Mythology, blaming Maya the temptress
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
बहु होता भला । परि ये रांडेनें नासिला ॥1॥
बहु शिकला रंग चाळे । खरें खोटें इचे वेळे ॥ध्रु.॥
नव्हतें आळवितें कोणी । इनें केला जगॠणी ॥2॥
ज्याचे त्यासी नेदी देऊं । तुका ह्मणे धांवे खाऊं ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
He was a very fine person, but this woman has ruined him. She has learned many tricks and masquerades; truth and falsehood are at her command. No one was inviting her, yet she has made Him a debtor to the whole world. Says Tuka, she will not let anyone receive what is rightfully theirs; she rushes to consume it first.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
He was a very fine person. But this woman has ruined him. She has learned many tricks and disguises. Truth and falsehood are hers to command, whenever she likes. No one invited her in. Yet she has made him a debtor to the whole world. She will not let anyone receive what is rightfully theirs. Tuka says: she rushes in to devour it first.
What it means
Tukaram personifies Maya, the world's deluding power, as a scheming woman who has spoiled one who was good. The point is not contempt for any actual person but a sharp picture of how delusion operates: it masters tricks and disguises, bends truth and falsehood at will, and arrives uninvited. It tangles even the divine in worldly debt and snatches away what should rightly reach a soul, consuming it first. The poem warns that this power does not wait to be welcomed; it seizes, so the seeker must see through its disguises rather than be charmed by them.
Sacred Stories
Abhangas drawing on mythological narratives to illuminate spiritual truths.
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