The plain word as bitter medicine
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
बोलविसी माझें मुख । परी या जना वाटे दुःख ॥1॥
जया जयाची आवडी । तया लागीं तें चरफडी ॥ध्रु.॥
कठीण देतां काढा । जल्पे रोगी मेळवी दाढा ॥2॥
खाऊं नये तें चि मागे । निवारितां रडों लागे ॥3॥
वैद्या भीड काय । अतित्याई जीवें जाय ॥4॥
नये भिडा सांगों आन । पथ्य औषधाकारण ॥5॥
धन माया पुत्र दारा । हे तों आवडी नरका थारा ॥6॥
तुका ह्मणे यांत । आवडे ते करा मात ॥7॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
You make my mouth speak, but the world finds pain in what it hears. Each person resents the medicine that touches their own attachment. The sick man clamps his jaw and cries when given a bitter remedy. The child demands only what is harmful to eat and weeps when it is withheld. Should a physician hesitate? If he does, the patient may die of the courtesy. One cannot, out of delicacy, prescribe something other than the proper diet and medicine. Wealth, illusion, sons, and wife are the beloved lodgings on the road to hell. Says Tuka, among all these, choose what you will and make it your resolve.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
You make my mouth speak, but the world finds pain in what it hears. Whatever a person is attached to, that is what stings when it is touched. Give a bitter remedy and the sick man clamps his jaw and complains. The child demands the very thing that will harm it, and cries when it is refused. Should a physician hold back out of politeness? If he does, the patient may die of the courtesy. One cannot, to spare feelings, prescribe anything but the right diet and medicine. Wealth, illusion, sons, and wife are the favorite lodgings on the road to hell. Tuka says: among all these, choose what you like and make it your resolve.
What it means
Tukaram answers those who resent his blunt teaching by setting it inside the work of a doctor. God moves his tongue, but the cure tastes bitter, because people flinch exactly where they are most attached, like a sick man rejecting his medicine or a child screaming for what will hurt it. A physician who softens the truth out of politeness lets the patient die of his own kindness, so Tuka refuses to prescribe anything but the real remedy. He names the sweet poisons plainly, the attachment to wealth, family, and the comfort of illusion, calling them pleasant lodgings on the way to ruin. The closing line is hard irony: he has told you the diagnosis; now choose your attachment and live by it if you dare.
Autobiography
Tukaram's own account of his life, struggles, awakening, and mission.
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