Worldly life, the blindness of craving
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
कामातुरा भय लाज ना विचार । शरीर असार तृणतुल्य ॥1॥
नवल हे लीळा करात्याचें लाघव । प्रारब्धें भाव दाखविले ॥ध्रु.॥
लोभालोभ एका धनाचिये ठायीं । आणिकांची सोई चाड नाहीं ॥2॥
तुका ह्मणे भूक न विचारी प्रकार । योजे तें चि सार यथाकाळें ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
The one seized by lust knows no fear, no shame, no reasoning; the body becomes worthless as a blade of grass. Marvelous is this divine play, the cunning of the Creator; destiny reveals its workings through desire. In the grip of greed, one sees only wealth and cares nothing for anyone else. Says Tuka, hunger does not pause to deliberate; it seizes whatever serves the moment.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
The one seized by lust knows no fear, no shame, no reasoning. The body becomes worthless as a blade of grass. Strange is this play, the cunning of the Maker; destiny shows its workings through desire. In the grip of greed, a man sees only wealth and cares nothing for anyone else. Tuka says: hunger does not stop to weigh how. It seizes whatever serves the moment.
What it means
Tukaram describes how craving switches off a person's judgment. Lust drives out fear, shame, and reason, and a person will throw away the body itself as if it were a worthless wisp of grass. Greed narrows a man until he sees only money and no one else matters; hunger does not pause to ask what is right, it grabs whatever is at hand. He frames all this as the Maker's strange play, the way destiny works itself out through human desire. The mirror it holds up is one's own appetites: watch how craving, once seized, stops weighing the cost.
Worldly Life
The perplexities of action, karma, and navigating life in the world.
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