Exhortation, do not waste your life
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
आतां तरी पुढें हाचि उपदेश । नका करूं नाश आयुष्याचा ॥१॥
सकळांच्या पायां माझें दंडवत । आपुलालें चित्त शुद्ध करा ॥ध्रु.॥
हित तें करावे देवाचें चिंतन । करूनियां मन एकविध ॥२॥
तुका म्हणे लाभ होय तो व्यापार । करा काय फार शिकवावें ॥३॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
Let this at least be my counsel going forward: do not waste your lifespan. I fall in full prostration at the feet of all; purify your chitta. The best thing you can do is contemplate God, making the mind undivided. Says Tuka, pursue the trade that is profitable. How much more should I teach?
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
Let this much, at least, be my counsel from here on: do not throw your life away. I bow in full prostration at everyone's feet, only purify your own heart. The best thing you can do is to keep your thoughts on God, with the mind made single. Tuka says: take up the trade that actually turns a profit. How much more do I need to teach you?
What it means
One of Tukaram's gentlest and most quoted exhortations, offered with humility rather than rebuke. He bows to all, claims no authority over anyone, and asks only one thing: do not waste the life you have. The whole of his advice fits in a line, purify the heart, keep the mind single on God, and he frames it, as he so often does, in the merchant's language of profit and loss: this is simply the trade that pays. The closing question is almost tender. The path is so plain that there is really nothing more to explain.
Appeals and Exhortations
Direct calls to action: wake up, seek God, do not waste this human birth.
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