Metaphor, the world has no substance
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
मृगजळा काय करावा उतार । पावावया पार पैल थडी ॥१॥
खापराचे होन खेळती लेंकुरें । कोण त्या वेव्हारें लाभ हाणि ॥ध्रु.॥
मंगळदायक करिती कुमारी । काय त्यांची खरी सोयरीक ॥२॥
स्वप्नींचें जें सुखदुःख जालें काहीं । जागृतीं तो नाहीं साच भाव ॥३॥
सारीं जालीं मेलीं लटिकें वचन । बद्ध मुक्त शीण तुका म्हणे ॥४॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
Why build a crossing over a mirage when there is no far shore to reach? Children play with broken pottery as if it were gold coins; who gains or loses in such a trade? Young girls play at auspicious wedding ceremonies, but what real bond of kinship is formed there? Whatever joy or sorrow appeared in a dream has no substance when one wakes. Says Tuka, all that was born and died was but false speech; bondage and liberation and all this weariness are nothing.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
Why build a crossing over a mirage, when there is no far shore to reach? Children play with bits of broken pottery as if they were gold coins; who really gains or loses in that trade? Little girls play at performing weddings; what real kinship is ever made there? Whatever joy or sorrow came to you in a dream is not true once you wake. Tuka says: all that is born and dies is false speech; bondage, liberation, all this struggle, it is nothing.
What it means
Tukaram piles up images of things that look real but are not, to question the substance of the whole world. A mirage has no far bank, so building a ford across it is pointless; broken pottery traded as gold makes no one richer or poorer; children's pretend weddings forge no actual kinship; dream pleasure and pain vanish on waking. Each picture says the same thing about appearances that do not hold up when looked at closely. He pushes the claim to its edge: birth and death themselves are like empty words, and even bondage and liberation, the very terms of the spiritual struggle, are finally nothing at this depth of seeing.
Worldly Metaphors
Poems using images from games, occupations, and daily life as spiritual teaching.
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