Self-examination, why the false world is not yet let go
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
तनजोबनकी कोन बराई । ब्याधपीडादि स काटहि खाई ॥1॥
कीर्त बधाऊं तों नाम न मेरा । काहे झुटा पछतऊं घेरा ॥2॥
कहे तुका नहिं समज्यात मात । तुह्मारे शरन हे जोडहि हात ॥3॥
देखत आखों झुटा कोरा । तो काहे छोरा घरंबार ॥ध्रु.॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
The world is seen with open eyes to be false and hollow. Then why have you not abandoned home and household? What pride is there in the body and its youth? Disease and affliction will gnaw it all away. I would build a name for myself, yet my name is nowhere. Why should I grieve over this false entanglement? Says Tuka, O Lord, I cannot bring this home to you. I join my hands and take shelter at Your feet.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
The world is seen with open eyes to be false and hollow. Then why have you not abandoned home and household? What pride is there in the body and its youth? Disease and affliction will gnaw it all away. I would build a name for myself, yet my name is nowhere. Why should I grieve over this false entanglement? Tuka says: O Lord, I cannot bring this home to myself. I join my hands and take shelter at your feet.
What it means
Tukaram turns the question on himself. You can see plainly that the world is hollow, so why are you still clinging to home and household? He punctures the two things people lean on, the body and its youth, by naming what waits for them: disease and decay will eat them up. He admits his own folly too, wanting a lasting name when no name endures, and asks why he keeps grieving over an entanglement he knows is false. The honesty ends in surrender: seeing all this, he still cannot make himself act on it, so he folds his hands and takes refuge at Rama's feet, where knowing alone could not carry him.
Appeals and Exhortations
Direct calls to action: wake up, seek God, do not waste this human birth.
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