Marketplace metaphor, secure your shelter
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
खरें वित्त तेथें आले चोजवीत । गिहाइक संतजन ॥1॥
झाडिला पालव केला हाट वेच । जाली सकाळीं च अराणूक ।
याल तरि तुह्मी करा लगबग । आमचे ते कोणी लोक ॥ध्रु.॥
एक ते उत्तम मध्यम कनिष्ठ । वित्ताचे प्रकार तीन ।
बहुतां जनाचे बहुत प्रकार । वेगळाले वाण ।
लाभ हाणि कोणा मुदल जालें । कोणासी पडिलें खाण ।
अर्धमर्ध कोणी गुंतोनि राहिले । थोडे तैसे बहु जन ॥2॥
एके सांते आले एक गांवीहून । येकामे चि नव्हे जाणें ।
येतां जातां रुजू नाहीं दिवाणा । काळतोंडीं एकें तेणें ।
लाग भाग एकी एकानीं गोविलें । मागील पुढिलां ॠणें ।
तुका ह्मणे आतां पाहूं नये वास। साधावें आपुलें पेणें ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
True wealth draws connoisseurs to it; the saints are its worthy customers. The cloth is spread, the market opens at dawn, and the best goods go first. Come quickly if you wish to buy; these are our people. Some goods are superior, some middling, some inferior, for wealth comes in three kinds. Many people bring many kinds of needs; some gain, some lose their principal, some fall into debt. Some are half-entangled, trapped in varying measure. Says Tuka, all came to the same fair from different towns; the road out is never the same as the road in. Coming and going, there is no fixed accounting; Time swallows some in its dark mouth. Past debts bind the future; what the elders owe, the younger ones must pay. Do not delay, but secure your own shelter now.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
The true wealth is here, and it draws those who can recognize it. The saints are its worthy buyers. The cloth is spread out, the market opens at dawn, the best goods go first. Come quickly if you mean to buy; these are our own people. The goods are of three kinds: best, middling, and least, for wealth comes in three grades. Many people come, with many kinds of need; each carries a different wish. Some gain, some lose their principal, some fall into debt. Some are half caught, tangled in this measure and that, a few like this, many like that. All came to one fair, but from different towns; the road out is never the same as the road in. Coming and going, there is no fixed accounting at the office, and Time swallows some in its dark mouth. Old debts bind the ones who follow; what the elders owed, the younger ones must pay. Tuka says: now do not stand waiting and looking around. Secure your own resting place.
What it means
Tukaram makes the soul's chance at God into a one-day market that opens at dawn and closes at dusk. The true wealth is the Name, and the saints are the buyers who know its worth; the grades of goods are the grades of seeker. He presses the urgency: the fair is open now, but Time has a dark mouth that swallows people, the road out of this life is never the road by which you came, and the debts of past lives bind those who follow. So the closing word is practical and stern: stop loitering and comparing, and buy your own shelter, your own refuge in God, while the market is still open.
Worldly Metaphors
Poems using images from games, occupations, and daily life as spiritual teaching.
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