Abhanga 4520
Grief can be so total that it silences a person completely, and it takes someone who can steady themselves, even briefly, to carry hard news to a community that needs to know.
The verse
गोपाळां उभडु नावरे दुःखाचा । कुंटित हे वाचा जाली त्यांची ॥१॥
जालें काय ऐसें न कळे कोणासी । म्हणती तुम्हांपासीं देव होता ॥२॥
देवासवें दुःख न पवते ऐसें । कांहीं अनारिसें दिसे आजी ॥३॥
आजि दिसे हरि फांकला यांपाशीं । म्हणउनि ऐशी परि जाली ॥४॥
जाणविल्याविण कैसें कळे त्यांसि । शाहाणे तयांसि कळों आले ॥५॥
कळों आलें तीहीं काफुंदे शांत केला । ठायींचा च त्यांला थोडा होता ॥६॥
होता तो विचार सांगितला जना । गोपाळ शाहाणा होता त्याणें ॥७॥
सांगे आतां हरि तुम्हां आम्हां नाहीं । बुडाला तो डोहीं यमुनेच्या ॥८॥
यासी अवकाश नव्हे चि पुसतां । जालिया अनंता कोण परि ॥९॥
परि त्या दुःखाची काय सांगों आतां । तुका म्हणे माता लोकपाळ ॥१०॥
Literal translation
Gopāḷām ubhaḍu nāvare duḥkhācā — kuṇṭita he vāchā jālī tyāñcī — the gopāḷas' surge of grief is un-bearable; their vāchā has become silent. Jāle kāya aise na kaḷe kōṇāsī — mhaṇatī tumhāmpāsī Deva hōtā — what-happened no-one knows; they say 'Deva was with you'. Devāsave duḥkha na pavate aise — kāmhī anārise dise ājī — with Deva, grief doesn't reach so — something different appears today. Ājī dise Hari phānkalā yāmpāsī — mhaṇaūni aiśī pari jālī — today Hari appears to have faded from them, so this state came. Jāṇaviliyāviṇa kaise kaḷe tyāmsi — śāhāṇe tayāmsi kaḷōm āle — without telling, how-to-know to-them — the wise ones came to know. Kaḷōm āle tīhīm kāphundē śānta kelā — ṭhāyīmcā ca tyāmlā thōḍā hōtā — coming-to-know, they pacified the sob-fit; (there) was-already a little there. Hōtā tō vichāra sāngitalā janā — gopāḷa śāhāṇā hōtā tyāṇe — that thought was told to people; a shrewd gopāḷa was there. Sānge ātām Hari tumhām āmhām nāhī — buḍālā tō ḍōhī Yamunecyā — he says: now Hari is not for you-or-us — drowned in the Yamunā's ḍoha. Yāsī avakāśa navhe ca pusatām — jāliyā Anantā kōṇa pari — no avakāśa (time/leisure) to keep-asking; once Ananta has gone — who else?. Parī tyā duḥkhācī kāya sāngōm ātām — Tukā mhaṇe mātā lōkapāḷa — what shall I say of that grief now — Tukā says: mother(s), lōkapāḷa (community-protectors).
What it means
Mid-narrative panel of Kāḷiyā-mardana. The gopāḷas can't-speak from-grief; the news of 'Hari drowned in Yamunā's ḍoha' finally reaches the town through a śāhāṇā (shrewd) gopāḷa. Tukārām marks the grief of māta-lōkapāḷa (mothers and community-protectors).
For someone today
Tukārām shows a moment from the Kāḷiyā-mardana story where the cowherds' grief is so overwhelming that they lose the ability to speak at all. Someone has to carry the hard news to the rest of the town, and it takes a level-headed, composed person to do it — one shrewd gopāḷa steps forward and tells everyone that Hari has drowned in the Yamunā's pool. Tukārām marks how real and total this shared grief is, spreading through mothers and the whole community alike.
मराठी: तुकाराम इथे काळिया-मर्दनाच्या कथेतील एक क्षण मांडतात, जिथे गोपाळांचे दुःख इतके प्रचंड असते की त्यांची वाचाच बंद पडते. अशा वेळी कठीण बातमी उर्वरित गावाला कोणीतरी सांगावी लागते, आणि हे काम एखाद्या स्थिर, समजूतदार व्यक्तीलाच करता येते — एक शहाणा गोपाळ पुढे येऊन सर्वांना सांगतो की हरी यमुनेच्या डोहात बुडाला आहे. तुकाराम इथे या दुःखाची खोली आणि खरेपणा दाखवतात, जे माता आणि संपूर्ण समाजापर्यंत पसरते.
Where this applies
- Tukārām's Kāḷiyā-mardana mid-narrative
- Grief-paralyzes-vāchā literary moment
- Companion to 4519 and 4521