Renunciation, family as fleeting
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
िस्त्रया पुत्र कळत्र हें तंव मायावंत । शेवटींचा अंत नाहीं कोणी ॥1॥
यमाचिये हातीं बांधोनियां देती । भूषणें ही घेती काढूनियां ॥2॥
ऐसिया चोरांचा कैसा हा विश्वास । धरिली तुझी कास तुका ह्मणे ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
Wife, sons, and family are all creatures of illusion. At the very end, none stands by you. They bind you and hand you over to Yama, stripping away even your ornaments. Says Tuka, how can you trust such thieves? I have taken hold of Your shelter instead.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
Wife, sons, family: all of this belongs to illusion. At the very end, none of them stays by you. They bind you and hand you over to Yama. They even strip the ornaments off your body. Tuka says: how can I trust such thieves? I have taken hold of Your shelter instead.
What it means
Tukaram strips the comfort out of family life by naming its limit: those nearest to you belong to Maya and will not be there at the final hour. He pushes harder still, picturing them handing you over to death and taking back even the jewels off your body. He calls them thieves, not out of contempt for persons but to expose how completely they fail as a refuge. The conclusion is the move itself: he lets go of that false security and grips God's shelter instead.
Renunciation
The case for letting go of worldly attachments and turning wholly to God.
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