Exhortation, God is already near
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
देव पाहावया करीं वो सायास । न धरीं हे आस नाशिवंत ॥1॥
दिन शुद्ध सोम सकाळीं पातला । द्वादशी घडला पर्वकाळ ॥ध्रु.॥
द्विजां पाचारूनि शुद्ध करीं मन । देई वो हें दान यथाविध ॥2॥
नको चिंता करूं वस्त्रा या पोटाची । माउली आमुची पांडुरंग ॥3॥
तुका ह्मणे दुरी सांगतों पाल्हाळीं । परी तो जवळी आहे आह्मां ॥4॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
Make the effort to see God; do not hold on to perishable hopes. A pure and auspicious day has arrived; the twelfth lunar day provides a sacred occasion. Invite the brahmins, purify the mind, and give the proper offerings. Do not worry about clothes or food for the body; our Mother is Panduranga Himself. Says Tuka, I speak at length from afar, but He is close to us always.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
Make the effort to see God; do not hold on to perishable hopes. A pure and auspicious day has come, a Monday morning; the twelfth lunar day makes it a sacred time. Call the brahmins, make your mind pure, and give this gift as the rite requires. Do not fret about clothing or food for the body; our Mother is Panduranga himself. Tuka says: I speak at length as if from afar, but he is close beside us.
What it means
Tukaram tells the soul that the time to turn toward God is now, on this very auspicious day, not in some perishable hope held for later. He keeps the outward forms, inviting brahmins, purifying the mind, giving the proper offering, but he points past them to what matters. Do not waste worry on food and clothes for the body, because Panduranga himself is the Mother who provides. The last line undercuts the distance in his own preaching: he speaks at length as though God were far off, yet God is right beside us all along.
Appeals and Exhortations
Direct calls to action: wake up, seek God, do not waste this human birth.
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