Exhortation, the body slipping away
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
आलें धरायच पेट । पुढें मागुतें न भेटे ॥1॥
होसी फजीती वरपडा । लक्ष चौयासीचे वेढां ॥ध्रु.॥
नाहीं कोणांचा सांगात । दुःख भोगितां आघात ॥2॥
एका पाउलाची वाट । कोणां सांगावा बोभाट ॥3॥
जुंतिजेसी घाणां । नाहीं मारित्या करुणा ॥4॥
तुका ह्मणे हित पाहें । जोंवरि हें हातीं आहे ॥5॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
You have been given a body to hold; ahead, you will not get it again. You will be exposed and humiliated, trapped in the cycle of eighty-four hundred thousand births. No one will accompany you there; you will suffer blows of misery alone. The path is just one step away; whom will you cry to then? You will be yoked to the mill of karma with no mercy from the one who drives it. Says Tuka, look to your own welfare while it is still in your hands.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
You have been given a body to hold. You will not get it back again later. You will be shamed and disgraced, trapped in the round of eighty-four hundred thousand births. No one there will keep you company. You will suffer the blows of sorrow alone. The path ahead is only one step away. To whom will you cry out then? You will be yoked to the oil-press of karma. The one driving it shows no mercy. Tuka says: look to your own good, while it is still in your hands.
What it means
Tukaram presses on the listener the rare, perishable thing he is holding: a human body, given once and not handed back if it slips away. He spells out the alternative without softening it, the long round of countless births, suffered without a single companion, with the next plunge always just one step off. The image of being yoked to the merciless oil-press names karma as a grinding mechanism that does not pity. The point is urgency, not despair: act for your own welfare now, while the chance is literally in your hands.
Appeals and Exhortations
Direct calls to action: wake up, seek God, do not waste this human birth.
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