Exhortation, squandering the wish-gem
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
तारुण्यदशे अधम मातला । दवडी हात पाय कान ॥1॥
काय जालें यांस वांयां कां ठकले । हातीं सांपडलें टाकीतसे ।
घेउनि स्फटिकमणी टाकी चिंतामणी । नागवले आपुले इच्छे ॥ध्रु.॥
सिद्धीं सेविलें सेविती अधम । पात्रासारिखे फळ । सिंपिला मोतीं जन्मलें स्वाती ।
वरुषलें सर्वत्र जळ । कापुस पट नये चि कारणा । तयास पातला काळ ।
तें चि भुजंगें धरिलें कंठीं । मा विष जालें त्याची गरळ ॥2॥
भक्षूनि मिष्टान्न घृतसाकर । सहित सोलुनि केळें । घालुनियां घसां अंगोिळया।
हाते वांत करू बळें । कुंथावयाची आवडी बोंबा । उन्हवणी रडवी बाळें ।
तुका ह्मणे जे जैसें करिती । ते पवती तैसीं च फळें ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
Intoxicated by youth, the wretched one squanders hands, feet, and ears. What has happened to these fools who throw away what falls into their hands? They cast aside the wish-fulfilling gem and keep a crystal bead, deceived by their own desires. What the wise have mastered, the base misuse; the fruit matches the vessel. The pearl is born from the rain-cloud's drop in the oyster, though the same water falls everywhere. Cotton that cannot serve its purpose meets its doom, and the serpent that wears it around its neck turns it to venom. Says Tuka, whatever one does, one reaps exactly that kind of fruit.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
Drunk on youth, the wretched one wastes his hands, feet, and ears. What has come over these fools, throwing away what falls into their hands? They keep a crystal bead and cast aside the wish-fulfilling gem, ruined by their own desire. What the wise have mastered, the base misuse; the fruit matches the vessel. The pearl is born when the swati raindrop falls into the oyster, though the same water falls everywhere. Cotton that cannot serve its purpose meets its end; the same thing worn at a serpent's throat turns to venom. Tuka says: whatever a person does, that is exactly the fruit he reaps.
What it means
Tukaram rebukes the man who, intoxicated by youth and vigor, lets his living body run to waste, his hands, feet, and ears spent on nothing. The cruelest folly is in the trade: handed a wish-fulfilling gem, the human birth itself, he tosses it away to clutch a glass bead. The same gift meets very different ends depending on the one who receives it, like one rain that becomes a pearl inside the oyster but ordinary water everywhere else, or a single thing that nourishes in one place and turns to poison at a serpent's throat. The teaching lands as a law of consequence: the vessel decides the fruit, and each person reaps exactly the kind of harvest his own conduct sows.
Appeals and Exhortations
Direct calls to action: wake up, seek God, do not waste this human birth.
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