The wheel of becoming, not yet steady
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
पाप पुण्य दोन्ही वाहाती मारग । स्वर्गनर्कभोग यांचीं पेणीं ॥1॥
एका आड एक न लगे पुसावें । जेविल्या देखावें मागें भूक ॥ध्रु.॥
राहाटीं पडिलें भरोनियां रितीं । होतील मागुतीं येतीं जातीं ॥2॥
तुका ह्मणे आह्मी खेळतियांमधीं । नाहीं केली बुद्धी िस्थर पाहों ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
Sin and virtue both lead down their respective roads; heaven and hell are the lodgings along the way. One follows the other without pause; after eating, hunger appears once again. Caught in the water-wheel of existence, vessels fill and empty, coming and going endlessly. Says Tuka, among those at play in this wheel, we have not yet made our minds steady enough to truly observe.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
Sin and virtue both run down their own roads; heaven and hell are the lodgings along the way. One follows the other without a gap; after the meal, hunger shows up again. Caught in the water-wheel of existence, the vessels fill and empty, coming and going without end. Tuka says: among those at play on this wheel, we have not yet made our minds steady enough to truly see.
What it means
Tukaram pictures sin and virtue as two roads that both keep you traveling, with heaven and hell only as inns along the route, never the destination. Reward and lack follow each other with no rest, the way hunger returns after every meal; the whole thing turns like a water-wheel whose buckets fill and empty endlessly. Even merit, then, keeps you spinning rather than setting you free. The honest closing line includes himself among the players still on the wheel: he has not yet steadied his mind enough to stand back and really see it. The poem names the trap and admits he is not yet clear of it.
Worldly Life
The perplexities of action, karma, and navigating life in the world.
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