Exhortation, death at your waist
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
एक पाहातसां एकांचीं दहनें । सावध त्या गुणें कां रे नव्हा ॥1॥
मारा हाक देवा भय अटाहासें । जंव काळाऐसें जालें नाहीं ॥ध्रु.॥
मरणांची तंव गांठोडी पदरीं । जिणें तो चि वरि माप भरी ॥2॥
तुका ह्मणे धींग वाहाती मारग । अंगा आलें मग हालों नेदी ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
You watch the cremations of one person after another; why do you not wake up? Cry out to God with urgency and fear, before Kala overtakes you as well. The bundle of death already hangs at your waist; whoever lives simply fills the measure until it is full. Says Tuka, the heedless walk a wide road, but when Death seizes the body, it permits no movement at all.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
You watch them burn one body after another. Why does that not wake you? Cry out to God in fear, with all your force, before Kala comes for you too. The bundle of death already hangs at your waist; to go on living is only to fill the measure higher. Tuka says: the heedless stride down a broad road, but once Death lays hold of the body, it lets you move no more.
What it means
Tukaram uses the cremation ground to break our sleep. We see corpse after corpse burned and somehow stay convinced it does not concern us, so he asks why the sight does not wake us and tells us to call on God now, in urgency, before death arrives. He carries death close: it is a bundle already tied at our own waist, and every day of living only fills the measuring vessel nearer the brim. The wide, easy road of the heedless ends the same way for everyone; when Death finally grips the body it allows no further movement, so the time to cry out is while the body still answers.
Appeals and Exhortations
Direct calls to action: wake up, seek God, do not waste this human birth.
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