Exhortation, death respects no one
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
न धरी प्रतिष्ठा कोणाची यम । ह्मणतां कां रे राम लाजा झणी ॥1॥
सांपडे हातींचें सोडवील काळा । तो कां वेळोवेळां नये वाचे ॥ध्रु.॥
कोण लोक जो हा सुटला तो एक । गेले कुंभपाक रवरवांत ॥2॥
तुका ह्मणे हित तों ह्मणा विठ्ठल । न ह्मणे तो भोगील कळेल तें ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
Death respects no one's reputation. Why then are you ashamed to say the name of Rama? That which can free you from the clutches of time, why does it not come to your lips again and again? Who in this world has been spared? Everyone goes to the torments of hell. Says Tuka, as long as it serves you, say Vitthal. One who does not say it will suffer what is due.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
Death holds no one's standing in regard. So why are you ashamed to say the name of Rama? The thing that can free you from the grip of time, why does it not come to your lips again and again? Who in this world has ever been spared? They have all gone into the boiling cauldron, into the torments of hell. Tuka says: if you want your own good, say Vitthal. The one who will not say it will suffer whatever comes.
What it means
Tukaram is shaming the false shame that keeps people from chanting the Name. Death, he says, respects no rank or reputation, so the pride that makes you embarrassed to say Rama out loud is foolish; the one thing that can free you from time is the thing you withhold from your own lips. He points to a plain fact: no one has been spared by death, and the unredeemed go into the torments named after hell. The whole abhanga turns on a simple choice he lays bare: say Vitthal and be helped, or refuse it and bear the consequence.
Appeals and Exhortations
Direct calls to action: wake up, seek God, do not waste this human birth.
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