Metaphor, laboring for others' gain
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
साकरेच्या गोण्या बैलाचिये पाठी । तयासी सेवटीं करबाडें ॥1॥
मालाचे पैं पेटे वाहाताती उंटें । तयालागीं कांटे भक्षावया ॥ध्रु.॥
वाउगा हा धंदा आशा वाढविती । बांधोनियां देती यमा हातीं ॥2॥
ज्यासी असे लाभ तो चि जाणे गोडी । येर तीं बापुडीं सिणलीं वांयां ॥3॥
तुका ह्मणे शहाणा होई रे गव्हारा । चोयासीचा फेरा फिरों नको ॥4॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
Sacks of sugar are loaded upon a bull's back, yet the bull receives only the sting of the prod. Camels carry chests of merchandise, yet they eat only thorns. Such is the futile toil of those who increase their own desires; they are tied up and handed over to Yama. Only the one who earns the profit knows its sweetness; the rest, poor creatures, have labored in vain. Says Tuka, become wise, O fool. Do not go round and round the cycle of eighty-four hundred thousand births.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
Sacks of sugar are loaded on the bull's back, but all the bull gets is the prod. Camels carry chests of goods, but all they eat is thorns. Such is the useless toil of those who keep feeding their desires; they are bound and handed over to Yama. Only the one who takes the profit knows the sweetness; the rest, poor creatures, have worn themselves out for nothing. Tuka says: grow wise, you fool. Do not keep going round the cycle of eighty-four lakh births.
What it means
Tukaram uses the beast of burden to picture a wasted life. The bull carries sugar and tastes none of it; the camel hauls rich goods and eats only thorns. So it is, he says, with a person who labors endlessly to feed his own cravings: he carries the weight, but the sweetness never reaches him, and in the end he is bound over to death. Someone else, the master who profits, knows the real reward, while the laborer is exhausted for nothing. The closing is a wake-up call rather than mockery: become wise, stop carrying desire's load through birth after birth, the long cycle of eighty-four lakh lives.
Worldly Metaphors
Poems using images from games, occupations, and daily life as spiritual teaching.
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