Exhortation, the anxious mind and the chataka bird
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
अधीरा माझ्या मना ऐक एकी मात । तूं कां रे दुिश्चत निरंतर ॥1॥
हे चि चिंता काय खावें ह्मणऊनि । भले तुजहूनि पिक्षराज ॥ध्रु.॥
पाहा ते चातक नेघे भूमिजळा । वरुषे उन्हाळा मेघ तया ॥2॥
सकळयातींमध्यें ठक हा सोनार । त्याघरीं व्यापार झारियाचा ॥3॥
तुका ह्मणे जळीं वनीं जीव एक । तयापाशीं लेख काय असे ॥4॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
O impatient mind, listen to this one thing. Why are you perpetually anxious? Your only worry is about what to eat. The chataka bird is wiser than you, for it refuses ground water and waits for the rain cloud even through the hottest summer. Among all castes, the goldsmith is the greatest trickster, yet in his own home, the business runs on a sieve. Says Tuka, creatures in water and forest have but a single life; what account book do they keep?.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
Restless mind of mine, listen to one thing. Why are you forever anxious? Your whole worry is only this: what will I eat. The bird is wiser than you. Look at the chataka: it will not touch water from the ground; it waits for the rain cloud right through the burning summer. Of all the trades, the goldsmith is the great cheat, yet in his own house the work runs through a sieve. Tuka says: a creature in the water, a creature in the forest, has a single life and no other; what account-book does it keep?
What it means
Tukaram scolds the anxious mind for spending all its strength on the one fear of where the next meal comes from. He holds up the chataka bird, which by legend drinks only rain from the cloud and refuses water on the ground, as the image of trust: it waits through the hottest season rather than grasp at the lower supply. The goldsmith, the cleverest cheat, still ends up with his gains slipping away through a sieve, so cunning buys no security. The wild creatures keep no ledger and yet are fed. The point is not to stop working but to stop the gnawing anxiety, since the One who feeds bird and beast is not going to forget you.
Appeals and Exhortations
Direct calls to action: wake up, seek God, do not waste this human birth.
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