The Name, contempt and its wages
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
गातां आइकतां कांटाळा जो करी । वास त्या अघोरीं कुंभपाकीं ॥1॥
रागें यमधर्म जाचविती तया । तु दिलें कासया मुख कान ॥ध्रु.॥
विषयांच्या सुखें अखंड जगासी । न वजे एकादशी जागरणा ॥2॥
वेचूनियां द्रव्य सेवी मद्यपान । नाहीं दिलें अन्न अतीतासी ॥3॥
तीर्थाटण नाहीं केले उपकार । पािळलें शरीर पुष्ट लोभें ॥4॥
तुका ह्मणे मग केला साहे दंड । नाइकती लंड सांगितलें ॥5॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
One who feels disgust at singing or hearing the Lord's name will find his dwelling in the darkest hell. The lord of death will torment such a person with rage; why were you given a mouth and ears? For the sake of sensory pleasures you stay awake all night, yet you will not keep a single vigil on the holy eleventh day. You spend your wealth on drink but have never given a morsel of food to a guest. You have made no pilgrimage, done no charitable deed, and have only fattened your body with greed. Says Tuka, such a person must then endure the punishment; the shameless do not heed what they are told.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
The one who feels disgust at singing or hearing the Name lives in the worst hell. The lord of death torments him in rage. Why were you given a mouth and ears? For the pleasures of the senses you stay awake all night, yet you will not keep one vigil on the holy eleventh day. You spend your money on drink and never gave a guest a morsel of food. You made no pilgrimage, did no kindness, and only fattened your body out of greed. Tuka says: then he has to bear the punishment. The shameless do not listen to what they are told.
What it means
Tukaram lines up a life turned entirely inward on appetite and names where it leads. Mouth and ears were given for the Name, yet this person recoils from it while gladly staying up all night for pleasure and refusing a single sacred vigil. Money goes to drink, never to a hungry guest; the body is fattened by greed while charity and pilgrimage are skipped. The harshness is aimed at the pattern of contempt and self-indulgence, the kind that shrugs off every warning, so that the listener checks where his own mouth, ears, and money are spent.
The Power of the Name
The supremacy of nama-smarana: God's name as the highest practice.
More in this theme →