Metaphor, robbed of the last possession
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
आतां मी देवा पांघरों काई । भिकेचें तें ही उरे चि ना ॥1॥
सदैव दुबळें नेणें चोर । देखोनि सुनाट फोडितो घर ॥ध्रु.॥
नाहीं मजपाशीं फुटकी फोडी । पांचांनीं घोंगडी दिली होती ॥2॥
तुका ह्मणे जना वेगळें जालें । एक चि नेलें एकल्याचें ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
Now what shall I cover myself with, O God? I have nothing left, not even what I begged for. He is always poor, this wretch, and the thief knows it. Seeing the house deserted, he breaks in. I had nothing to my name, not even a cracked cowrie. The five had given me a blanket. And even that one possession of this solitary soul has been carried away. Says Tuka, I have been set apart from everyone.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
Now what shall I cover myself with, O God? Not even what I begged for is left. He is always poor, this wretch, and the thief knows it; seeing the house empty, he breaks in. I had nothing to my name, not even a cracked cowrie. The five had given me a blanket. Even that one thing of this lonely soul has been carried off. Tuka says: I have been set apart from everyone.
What it means
Tukaram stands utterly destitute before God, asking what is left to cover his nakedness. Even his beggar's portion is gone. He casts himself as the perpetual poor man whom the thief, knowing his house is bare, robs precisely because there is nothing to guard. He owned not even a cracked cowrie shell; the one blanket he had was a gift of the five, the elders or the five elements that compose the body. Now that single possession of his solitary soul has been taken too. The closing line carries the cost of total surrender: stripped of all, he finds himself cut off and set apart from everyone, alone with the God who took it all.
Worldly Metaphors
Poems using images from games, occupations, and daily life as spiritual teaching.
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