Exhortation, the use of being born
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
तरि च जन्मा यावें । दास विठ्ठलाचें व्हावें ॥1॥
नाहीं तरि काय थोडीं । श्वानशूकरें बापुडीं ॥ध्रु.॥
ज्याल्याचें तें फळ। अंगीं लागों नेदी मळ ॥2॥
तुका ह्मणे भले । ज्याच्या नावें मानवलें ॥3॥
॥ लळतें 9 ॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
Only then is this birth worthwhile: if one becomes a servant of Vitthal. Otherwise, what scarcity is there of wretched dogs and pigs? The fruit of being born should be that no impurity clings to you. Says Tuka, blessed are those in whose name humanity finds its honor.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
Then alone is it worth coming to birth: to become the servant of Vitthal. Otherwise, is there any shortage of poor dogs and pigs? The fruit of having lived should be that no filth clings to your body. Tuka says: blessed are those by whose name humanity itself is honored.
What it means
Tukaram asks what a human birth is actually for. His answer is blunt: it is worth taking only if it is spent as a servant of Vitthal, because if mere living were the point, the world has no shortage of animals already doing that. The fruit he names is purity, a life that leaves no defilement clinging to it. He ends by lifting up the rare souls who reach that mark, saying their very name brings honor to the whole human kind. The poem's edge is its low comparison: without devotion, a human life is no higher than a stray animal's.
Appeals and Exhortations
Direct calls to action: wake up, seek God, do not waste this human birth.
More in this theme →