Abhanga 4522
Tira dekhōniyām Yamunece jaḷa — kāṇṭhī ca kolhāḷa karitātī — seeing the bank, the Yamunā's water — on the very bank a kolhāḷa.
The verse
तीर देखोनियां यमुनेचें जळ । कांठीं च कोल्हाळ करिताती ॥१॥
कइवाड नव्हे घालावया उडी । आपणासि ओढी भय मागें ॥२॥
मागें सरे माय पाउला पाउलीं । आपल्या च घाली धाकें अंग ॥३॥
अंग राखोनियां माय खेद करी । अंतरीचें हरी जाणवलें ॥४॥
जाणवलें मग देवें दिली बुडी । तुका म्हणे कुडी भावना हे ॥५॥
Literal translation
Tira dekhōniyām Yamunece jaḷa — kāṇṭhī ca kolhāḷa karitātī — seeing the bank, the Yamunā's water — on the very bank a kolhāḷa. Kaivāḍa navhe ghālāvayā uḍī — āpaṇāsi ōḍhī bhaya māge — no kaivāḍa to make a jump; one's-own-pull — fear-from-behind. Māge sare māya pāulā pāulī — āpalyā ca ghālī dhāke anga — the mother retreats step-by-step; her own dhāka holds-the-body. Anga rākhōniyām māya khēda karī — antarīce Harī jāṇavale — sparing body, mother does khēda; the antarīcā-Hari came-to-know. Jāṇavale maga Deve dilī buḍī — Tukā mhaṇe kuḍī bhāvanā he — having known, Deva took the dive; Tukā says: this is kuḍī bhāvanā.
What it means
A 5-verse pivot-piece in the Kāḷiyā-mardana cluster. No-one could-jump-in; the-mother's-own-fear pulls-her-back; her bhāva is feeble (kuḍī). Tukārām makes the sharp diagnostic point: the Lord himself had-to-take the buḍī (dive) because even-the-mother's bhāva was kuḍī. This is consistent-with-but-deeper-than the Lord-saves-on-his-own-initiative theme — here even-bhakti-itself is feeble.
For someone today
Tukārām claims: even-strong-feeling-paired-with-self-protection is kuḍī-bhāva; the-Lord-acts even-when-no-one-can-find-the-courage to-act.
Where this applies
- Tukārām's kuḍī-bhāvanā critique
- Canonical Lord-acts-when-no-one-can
- Companion to 2817 (bhāva-chi-kāraṇa) — bhāva must-be-pure, not-feeble
- Kāḷiyā-mardana cluster