Exhortation, white hair and the prayer for the highest good
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
केते मालुम नहिं पडे । नन्हे बडे गये सो ॥1॥
बाप भाई लेखा नहिं । पाछें तूं हि चलनार ॥2॥
काले बाल सिपत भये । खबर पकडो तुका कहे ॥3॥
क्या मेरे राम कवन सुख सारा । कहकर दे पुछूं दास तुह्मारा ॥ध्रु.॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
How many have gone of whom nothing is now known, both the small and the great? There is no count of fathers and brothers who went before. You too shall follow after them. Black hair has turned white. Seize this awareness, says Tuka. O my Rama, what is the highest happiness? Tell me. I ask as Your servant.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
How many have gone of whom nothing is now known, both the small and the great? There is no count of fathers and brothers who went before. You too shall follow after them. Black hair has turned white. Tuka says: seize this awareness. O my Rama, what is the highest happiness? Tell me. I ask as your servant.
What it means
Tukaram counts the dead to wake the living. Countless people, low and high, have gone and left no trace; the line of fathers and brothers before you cannot even be numbered, and you are next in that line. He points to the plainest sign on your own body, hair gone white, and says: take hold of what it is telling you. The poem turns from warning to prayer in its refrain. Having faced death squarely, he asks Rama directly what the highest happiness is, and asks it humbly, as a servant who wants the true answer.
Appeals and Exhortations
Direct calls to action: wake up, seek God, do not waste this human birth.
More in this theme →