Autobiography, the dreaded disgrace arrives
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
सासुरियां वीट आला भरतारा । इकडे माहेरा स्वभावें चि ॥१॥
सांडवर कोणी न धरिती हातीं । प्रारब्धाची गति भोगूं आतां ॥२॥
न व्हावी ते जाली आमुची भंडाई । तुका म्हणे काई लाजों आतां ॥३॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
My husband's house grew disgusted with me, and my mother's home naturally the same. No mediator will take this matter in hand. Let me now endure the course of prarabdha. The disgrace I dreaded has come upon me. Tuka says: what is there to be ashamed of now?
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
My husband's house is sick of me, and my mother's home, just as naturally, the same. No go-between will take up my case. So let me bear out the course of my destiny. The disgrace I had dreaded has come upon me. Tuka says: and now, what is there left to be ashamed of?
What it means
This is the lowest, most human point of the sequence: rejection by both homes, with no one willing to mediate. Tukaram, in the woman's voice, stops resisting and accepts the working out of prarabdha, the destiny already set in motion by past action. The turn comes in the last line. The very thing she feared most, public disgrace, has now actually arrived, and with it a strange relief: once the worst has happened, shame loses its grip. There is nothing left to protect.
Autobiography
Tukaram's own account of his life, struggles, awakening, and mission.
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