Metaphor, Pandhari the marketplace
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
आले भरा केणें । येरझार चुके जेणें ॥1॥
उभें केलें विटेवरी । पेंठ इनाम पंढरी ॥ध्रु.॥
वाहाती मारग । अवघें मोहोरलें जग ॥2॥
तुका ह्मणे माप । खरें आणा माझे बाप ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
He came in fullness, He by whom the weary rounds of coming and going are cut off. He was made to stand upon the brick. Pandhari, freely granted, is His market-town. Paths stream toward it; the whole world has gathered. Says Tuka, bring honest measure, O my father.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
Come, load up your goods here, where the weary rounds of coming and going are cut off. He was made to stand upon the brick; Pandhari, given free, is his market-town. The roads all run toward it; the whole world has gathered here. Tuka says: bring honest measure, O my father.
What it means
Tukaram turns Pandharpur into a marketplace and the devotee into a trader come to do business. The goods worth carrying are the only ones that end the endless cycle of birth and death, of coming and going; Vitthal stands on his brick as the merchant of that one commodity, and the market itself is given freely, no entry fee. Every road in the world leads to this town, and the whole world is already crowding in. The closing line is the catch and the moral: come to this trade, but come with honest measure, bring true devotion, not a rigged scale, for this is one market that cannot be cheated.
Worldly Metaphors
Poems using images from games, occupations, and daily life as spiritual teaching.
More in this theme →