The body fleeting, remember Narayana
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
देह तंव असे भोगाचे अधीन । याचें सुख सीण क्षीणभंगर ॥1॥
अविनाश जोडी देवापायीं भाव । कल्याणाचा ठाव सकळही ॥ध्रु.॥
क्षणभंगुर हा तेथील पसारा । आलिया हाकारा अवघें राहे ॥2॥
तुका ह्मणे येथें सकळ विश्रांति । आठवावा चित्तीं नारायण ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
The body is subject to the pleasures it experiences; its joys and pains are fleeting and perishable. The imperishable treasure is devotion at God's feet; that is the abode of all blessedness. All this worldly display is momentary; when the summons comes, everything must halt. Says Tuka, herein lies all rest and peace: remember Narayana in your chitta.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
The body is bound to the things it enjoys; its pleasures and pains are thin and quick to break. The treasure that does not perish is love laid at God's feet; that is the home of all that is good. All this worldly show lasts only a moment; when the summons comes, everything stops. Tuka says: here is all rest and peace. Remember Narayana in your heart.
What it means
Tukaram sets the perishable against the imperishable to show where to place one's trust. The body and its pleasures are real but fleeting, thin things that break and pass, and the whole worldly display halts the instant death's summons arrives. Against that he names the one treasure that does not perish: love offered at God's feet, which he calls the home of all blessedness. The poem closes with the practice that holds it all, to remember Narayana in the heart, because there alone is lasting rest.
Devotion to Vitthal
Poems of praise, invocation, and intimate address to Lord Vitthal at Pandharpur.
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