Exhortation, only merit travels with you
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
मायबाप सवें नये धनवित्त । करावें संचित भोगावें तें ॥1॥
ह्मणऊनि लाभ काय तो विचारीं । नको चालीवरी चित्त ठेवूं ॥ध्रु.॥
आयुष्य सेवटीं सांडूनि जाणार । नव्हे हें साचार शरीर हें ॥2॥
तुका ह्मणे काळें लावियेलें माप । जमे धरी पापपुण्याची ही ॥3॥
मोटळें हाटीं सोडिल्या गांठी । विकया घातलें केण।
ज्याचे भाग त्यासी देऊनि वारिलें । सारूनि लिगाड दान ।
खरें माप हातीं घेऊनि बैसलों । मानिती ते चौघे जन ।
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
Neither parents nor wealth can accompany you; one must earn and enjoy one's own store of merit. Therefore consider what is truly profitable; do not set your heart on passing customs. At the end of life you will leave everything behind; this body is not real or lasting. Says Tuka, Time has taken its measure and keeps a ledger of both sin and merit.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
Parents do not go with you, nor does wealth; what you gather and what you spend is your own to bear. So weigh what the true gain is; do not set your heart on the way things are usually done. At the end of life you go, leaving all behind; this body is not real, not lasting. Tuka says: Time has set down its measure and keeps the ledger of sin and merit. The bundle is opened, the knot loosed in the market, the goods laid out for sale. To each I gave his own share and cleared it, settling the whole tangle as a gift. I sat down holding the true measure in my hand, and the four who weigh acknowledged it.
What it means
Tukaram presses the listener to reckon with what actually accompanies the soul. Parents and wealth stay behind; only the store of one's own deeds, what was gathered and what was spent, must be carried and answered for. So he warns against setting the heart on mere custom and the usual way of doing things, since the body itself is neither real nor lasting and is left behind at the end. He pictures Time keeping a ledger of sin and merit, and himself as a trader settling accounts in the open market, opening the bundle, giving each his due, and sitting with the true measure in hand that the appointed reckoners accept.
Appeals and Exhortations
Direct calls to action: wake up, seek God, do not waste this human birth.
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