Regret, the remedy found too late
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
आधी नाहीं कळों आला हा उपाय । नाहीं तरी काय चुकी होती ॥1॥
घालितो पायांसी मिठी एकसरें । नेदीं तो दुसरें आड येऊं ॥ध्रु.॥
कासया पडतों लटिक्याचे भरी । नव्हता का शिरीं भार घेतों ॥2॥
तुका ह्मणे कां हे घेतों गर्भवास । कां या होतों दास कुटुंबाचा ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
If only this remedy had been known to me earlier, what a difference it would have made! Now I clasp His feet in one single embrace and refuse to let anything else come between us. Why did I keep falling for false burdens? Why did I not refuse the weight upon my head long ago? Says Tuka, why did I endure the suffering of the womb? Why did I become a slave to family and household?
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
I did not know this remedy before. If I had, what mistake could have happened? Now I clasp his feet in one embrace, and I let nothing else come between. Why did I keep falling under false loads? Why did I carry that weight on my head? Tuka says: why did I suffer the womb again and again? Why did I become a slave to family and household?
What it means
Tukaram looks back with grief at how long he lived without the one remedy he now holds. Had he known to clasp God's feet and let nothing intrude, the long chain of error would never have happened. He counts the cost of his ignorance: the false burdens he kept accepting, the weight he carried for nothing, the repeated births in the womb, the years spent as a bondservant to family and household. The regret is not bitterness at others but a clear self-examination, showing how much was wasted before the simple thing was seen.
Devotion to Vitthal
Poems of praise, invocation, and intimate address to Lord Vitthal at Pandharpur.
More in this theme →