Exhortation, no lasting bond
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
करूनि जतन । कोणा कामा आलें धन ॥1 ॥
ऐसें जाणतां जाणतां । कां रे होतोसी नेणता ॥ध्रु.॥
िप्रया पुत्र बंधु । नाहीं तुज यांशीं संबंधु ॥2॥
तुका ह्मणे एका । हरीविण नाहीं सखा ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
After guarding it carefully, of what use was that wealth? You know this well enough, yet you pretend not to know. Wife, son, brother: you have no lasting bond with any of them. Says Tuka, apart from Hari alone, there is no true friend.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
You guarded your wealth so carefully. In the end, what use was it to anyone? You know this. You know it well. So why do you keep acting as if you do not know? Wife, son, brother: you have no lasting bond with any of them. Tuka says: apart from Hari alone, there is no true friend.
What it means
Tukaram is shaking awake someone who already knows better. He names the hoarded wealth and the closest family ties, the things a person leans on most, and shows that none of them holds: the money serves no one in the end, and the bonds of wife, son, and brother do not last past death. The sting is in the repeated 'you know this': the failure is not ignorance but pretending not to know what is plainly true. He lands it on the one bond that does last, telling you that Hari alone is the friend who does not fall away.
Appeals and Exhortations
Direct calls to action: wake up, seek God, do not waste this human birth.
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