Exhortation, death undoes ownership
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
राजे लोक सब कहे तूं आपना । जब काल नहीं पाया ठाना ॥1॥
माया मिथ्या मनका सब धंदा । तजो अभिमान भजो गोविंदा ॥2॥
राना रंग डोंगरकी राई । कहे तुका करे इलाहि ॥3॥
काहे रोवे आगले मरना । गंव्हार तूं भुला आपना ॥ध्रु.॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
Kings and all people call everything their own. When death comes, nothing remains to stand on. All the mind's busyness, all worldly illusion, is false. Abandon pride and worship Govinda. The Rana's splendor, the queen of the mountains. Says Tuka, all of it is God's doing alone. Why do you weep over what must always pass? O foolish one, you have forgotten your own self.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
Kings and all people call everything their own. When death comes, nothing remains to stand on. All the mind's busyness, all worldly illusion, is false. Abandon pride and worship Govinda. Tuka says: all of it is God's doing alone. Why do you weep over what must always pass? O foolish one, you have forgotten your own self.
What it means
Tukaram sets the claim of ownership against the fact of death. Kings and ordinary people alike call things their own, but when death arrives there is no ground left to stand on. He names the whole inner bustle of the mind as false, and gives the cure in one line: drop pride and worship Govinda. The splendor people grasp at is not theirs in the first place; it is God's doing alone. So grief over what was always going to pass is misplaced, and the real loss is deeper: in chasing all this you have forgotten who you are.
Appeals and Exhortations
Direct calls to action: wake up, seek God, do not waste this human birth.
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