Worldly truth, only God stays
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
मरोनियां गेली माया । मग तया कोण पुसे ॥1॥
पोरटियांची दाद कोणा । ऐसा जाना प्रवाहो ॥ध्रु.॥
निढळास निढळ जोडा । होय कोडा कवतुका ॥2॥
तुका ह्मणे देवाऐसी । आहों सरसीं आपण ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
When the mother dies and goes, who then asks about her? Who hears the cries of the orphaned children? Such is the way of the world. Forehead meets forehead; it becomes a mere spectacle of amusement. Says Tuka, we ourselves are the equal of God.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
When the mother dies and is gone, who asks about her then? Who hears the cries of the orphaned children? Know that this is the way of the world. Forehead meets forehead, and it becomes a passing amusement. Tuka says: we ourselves are the equal of God.
What it means
Tukaram looks plainly at how quickly the world forgets its own. Once the mother who held a family together dies, no one inquires after her, and her orphaned children's cries go unheard; closeness that once meant everything becomes mere idle show. He is naming the flimsiness of every worldly bond, not mourning one family. The turn comes in the last line: when all earthly attachments prove this hollow, the soul that holds to God stands on the only ground that does not give way, and so becomes, in worth, God's own equal.
Worldly Life
The perplexities of action, karma, and navigating life in the world.
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