Exhortation, a warning to the half-hearted
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
मजसवें आतां येऊं नका कोणी । सासुरवासिनी बाइयानो ॥१॥
न साहवे तुम्हां या जनाची कूट । बोलती वाईट ओखटें तें ॥२॥
तुका म्हणे जालों उदास मोकळ्या । विचरों गोवळ्यासवें आम्ही ॥३॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
Do not come with me now, any of you, O women bound to your in-laws' houses. You cannot endure the cunning cruelty of these people; they speak bitter, painful words. Tuka says: I have become detached and liberated. I wander with the Cowherd.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
Do not come with me now, none of you, you women still tied to your in-laws' houses. You could not bear the sly cruelty of these people, the bitter and ugly things they say. Tuka says: I have become free and unbound. I wander now with the Cowherd.
What it means
Here the voice turns to warn, not to invite. Tukaram, still in the woman's persona, tells the other women not to follow his path lightly. The road he has taken means enduring the world's mockery and spite, and only someone already loosed from worldly ties can bear it. This is the honest underside of his ecstasy: the love that frees you also exposes you. He does not pretend the cost is small. He says only that he is now free enough to pay it, and walks off with the Cowherd.
Appeals and Exhortations
Direct calls to action: wake up, seek God, do not waste this human birth.
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