Worldly life, merit clears the path
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
संचितावांचून । पंथ न चलवे कारण ॥1॥
कोरडी ते अवघी आटी । वांयां जाय लाळ घोंटीं ॥ध्रु.॥
धन वित्त जोडे । देव ऐसें तों न घडे ॥2॥
तुका ह्मणे आड । स्वहितासी बहु नाड ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
Without accumulated merit, the path cannot be walked. Empty striving is all in vain; one merely swallows one's own spittle. Wealth and possessions can be earned, but God is not attained so easily. Says Tuka, what a great obstacle stands in the way of one's own good.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
Without stored merit the path cannot be walked; that is how it is. Dry striving is all wasted; you only swallow your own spit. Wealth and goods can be earned, but God is not won that easily. Tuka says: what a great hurdle stands in the way of your own good.
What it means
Tukaram draws a hard line between what effort alone can buy and what it cannot. Money and possessions can be gathered by labor, but God is not reached on the strength of effort without the merit gathered over time, and bare striving without it is like swallowing your own spittle, motion that feeds nothing. He is not denying effort; he is naming its limit. The closing line marks the real difficulty: the biggest obstacle to a person's own highest good is the lack of that inner readiness, not any shortage of worldly capacity.
Worldly Life
The perplexities of action, karma, and navigating life in the world.
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