Longing, wake before regret
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
भजन करूं । संसारसंभ्रमें आशा लागे पाठी । तेणें जीवा साटी होईल तुझ्या ॥1॥
सेकीं नाडसील नाडसील । विषयसंगें अवघा नाडसील । मागुता पडसील भवडोहीं ॥ध्रु.॥
शरीर सकळ मायेचा बांधा । यासी नाहीं कधीं अराणूक । करिती तडातोडी
आंत बाहएात्कारीं । ऐसे जाती चारी दिवस वेगीं ॥2॥
मोलाची घडी जाते वांयांविण । न मिळे मोल धन देतां कोडी ।
जागा होई करीं हिताचा उपाय । तुका ह्मणे हाय करिसी मग ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
You say: become carefree, let all anxiety dissolve, then go into solitude and worship. But worldly ambitions and desires chase after me, endangering my very bond with You. In the end You will betray Yourself: attachment to sense pleasures will drown You once more in the ocean of birth and death. The body is entirely a construction of illusion and never finds rest; its inner and outer conflicts tear it apart, and so the four brief days pass swiftly. Each precious moment slips away for nothing; no amount of wealth can buy it back. Wake up and take the path of your own good. Says Tuka, otherwise you will only cry out in regret later.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
You say: become carefree, let every worry dissolve, then go into solitude and worship. But worldly schemes and desires chase after me, and that puts my very bond with you at risk. In the end you betray yourself: clinging to sense pleasures will drown you again in the ocean of birth and death. The body is wholly built of illusion and never finds rest; torn by quarrels within and without, the four short days pass in a rush. Each precious moment slips away for nothing, and no heap of wealth can buy one back. Wake up; take the path of your own good. Tuka says: otherwise you will only cry out in regret later.
What it means
Tukaram answers an easy excuse and then turns it into a warning to the soul. The excuse is the promise we keep making, that once we are free of worry we will withdraw and worship, but worldly ambitions keep chasing and that delay endangers the bond with God itself. He says plainly where the delay leads: attachment to pleasures drowns you again in birth and death. He strips the body of glamor, calling it a construction of illusion that never rests and is torn by conflict inside and out, while the brief span of life, the four days, rushes past. The point lands as urgency, not scolding: each moment is priceless and unbuyable, so wake now and choose your own good before the only thing left to do is regret.
Longing and Separation
Cries from the dark night of the soul: remonstrances, complaints, and desperate yearning.
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