Worldly life, no one stands by you
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
जन हें सुखाचें दिल्याघेतल्याचें । अंत हें काळींचें नाहीं कोणी ॥1॥
जाल्या हीन शक्ति नाकडोळे गळती । सांडोनि पळती रांडापोरें ॥ध्रु.॥
बाइल ह्मणे खर मरता तरी बरें । नासिलें हें घर थुंकोनियां ॥2॥
तुका ह्मणे माझीं नव्हतील कोणी । तुज चक्रपाणी वांचूनियां ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
People's affection lasts only as long as there is giving and receiving; in the hour of death, no one stands by you. When your strength fails, when eyes and nose begin to drip, wife and children flee from your side. The wife thinks, 'If only this wretched man would die; he has ruined this house with his spitting and coughing.' Says Tuka, none of them are truly mine, except You, O Lord.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
People love you only as long as there is giving and taking. In the hour of death, no one stands by you. When your strength fails, when your eyes and nose run, your wife and children flee from your side. The wife thinks: if only this wretched man would die; he has ruined the house with his spitting and coughing. Tuka says: none of them are truly mine, except You, O Lord.
What it means
Tukaram is stripping the comfort out of family attachment by naming what happens at the end. Affection lasts only while there is exchange; once a person is dying and helpless, the same people pull away. He gives the harshest line to the wife wishing her sick husband dead, not to mock her but to show how thin even the closest bond runs when there is nothing left to gain. The point of the cruelty is the turn at the end: if no human tie holds at the last hour, then only the Lord can truly be called his own.
Worldly Life
The perplexities of action, karma, and navigating life in the world.
More in this theme →