Destiny, the thread in Vitthal's hand
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
धनवंत एक बहिर अंधळे । शुभ्र कुष्ठ काळे भोग अंगीं ॥1॥
परारब्धगति न कळे विचित्र । आहे हातीं सूत्र विठोबाचे॥ध्रु.॥
आणीक रोगांचीं नांवें घेऊं किती । अखंड असती जडोनियां ॥2॥
तुका ह्मणे नष्ट संचिताचें दान । पावे खातां पण सुख नेदी ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
Some rich men are deaf and blind; some bear white leprosy or dark afflictions upon their bodies. The ways of destiny are inscrutable and strange; the thread of it all is in Vitthal's hands. How many more diseases shall I name? They cling to people without end. Says Tuka, such is the gift of past karma; it gives one the means to enjoy, yet denies all happiness.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
One rich man is deaf, another blind; some carry white leprosy, some dark disease in the body. The course of past karma is strange and cannot be read; the thread of it is in Vithoba's hands. How many more names of diseases can I count? They cling to people without end. Tuka says: this is the gift of ruined karma; it gives you the means to enjoy, yet gives you no happiness.
What it means
Tukaram looks at how fortune and suffering are spread out among people and refuses to make it tidy. Wealth and affliction land together: a rich man may be deaf, blind, or diseased, and the workings of accumulated karma are too strange to decode. He places the whole control beyond human reach, in Vitthal's hands. The hard truth he lands is about prarabdha, the karma now ripening: it can hand a person every means to enjoy life and still withhold the actual happiness, so outward provision is no proof of inward peace, and the only steadying point is that the thread is held by God.
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