa-līlā cluster's theological-extension