Metaphor, the house stripped bare
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
देती घेती परज गेली । घर खालीं करूनियां ॥१॥
धांवणियाचे न पडे हातीं । खादली राती काळोखी ॥ध्रु.॥
वघियांचे अवघें नेलें । काहीं ठेविलें नाहीं मागें ॥२॥
सोंग संपादुनि दाविला भाव । गेला आधीं माव वरि होती ॥३॥
घराकडे पाहूं नयेसें जालें । अमानत केलें दिवाणांत ॥४॥
आतां तुका कोणा न लगे चि हातीं । जाली ते निश्चिती बोलों नये ॥५॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
While giving and taking went on, what was held in trust slipped away. The house was stripped bare. What the raid seized cannot be recovered. A dark night swallowed it whole. The thieves took everything. Not a thing was left behind. They played their part in disguise, showed devotion on the surface, but the illusion had already departed from within. One cannot even bear to look at the house now. It has all been deposited in the court. Says Tuka, now no one can lay hands on it. What has come to pass is certain, and of it nothing more should be spoken.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
While the buying and selling went on, the thing held in trust quietly slipped away, and the house was left stripped bare. What the raid carried off cannot be recovered; a dark night swallowed it whole. The thieves took everything and left nothing behind. They had played their parts in costume, showing devotion on the surface, but the substance had already gone from within. One cannot even bear to look at the house now; the whole matter has been deposited with the court. Tuka says: now it is in no one's hands to seize. What has happened is settled, and of it nothing more need be said.
What it means
A dark, riddling poem about dispossession. On the surface it is a house emptied by thieves in the night while its keeper was busy trading; what was held in trust is gone, and only bare walls remain. Read inwardly, it is the stripping-away of everything the self falsely held, including a devotion that was all surface, costume without substance. The turn comes at the end: the emptied matter has been handed over to the court, deposited where no thief and no claimant can reach it. Whatever exactly was lost, it is now beyond anyone's grasp, settled and final, and Tukaram lets it rest in silence.
Worldly Metaphors
Poems using images from games, occupations, and daily life as spiritual teaching.
More in this theme →