Context of “Vinchu Chavla”
The reason I thought of writing my interpretation of this famous composition or Bharud as we Marathi people call it, is that my cousin who apparently is also raised in a Marathi family, did not know that “vinchu chavla” is in fact a spiritual abhang or poetry. It is a Bharud composed by Marathi Saint Eknath Maharaj. She thought it is part of the lyrics of the song which uses the same phrase “vinchu chavla” in a very sensuous and derogatory manner. This remix is extremely humiliating, immoral, and disgusting usage of the original composition. I told her the real meaning of the words. And then a thought came to my mind that, there will be many more or maybe almost everyone if I may say will not have even minute idea about this wonderful spiritual poetry. So, I took up this challenge to provide the meaning of this composition with original text, literal meaning, and my interpretation in the light of Sanatan dharma.
Original Text “Vinchu Chavla”
विंचू चावला वृश्चिक चावला ।
कामक्रोध विंचू चावला ।
तम घाम अंगासी आला ॥ धृ ॥
पंचप्राण व्याकुळ झाला ।
त्याने माझा प्राण चालिला ।
सर्वांगाचा दाह झाला ॥ १ ॥
मनुष्य इंगळी अति दारुण ।
मज नांगा मारिला तिने ।
सर्वांगी वेदना जाण ।
त्या इंगळीची ॥ २ ॥
ह्या विंचवाला उतारा ।
तमो गुण मागे सारा ।
सत्वगुण लावा अंगारा ।
विंचू इंगळी उतरे झरझरा ॥ ३ ॥
सत्व उतारा येऊन ।
अवघा सारिला तमोगुण ।
किंचित् राहिली फुणफुण ।
शांत केली जनार्दने ॥ ४ ॥
Literal Translation
Vinchu or Scorpion has bitten me, Scorpion has bitten me
Scorpion of Lust and Anger has bitten me
Body is drenched with illusion/darkness/ignorance sweat ||1||
Five life forces have become restless/anxious
It is taking away my life
My entire body is burning (burning sensation) ||2||
Human kind of a bigger scorpion (Ingali vinchu) is extremely bad/painful
She has bitten me
Entire body is aching
Because of that scorpion ||3||
Antidote for this scorpion
Push behind the ignorance/darkness/illusion
Put on the righteousness/truthfulness like a holy ash
Scorpion poison will go away extremely fast ||4||
Holy ash of righteousness/truthfulness came
And removed all the ignorance/darkness/illusion
Some fever is still left
That is calmed by Lord Vishnu ||5||
My Interpretation
When a vinchu or scorpion bites a human being, he becomes desperate, loud, uncontrollable, and extremely eccentric due to pain and sickness caused by the poison. Sant Eknath Maharaj has used this phenomenon to explain, ‘what happens when lust and anger strikes the mind and thoughts of a person?’ When Lust and anger engulf the mind and thoughts of a human being loses control over the sense of dharma and adharma, good and evil. He becomes eccentric, angry, and evil. Such a person gets derailed from the path of the dharma, gets deranged and starts moving towards the world of darkness, ignorance, intolerance, and illusions. Sant Eknath compares this manifestation with the sweating of the scorpion bitten human, caused by the distress.
Taking up the role of the first person, Sant Eknath Maharaj explains the condition of the person affected by lust, anger where he says the Pancha-prana i.e. five life forces (Prana, Apana, Samana, Udana, Vyan) feel constricted, forceless, restless, and trapped inside the body causing dysfunction in normal living. (It is noteworthy that in Indian spiritual literature and especially in Marathi spiritual literature it is quite common to use similes comparing a condition, emotion or a thought with a living being.) This restlessness is giving the sensation of lifelessness, in other words moving towards death. In the context of this composition, I interpret lifelessness as the departure from dharma. Because life without dharma is like a body without soul. Then he explains the condition of the burning sensation in his entire body. This burning sensation or taap in Marathi is nothing but the manifestation of the bad thoughts, greed, ego and ignorance as direct result of the lust and anger. Hence in the first two stanzas, Sant Eknath Maharaj provides the context of the situation that leads ultimately to adharma, a land where truth is absent.
In the third stanza, Sant Eknath Maharaj talks about human nature and the natural tendency of the human being to get attracted towards darkness, ignorance, and illusion. In a way he calls humans an Ingali which is a bigger and more poisonous scorpion. According to me it’s due to the fact that no other living being is as prone to get affected by the Shadripu the six enemies (Lust, Greed, Ego, Anger, Infatuation, Delusion) than human being. So, in literal sense, every human is the living container of these illnesses or enemies. In this stanza Sant Eknath Maharaj, says that the human being is a worse scorpion, and it has stung me. The pain caused by this sting or bite is of the nature of darkness, illusions, anger, greed etc. It is causing aches in every part of the body. I interpret parts of the body as the facets of existence. None of the thoughts are clean, pure, pious. None of the actions follow dharma.
Now the question is “what is the solution?”
Here’s where the real message of the composition begins in the fourth stanza. Where Sant Maharaj says, “the cure or antidote for this scorpion’s bite/poison is to push back, throw away and denounce every thought that leads to darkness, ignorance and illusion.” But this doesn’t explain the solution fully. In the third sentence Sant Eknath Maharaj provides the explanation of ‘what to do’ i.e. put truthfulness, purity on your forehead and body as holy ash. In other words, search for the truth and only treat the truth as the ultimate solution. Until you don’t find out the truth don’t come to any conclusion. Because only truth can defeat the untruth/illusion, light can defeat darkness and dharma can defeat adharma. Search for the truth, search your karma, try to follow your dharma. (Here Indian philosophy strongly recommends finding a guru who can guide you on this path. That’s why most of the Indian scriptures talk about conversations and discussions between the student and the guru for example Upanishad, conversation between Vidura and Yudhishthira, conversation between Ravana and Laxman etc.) Now, once you start following the path of truth, dharma, the poison goes away from your mind, thoughts, and actions very quickly.
Finally, in the last stanza Sant Eknath Maharaj concludes the message by saying that, the medicine or antidote containing truthfulness, light, dharma came to the rescue (before death). This medicine defeated and pushed back all the darkness, ignorance and adharma. But, even after this cure, the illness caused by darkness, illusion and lust is not cured at once. The human being will still face remnants of the illness. Sant Eknath Maharaj calls it phunphun or mild fever which is a symptom of allergic reaction. Now this remnant illness will go away just by devotion towards Lord Vishnu. Lord Vishnu will calm down this distress and entirely cure you with his blessings. My interpretation is that the action will definitely help you achieve the ultimate goal, but you will also need god’s blessings to run that extra mile towards the end!
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Thank you so much, its very simple . Helped me explain the bharud to my son
You are welcome 🙂