Exhortation, time runs out, take refuge
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
गेले पळाले दिवस रोज । काय ह्मणतोसि माझें माझें ॥1॥
सळे धरोनि बैसला काळ । फाकों नेदी घटिका पळ॥ध्रु.॥
कां रे अद्यापि न कळे । केश फिरले कान डोळे ॥2॥
हित कळोनि असतां हातीं । तोंडीं पाडोनि घेसी माती ॥3॥
तुज ठाउकें मी जाणार । पाया शोधोनि बांधिसी घर ॥4॥
तुका ह्मणे वेगें । पंढरिराया शरण रिघें ॥5॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
The days and hours have fled and gone. Why do you still insist on calling things 'mine'? Death sits sharpening his weapon, not letting a single moment slip. Why have you not yet understood, even as your hair turns grey and eyes and ears grow feeble? Even when your welfare is in your own hands, you stumble and eat dirt. You know well that you must leave, yet you build your house upon sand. Says Tuka, hasten and take refuge in the Lord of Pandhari.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
The days and the hours have fled and gone. Why do you keep saying mine, mine? Death sits sharpening his blade and lets not a single moment slip. Why do you still not understand, when your hair has turned and your ears and eyes have failed? Even with your good held in your own hands, you stumble and fill your mouth with dirt. You know well that you must go, yet you dig the foundation and build your house. Tuka says: hurry, take refuge in the King of Pandhari.
What it means
Tukaram confronts the mind that clings to ownership while time drains away. The grey hair and dimming senses are evidence the body is already announcing the end, yet still it cries mine, mine and ignores the welfare lying right in its own hands. He sharpens the folly with two images: a person who fouls his own mouth with dirt, and one who keeps laying foundations and building a house when he knows he must leave it. Against all this delay he gives a single, urgent instruction: hurry now and surrender to the Lord of Pandhari.
Appeals and Exhortations
Direct calls to action: wake up, seek God, do not waste this human birth.
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