Worldly life, harried on every side
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
निजों नव्हें सकाळवेळीं । रातीकाळी चिंन चिंनी॥1॥
वोंगळानें घेतली पाठी । केली आटी जीवासी ॥ध्रु.॥
मेळऊनि सवें जन । चिंता नेणे देवळीं च ॥2॥
तुका ह्मणे आलों घरा । तोंडा घोरा बाइलेच्या ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
I cannot sleep in the morning, and at night worry gnaws without cease. The wretch has latched on to my back and made my life miserable. He gathers the neighbors together and insists on sitting in the temple. Says Tuka, when I come home, I face the scolding of my wife.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
I cannot sleep in the morning, and at night worry gnaws and gnaws. The wretch has fastened on my back and ground my life down. He gathers the neighbors and will sit nowhere but in the temple. Tuka says: and when I come home, I face the ugly scolding of my wife.
What it means
Tukaram complains, half wryly, of a life pressed in from every side. A troublesome man has latched onto him, robbing his mornings of sleep and his nights of peace, and even drags the neighbors along to take over the temple, the one place that should be his refuge. Worn down outside, he comes home only to meet his wife's harsh scolding. The poem voices the squeeze of ordinary domestic and social pressure on someone trying to keep to God.
Worldly Life
The perplexities of action, karma, and navigating life in the world.
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