Warning, trade that loses the capital
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
मुदलामध्यें पडे तोटा । ऐसा खोटा उदीम ॥1॥
आणिकांची कां लाज नाहीं । आळसा जिहीं तजिलें ॥ध्रु.॥
एके सांते सरिखीं वित्तें । हानि हित वेगळालीं ॥2॥
तुका ह्मणे हित धरा । नव्हे पुरा गांवढाळ ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
When the principal itself is being lost, such a trade is surely worthless. Are you not ashamed before those who have given up laziness? At the same fair the goods are alike, yet gain and loss fall to different people. Says Tuka, choose what is truly beneficial, and do not remain a simpleton.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
When you lose the principal itself, that trade is a bad one. Are you not ashamed before those who have thrown off their laziness? At the same fair the goods are the same, yet loss falls to one and gain to another. Tuka says: hold to what truly helps you. Do not stay a country fool.
What it means
Tukaram uses the language of the marketplace. A trade that eats into your starting capital, your very life, is plainly a losing one, so the soul that spends its days and gains nothing should be ashamed beside those who have shaken off sloth and made something of the same chance. His sharp observation is that the fair offers everyone identical goods; the same human birth and the same Name are available to all, yet one walks away enriched and another ruined, by their own diligence or neglect. The closing call is practical: choose what genuinely profits the soul, and stop being a simpleton who cannot tell gain from loss.
Appeals and Exhortations
Direct calls to action: wake up, seek God, do not waste this human birth.
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