Exhortation, the body is on loan
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
आलिया संसारा उठा वेग करा । शरण जा उदारा पांडुरंगा ॥1॥
देह हें देवाचें धन कुबेराचें । तेथें मनुष्याचें काय आहे ॥ध्रु.॥
देता देवविता नेता नेवविता । येथ याची सत्ता काय आहे ॥2॥
निमित्याचा धनी केला असे झणी । माझेंमाझें ह्मणोनि व्यर्थ गेला ॥3॥
तुका ह्मणे कां रे नाशवंतासाटीं । देवासवें आटी पाडितोसी ॥4॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
Having come into this world, rise and make haste. Surrender to the generous Panduranga. The body belongs to God, and wealth belongs to Kubera. What does the individual truly own here? The one who gives and makes others give, who takes and makes others take, it is He who holds all authority here. One has been made a steward only for a time. Calling it mine, mine, one departs in vain. Says Tuka, why do you quarrel with God for the sake of what is perishable?.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
You have come into this world. Get up, make haste. Go and take refuge in the generous Panduranga. This body belongs to God. Wealth belongs to Kubera. What does a person here truly own? It is God who gives, and who makes others give; who takes, and who makes others take. What power belongs to you here? You have been made a steward, and only for a little while. Saying mine, mine, you go from here in vain. Tuka says: why, for the sake of what perishes, do you wear yourself out quarreling with God?
What it means
Tukaram is rousing a person who clings to what was never theirs. He strips ownership down to nothing: the body is God's, wealth is Kubera's, and even the acts of giving and taking are God's doing, not ours. A human being is only a caretaker, holding it all for a short time, so the cry of mine, mine, is wasted breath. The stakes he names are urgent, rise now, make haste, take refuge, because the time is short. His closing question turns the knife on the listener's own struggle: why exhaust yourself fighting God over things that decay, when surrender to the generous Panduranga is what is offered.
Appeals and Exhortations
Direct calls to action: wake up, seek God, do not waste this human birth.
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