Death is the one truth, the mind turns
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
मेलियांच्या रांडा इिच्छती लेकरूं । लाज नाहीं धरूं प्रीती कैशी ॥1॥
मागिलां पुढिलां एकी सरोबरी । काळाची पेटारी खांदा वाहे ॥ध्रु.॥
आन दिसे परी मरणें चि खरें । सांपळा उंदिरें सामाविलीं ॥2॥
तुका ह्मणे जाली मनाची परती । निवळली ज्योती दिसों आली ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
Widows who have lost their husbands still desire children; how shameless is this clinging to affection. Past and future are equally yoked; one carries the box of death upon one's shoulder. Things may appear otherwise, but death alone is real; like mice caught in a trap, all are gathered in. Says Tuka, the mind has finally turned around, and the clear light has become visible.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
Widows whose husbands are dead still long for children. There is no shame in them. What kind of love is this? Those behind and those ahead are yoked the same. Each one carries the box of death on his shoulder. Things look otherwise, but only death is real. Like mice gathered into a trap, all are caught. Tuka says: the mind has finally turned around. The clear light has come into view.
What it means
Tukaram uses a harsh image to expose a pattern in everyone, not to shame a person: people keep craving more even when the ground for that craving is already gone, clinging on past all sense. He flattens every distinction, saying past and future generations are yoked alike, each person carrying his own coffin on his shoulder without knowing it. Behind the busy appearances of life, he says, only one fact is real, death, and all of us are already gathered into its trap like mice. The turn comes at the end: once the mind grasps this and turns away from the trap, the clear light becomes visible.
Worldly Life
The perplexities of action, karma, and navigating life in the world.
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