Worldly life, death walks beside you
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
भेणें पळे डोळसा । न कळे मृत्यु तो सरिसा ॥1॥
कैसी जाली दिशाभुली । न वजातिये वाटे चाली ॥ध्रु.॥
संसाराची खंती । मावळल्या तरी शक्ति ॥2॥
तुका ह्मणे हीणा । बुिद्ध चुकली नारायणा ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
A person with sight runs from death in fear, not knowing that death runs alongside. How has this bewilderment come about, that one walks a path from which there is no return? Even when one's worry over worldly life subsides, power itself wanes. Says Tuka, the wretched one's intellect has missed Narayana entirely.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
A man with eyes runs from death in fear. He does not see that death runs right beside him. How has this confusion come, that he walks a road from which there is no return? Even when his worry over worldly life dies down, his strength too is fading. Tuka says: the wretched one's mind has missed Narayana altogether.
What it means
Tukaram catches the absurdity of a sighted man fleeing a death that is already running at his side. The bewilderment he names is that we keep walking the one-way road of worldly life as though we could turn back, never facing where it ends. Worse, the calm that finally comes is not wisdom but exhaustion: the worry only quiets because strength itself is draining away. The closing line lands the loss: for all this running, the wretched man's attention has missed the one thing that mattered, Narayana.
Worldly Life
The perplexities of action, karma, and navigating life in the world.
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