Exhortation, go to Pandhari
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
जाय जाय तूं पंढरी । होय होय वारकरी ॥1॥
सांडोनियां वाळवंट । काय इिच्छसी वैकुंठ ॥ध्रु.॥
खांद्या पताकांचे भार । तुळसीमाळा आणि अबीर ॥2॥
साधुसंतांच्या दाटणी । तुका जाय लोटांगणीं ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
Go, go to Pandhari! Become a pilgrim, a Warkari! Why do you sit in the barren wasteland longing for Vaikuntha? Carry the banners on your shoulders, wear garlands of tulsi and smear yourself with abir. Says Tuka, prostrate yourself before the gathering of saints and sages.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
Go, go to Pandhari. Become a Warkari, become one. Why do you sit in the barren sand still longing for Vaikuntha? Carry the weight of the banners on your shoulders, wear garlands of tulsi, and smear yourself with abir. Tuka says: go and fall flat in the crowd of saints and sages.
What it means
This is a call to stop waiting and start walking. Tukaram tells the listener to go to Pandhari and become a Warkari, an actual pilgrim, rather than sitting idle and hankering after a far-off Vaikuntha. The point is that the heaven you long for is already present in the pilgrimage itself: the banners on the shoulder, the tulsi garland, the abir on the body, the company of the road. The crowning act is to fall full-length before the gathering of saints and sages, because the goal is reached by joining that company, not by dreaming of paradise alone.
Appeals and Exhortations
Direct calls to action: wake up, seek God, do not waste this human birth.
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