Grief, the discourse profaned
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
3267. काय ऐसी वेळ । वोडवली अमंगळ ॥1॥
आजि दुखवलें मन । कथाकाळीं जाला सीण ॥ध्रु.॥
पापाचिया गुणें । त्यांचिया वेळे दर्षणें ॥2॥
तुका ह्मणे कानीं । घालूं आले दुष्टवाणी॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
What kind of inauspicious hour has dawned? Today my chitta was hurt during the time of sacred discourse. Because of accumulated sin, wicked people appeared at this very hour. Says Tuka, they came to pour poisonous words into my ears.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
What hour is this? Something foul has fallen across it. Today my mind is hurt. During the holy discourse I was worn down. By the working of sin, at that very hour, those people showed their faces. Tuka says: they came to pour wicked words into my ears.
What it means
Tukaram is mourning a kirtan that was spoiled. He had set the hour aside for sacred discourse, and into that hour came people who poured ugly, hostile words into his ears, leaving his mind bruised and exhausted. He does not curse them; he reads the intrusion as the ripening of sin, an inauspicious turn that crossed a holy time. The complaint is about how easily the noise of malice can soil the very space meant for God.
Autobiography
Tukaram's own account of his life, struggles, awakening, and mission.
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