Metaphor, the thief who cannot be caught
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
घोंगडियास घातली मिठी । न सोडी साटी केली जीवें ॥1॥
हा गे चोर धरा धांवा कोणी । घरांत राहाटे चहूं कोणी ॥ध्रु.॥
नोळखवे म्यां धरिला हातीं । देहएादिप माय लाविली वाती ॥2॥
न पावे धांवणें मारितो हाका । जनाचारीं तुका नागवला ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
I have clutched the blanket tight and will not release it; I have staked my life on this. Here is the thief, catch Him, someone run! He wanders through the four corners of the house. I hold Him in my very hands, yet He cannot be recognized. My mother lit the lamp of this body. My cries bring no rescue; I call out and call out. Says Tuka, in this worldly game, I have been stripped bare.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
I have clutched the blanket tight and will not let go; I have staked my very life on it. Here is the thief, catch Him, somebody run! He moves through all four corners of the house. I hold Him in my own hands, yet He cannot be recognized. My mother lit the lamp of this body. No rescue comes for all my crying; I call out and call out. Tuka says: in this worldly game, Tuka has been stripped bare.
What it means
Tukaram cries thief, and the thief is God. He grips the blanket, all he has, staking his life on keeping it, while raising the alarm that a robber roams every corner of the house. The deepest twist is that he is holding the thief in his own hands and still cannot recognize Him: God is nearer than anything, yet unseen. The lamp his mother lit is this body, the dim light by which he gropes after a presence he cannot make out. His shouts bring no help, because no outside rescuer can save him here. He ends owning the loss: in the world's game he has been robbed of everything, and that very stripping is God's doing.
Worldly Metaphors
Poems using images from games, occupations, and daily life as spiritual teaching.
More in this theme →