Warning, the cost of indulgence
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
आपुलें वेचूनि खोडा घाली पाव । ऐसे जया भाव हीनबुिद्ध तो ॥1॥
विषयांच्या संगें आयुष्याचा नास । पडियेलें ओस स्वहितांचे ॥ध्रु.॥
भुलल्यांचें अंग आपण्या पारिखें । छंदा च सारिखें वर्ततसे ॥2॥
तुका ह्मणे दुःख उमटे परिणामीं । लंपटासी कामीं रतलिया ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
He who spends his own capital to shackle his own feet, such a person is of low intellect. In the company of sense pleasures the lifespan is wasted, and one's own welfare lies barren. The body of one who is deluded becomes a stranger to himself; it moves only at the bidding of desire. Says Tuka, suffering blossoms at the end for one who remains lost in sensual indulgence.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
A man who spends his own wealth to put his own feet in the stocks is of low mind. In the company of the senses, his lifespan is destroyed. His own good lies barren and empty. The body of a deluded man becomes a stranger to him. It moves only as his cravings command. Tuka says: in the end, suffering breaks out for the man who stays sunk in lust.
What it means
Tukaram names the self-defeat in a life of indulgence. The image is sharp: a man paying out his own capital, his own life and energy, in order to lock his own feet in shackles. Keeping company with the senses burns up the years and leaves what truly serves him untended and barren. Worse, his own body no longer belongs to him; it has become a stranger that obeys desire instead of its owner. The warning points not at any one person but at the pattern itself: pleasure taken on these terms ripens into suffering at the end.
Worldly Life
The perplexities of action, karma, and navigating life in the world.
More in this theme →