Exhortation, the God who already provides
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
नित्य उठोनियां खायाची चिंता । आपुल्या तूं हिता नाठवीसी ॥1॥
जननीचे पोटीं उपजलासी जेव्हां । चिंता तुझी तेव्हां केली तेणें ॥ध्रु.॥
चातकां लागूनि मेघ नित्य वर्षे । तो तुज उदास करील केवीं ॥2॥
पक्षी वनचरें आहेत भूमीवरि । तयांलागीं हरि उपेक्षीना ॥3॥
तुका ह्मणे भाव धरुन राहें चित्तीं । तरि तो श्रीपति उपेक्षीना ॥4॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
Every day you rise thinking only of what to eat. You never remember your own true welfare. When you were born from your mother's womb, God Himself took care of your needs. The rain cloud pours down ceaselessly for the chataka bird. How could He ever forsake you? Birds and forest creatures live upon the earth, and Hari does not neglect them. Says Tuka, if you hold devotion firmly in your chitta, Shripati will never forsake you.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
Every day you rise and worry only about what to eat. You never remember your own true good. When you were born from your mother's womb, He already took care of your needs then. The cloud rains down without stopping for the chataka bird. How could He ever leave you wanting? Birds and forest creatures live on the earth, and Hari does not neglect them. Tuka says: hold devotion firmly in your mind, and then Shripati will never forsake you.
What it means
Tukaram is scolding a daily anxiety and naming the trust that would dissolve it. The man rises each morning consumed by the question of food, and so never turns to his own real welfare. Against that worry Tukaram sets the plain evidence of how God already works: He provided for you in the womb before you could ask, the cloud feeds the chataka, the birds and wild animals are kept alive without their planning. The point is not that you stop eating but that you stop letting the belly own your mind; hold devotion firmly, and Shripati, who has never neglected the least creature, will not neglect you.
Appeals and Exhortations
Direct calls to action: wake up, seek God, do not waste this human birth.
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