Worldly life, no sweetness in the husks
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
संसारसंगें परमार्थ जोडे । ऐसें काय घडे जाणतेनो ॥1॥
हेंडग्याच्या आळां अवघीं चिपाडें । काय तेथें गोडें निवडावीं ॥ध्रु.॥
ढेकणाचे बाजे सुखाची कल्पना । मूर्खत्व वचना येऊं पाहे ॥2॥
तुका ह्मणे मद्य सांडवी लंगोटी । सांगितला सेटीं विचार त्या ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
Can one attain the highest good while remaining entangled in worldly life? O wise ones, tell me how. It is like sorting through the husks left by a crushing cart; what sweetness can be found among those dry remnants? To dream of comfort on a cot infested with bedbugs is foolishness trying to pass for wisdom. Says Tuka, liquor strips a man even of his loincloth; let this be the counsel given to the drunkard.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
Can you win the highest good while still tangled in worldly life? O you who think you know, tell me how that happens. It is like the dry husks left in a crushing mill; what sweetness will you pick out from there? To dream of comfort on a cot crawling with bedbugs is foolishness trying to pass for sense. Tuka says: drink strips a man even of his loincloth; give the drunkard that for counsel.
What it means
Tukaram is challenging the comfortable idea that one can chase the world and the highest good at once. He puts the question to the worldly-wise as a dare: show me how liberation is gathered while a man stays bound in his entanglements. Then he answers with hard images. Looking for the supreme good inside worldly life is like sifting the dried-out husks in a sugar mill for sweetness, or imagining rest on a bedbug-ridden cot; the search mistakes itself for wisdom. The drunkard who loses even his loincloth is his last figure: worldliness keeps promising satisfaction while it strips you, and the only honest counsel is to see what it is doing and let it go.
Worldly Life
The perplexities of action, karma, and navigating life in the world.
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