Worldly life, walking backward
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
बीजीं फळाचा भरवसा । जतन सिंचनासरिसा । चाविलिया आसा । काकुलती ते नाड ॥1॥
हा तों गडसंदीचा ठाव। पिके पिकविला भाव । संकोचोनि जीव । दशा केली जतन ॥ध्रु.॥
माती घाली धनावरी । रांडा रोटा वरीवरी । सुखाचे सेजारीं। दुःख भ्रमें भोगीतसे ॥2॥
तुका ह्मणे दिशाभुली । जाल्या उफराटी चाली । निवाडाची बोली । अनुभवें साक्षीसी ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
The seed holds the promise of fruit, and one tends it carefully with watering. When hope is chewed away, one is left pleading in despair. This is a treacherous, narrow place where devotion must be cultivated and the jiva must be guarded with restraint. People pile dirt over their wealth and engage in empty outward shows, experiencing sorrow in delusion even while lying on a bed of comfort. Says Tuka, people have lost their way and walk in reverse. The verdict of truth comes only through direct experience.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
The seed holds the promise of fruit if you tend it and water it; when hope is eaten away, you are left pleading in misery. This is a narrow, treacherous place where devotion has to be grown and the soul guarded with restraint. People pile dirt over their wealth and put on hollow shows; lying on a bed of comfort they still taste sorrow through their delusion. Tuka says: people have lost their direction and walk in reverse. The verdict of truth is known only through living experience.
What it means
Tukaram looks at ordinary worldly life and sees people going the wrong way. A seed bears fruit only with patient tending, and the same care is needed to grow devotion in this dangerous, cramped human birth. Instead, people bury themselves in wealth and empty display, and even amid comfort they suffer, because they are deluded about what matters. He says plainly that they have lost their bearings and are walking backward, mistaking the path for its opposite. The closing line refuses mere argument: only direct experience, not talk, can deliver the true verdict on how to live.
Worldly Life
The perplexities of action, karma, and navigating life in the world.
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