Exhortation, wake before Time takes you
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
देह जाईल जाईल । यासी काळ बा खाईल ॥1॥
कां रे नुमजसी दगडा । कैचे हत्ती घोडे वाडा ॥ध्रु.॥
लोडें बालिस्तें सुपती । जरा आलिया फजिती ॥2॥
शरीरसंबंधाचें नातें । भोरडएा बुडविती सेतातें ॥3॥
अझुनि तरी होई जागा । तुका ह्मणे पुढें दगा॥4॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
This body will perish, it will surely perish; Time will devour it. Why do you not understand, O stone-minded one? How long will your elephants, horses, and mansions last? Your soft pillows and cushions will bring only disgrace when old age arrives. The bonds of bodily relations are like floods that sweep away the very bridge they stand upon. Says Tuka, wake up at least now, for treachery lies ahead.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
This body will go, it will surely go; Time will eat it. Why do you not understand, O stone-headed one? Where will your elephants, your horses, your mansions be? Your soft pillows and cushions will only shame you when old age comes. The bonds of bodily kin are floods that drown the very field they water. Tuka says: wake up even now, for treachery lies ahead.
What it means
Tukaram is shaking a complacent listener awake by holding the fact of death right up to his face. The body is already promised to Time, so the wealth he counts on, elephants, horses, mansions, soft bedding, will not stand by him; in old age it turns to disgrace. He warns that family bonds are not the safety they seem: like a flood that overruns the field it was meant to nourish, they can sweep a person away. The plea is urgent and present, wake up now, because the comfort ahead is a trap, and the time to turn is not later but already passing.
Appeals and Exhortations
Direct calls to action: wake up, seek God, do not waste this human birth.
More in this theme →