Metaphor, the monkey's fist
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
माकडें मुठीं धरिलें फुटाणे । गुंतले ते नेणे हात तेथें ॥१॥
काय तो तयाचा लेखावा अन्याय । हित नेणे काय आपुलें तें ॥ध्रु.॥
शुकें नळिकेशीं गोवियेले पाय । विसरोनि जाय पक्ष दोन्ही ॥२॥
तुका म्हणे एक ऐसे पशुजीव । न चले उपाव कांहीं तेथें ॥३॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
A monkey grabs roasted grain in its fist. Its hand is stuck there, and it does not know it. What fault can be laid upon it? It does not know its own good. A parrot's feet are caught in a hollow stick. It forgets both its wings. Says Tuka, some are animal-souled like this. No remedy avails them.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
A monkey closes its fist around the roasted grain inside the trap, and then cannot pull its hand free, and does not even realize that it is its own grip that holds it. What blame can you lay on it? It simply does not know its own good. A parrot's feet catch on the little rolling perch, and in its panic it forgets it has two wings to fly with. Tuka says: some creatures are animal-souled like this, and for them no remedy works at all.
What it means
Two famous images of self-made captivity. The monkey is trapped only by its own refusal to open its fist; let go of the grain and it is free, but it will not, and does not even see that the prison is its own grip. The parrot, feet caught on a spinning perch, forgets that its wings could lift it away at any moment. Both are pictures of the soul held not by the world but by its own clinging and its own forgetting. Tukaram's sober close admits a limit: some are so identified with the trap that no help reaches them. The only key was always to open the hand, or to remember the wings.
Worldly Metaphors
Poems using images from games, occupations, and daily life as spiritual teaching.
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