Worldly life, the tyranny of the belly
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
वितीयेवढेंसें पोट । केवढा बोभाट तयाचा ॥1॥
जळो याची विटंबना । भूक जना नाचवी ॥ध्रु.॥
अभिमान सिरीं भार । जाले खर तृष्णेचे ॥2॥
तुका ह्मणे नरका जावें । हा चि जीवें व्यापार ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
The belly is only the span of a hand, yet what a great commotion it creates. Let this humiliation burn; hunger makes the whole world dance. Pride sits heavy on the head; people have become donkeys carrying the load of craving. Says Tuka, one must go to hell; this is the only trade the jiva knows.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
The belly is no bigger than a hand-span, yet look at the uproar it makes. Let this humiliation burn. Hunger sets the whole world dancing. Pride is a weight on the head; people have turned into donkeys hauling the load of craving. Tuka says: this trade, the only one the soul keeps practicing, leads straight to hell.
What it means
Tukaram is exposing how a small thing, the belly, drives a whole life. He marvels that something only a hand-span wide can throw a person into so much noise and shame, and says hunger alone makes the entire world dance to its tune. He turns the picture on pride and greed: people carry craving the way a donkey carries a load, bent under it. The harsh verdict is that a life spent only in this trade of feeding and grasping ends in hell. The point of self-examination is to see how much of our striving is just the belly and craving giving the orders.
Worldly Life
The perplexities of action, karma, and navigating life in the world.
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