Exhortation, knowing yet blind
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
काय एकां जालें तें कां नाहीं ठावें । काय हें सांगावें काय ह्मुण ॥1॥
देखतील डोळां ऐकती कानीं । बोलिलें पुराणीं तें ही ठावें ॥ध्रु.॥
काय हें शरीर साच कीं जाणार । सकळ विचार जाणती हा ॥2॥
कां हें कळों नये आपुलें आपणा । बाळत्व तारुण्य वृद्धदशा ॥3॥
कां हें आवडलें िप्रयापुत्रधन । काय कामा कोण कोणा आलें ॥4॥
कां हें जन्म वांयां घातलें उत्तम । कां हे रामराम न ह्मणती ॥5॥
काय भुली यांसी पडली जाणतां । देखती मरतां आणिकांसी ॥6॥
काय करिती हे बांधलिया काळें । तुका ह्मणे बळें वज्रपाशीं ॥7॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
What happened to some is well known. Why must it be told again? They see it with their eyes, they hear it with their ears, and what the Puranas say is also known to them. They know full well that this body is not permanent and that all things are subject to change. Why then does their own condition not become clear to them, as childhood turns to youth and youth to old age? Why are they so enamored of beloved, children, and wealth? Who among them has ever been of lasting use to anyone? Why is this precious human birth being wasted? Why do they not chant Rama, Rama? What spell of forgetfulness has overtaken them, even as they watch others dying before their eyes? Says Tuka, what will they do when they are bound by Death in the adamantine noose?
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
What happened to some, is it not known? Why must it be told again? They see it with their eyes, they hear it with their ears, and what the Puranas say is known to them too. They know well that this body is not permanent and that everything changes. Why then does their own state not become clear to them, as childhood turns to youth and youth to old age? Why are they so fond of beloved, children, and wealth? Who among them has ever been of lasting use to anyone? Why is this precious human birth being wasted? Why do they not say Rama, Rama? What forgetfulness has fallen on them, even as they watch others die before their eyes? Tuka says: what will they do when Death binds them in the hard noose?
What it means
Tukaram sharpens the same charge: the danger is no secret. People have seen others die, heard it, read it in the Puranas, and they know in plain words that the body passes and everything changes. So this is not ignorance but a refusal to apply known truth to oneself; they watch their own bodies move from childhood to age and still cannot read the lesson written in it. Meanwhile they pour their love into spouse, children, and wealth, none of which has ever lastingly saved anyone, and let the rare human birth, the one chance to say Rama, slip away. The closing image is the cost: when Death's hard noose finally tightens, all the things they trusted will do nothing, and the question is whether I will wake before then or only after.
Appeals and Exhortations
Direct calls to action: wake up, seek God, do not waste this human birth.
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