Metaphor, aim high or not at all
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
पाडावी ते बरी । गांठी धुरेसवें खरी ॥1॥
नये मरों लंडीपणें । काय बापुडें तें जिणें ॥ध्रु.॥
लुटावें भांडार । तरी जया नाहीं पार ॥2॥
तुका ह्मणे नांवें । कीर्ती आगळीनें ज्यावें ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
When engaging a battle, engage the one at the very front. One must not die in cowardice; what a pitiful life that would be. If you are going to plunder a treasury, choose one that has no end. Says Tuka, one should live in such a way that one's fame is unmatched.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
If you must strike, strike the one at the very front. Do not die a coward. What is such a wretched life worth? If you mean to plunder a treasury, choose the one with no end. Tuka says: live by such a name that your fame stands above the rest.
What it means
Tukaram uses the language of war and plunder to teach where to set your aim. If you fight, fight the strongest in front, not the weak at the edges, and never settle for a coward's death, which makes the whole life pitiful. The plunder he points to is a treasury without limit, and the unspoken meaning is God himself, the only wealth that never runs out. So the call to win unmatched fame is not worldly ambition but a charge to spend the one life on the highest possible object.
Worldly Metaphors
Poems using images from games, occupations, and daily life as spiritual teaching.
More in this theme →