Resolve, cling to the thread
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
असो आतां कांहीं करोनियां ग्लांती । कोणा काकुलती येइल येथें ॥1॥
करूं कांहीं दिस राहे तों सायास । झोंबों त्या लागास भावाचिये ॥ध्रु.॥
करितां रोदना बापुडें ह्मणती । परि नये अंतीं कामा कोणी ॥2॥
तुकयाबंधु ह्मणे पडिलिया वनीं । विचार तो मनीं बोलिला हे ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
Let us set aside complaint and self-pity. Who will come here begging for sympathy? For a few more days, let us make the effort and cling to the thread of devotion. People may call us pitiful when we weep, but in the end, no one comes to our true aid. Says Tukya-bandhu, cast alone in the wilderness, I have spoken the thought that arose in my mind.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
Let us set complaint and self-pity aside now. Who here will come begging for our sympathy? For a few more days let us make the effort, and hold fast to the thread of devotion. When we weep, people may call us poor pitiful things, but in the end not one of them comes to our real help. Tukya-bandhu says: cast alone in the wilderness, I have spoken the thought that rose in my mind.
What it means
The poet talks himself out of grief and into endurance. He notices that complaining wins no real sympathy: people pity the weeping man with words, but no one actually rescues him when it matters. So he decides the only thing worth holding is the thread of devotion, kept up through a few more hard days of effort. Speaking of himself as alone in a wilderness, he records this not as despair but as a resolution made plainly to his own mind.
Autobiography
Tukaram's own account of his life, struggles, awakening, and mission.
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