Autobiography, scorned by the world
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
निंदावें हें जग । ऐसा भागा आला भाग ॥1॥
होतें तैसें आलें फळ । गेलें निवडूनि सकळ ॥ध्रु.॥
दुसयाच्या मता । मिळेनासें जालें चित्ता ॥2॥
तुका जाला सांडा । विटंबिती पोरें रांडा ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
The world is bound to criticize; such is the share that fate has allotted. The fruit has come exactly as it was sown, and everything has been sifted out. My mind can no longer agree with the opinions of others. Says Tuka, I have been discarded; even women and children mock me.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
The world is bound to blame me. Such is the share that fell to my lot. The fruit came exactly as it was sown. Everything has been sifted and sorted out. My mind can no longer fall in line with other people's opinions. Tuka says: Tuka has been thrown away like refuse. Even children and lewd women mock him.
What it means
Tukaram accepts the world's contempt as the natural yield of the path he has taken. To be reviled is simply his allotted portion, the fruit matching the seed, and the sifting has run its course. The hard turn is that his mind can no longer bend to public opinion, which is exactly what makes him an outcast. The plain stakes are named without self-pity: he has been discarded like rubbish and openly jeered at, even by children and the lowest, and the poem invites us to weigh whether such mockery is the price of refusing to live by the crowd's verdict.
Autobiography
Tukaram's own account of his life, struggles, awakening, and mission.
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