Worldly life, your deeds are your fate
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
चोराचिया धुडका मनीं । वसे ध्यानीं लंछन ॥1॥
ऐशा आह्मीं करणें काय । वरसो न्यायें पर्जन्य ॥ध्रु.॥
ज्याच्या बैसे खतावरी । ते चुरचुरी दुखवूनि ॥2॥
तुका ह्मणे ज्याची खोडी । त्याची जोडी त्या पीडी ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
In the guilty thief's mind, the mark of his crime always dwells. What can we do about such people? Let the rain of justice fall as it will. The record of each person's deeds pricks and pains the one who bears it. Says Tuka, one's own habits are one's own fortune, and one's own fortune is one's own affliction.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
In the guilty thief's mind, the mark of his crime always lives. What can we do about such people? Let the rain of justice fall as it will. The record of a man's deeds pricks and pains the one who carries it. Tuka says: a man's own habits are his own fortune, and his own fortune is his own affliction.
What it means
Tukaram observes that wrongdoing does not need an outside judge first; the thief carries the mark of his crime inside his own mind. He refuses to take the punishing into his own hands and leaves it to the rain of justice, which falls in its own time. The heart of the verse is that each person's record presses on the one who bears it, no one else. The closing line closes the circle: your habits become your fortune, and that fortune becomes the very thing that afflicts you, so the remedy is to examine the habits, not the world.
Worldly Life
The perplexities of action, karma, and navigating life in the world.
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