Worldly life, the faithless seed
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
अविश्वासीयाचें शरीर सुतकी । विटाळ पातकी भेद वाही ॥1॥
काय त्याचे वेल जाईल मांडवा । होता तैसा ठेवा आला पुढें ॥ध्रु.॥
मातेचा संकल्प व्हावा राजबिंडा । कपाळीचें धोंडा उभा ठाके । तुका ह्मणे जैसा कुचराचा दाणा । परिपाकीं अन्ना न मिळे जैसा ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
The body of one without faith is impure from birth; he carries the taint of difference and defilement. How can his vine ever reach the canopy? Whatever he had stored up has come before him unchanged. The mother's wish is that the child be handsome, but the stone written on the forehead stands firm. Says Tuka, such a one is like an unripe grain that, even after cooking, will never mingle with the rest of the food.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
The body of one without faith is impure from birth; he carries the taint of division and sin. How can his vine ever reach the canopy? Whatever he had stored comes back to him unchanged. The mother may wish her child to be handsome, but the stone written on the forehead stands firm. Tuka says: he is like an unripe grain that, however long you cook it, will never blend with the rest of the food.
What it means
Tukaram describes the condition of a life closed to faith, and the warning is meant to be turned on oneself, not used to despise a person. The one without faith carries division and stored-up wrongdoing from the start, so his growth never reaches the canopy; what he laid up returns to him unaltered. A mother's wish cannot rewrite what is written, the fixed bent of a hardened heart. The closing image is the sharpest: like a grain that stays raw no matter how long it is cooked, such a heart will not soften and mix in. The question it leaves is whether one's own faith is alive or hardened.
Worldly Life
The perplexities of action, karma, and navigating life in the world.
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