Exhortation, the scorner of kirtan
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
अगत्य ज्या नरका जाणें । कीर्तनीं तों वीट मानी॥1॥
नावडेसा जाला बाप । आलें पाप वस्तीसि ॥ध्रु.॥
नारायण नाहीं वाचे । ते यमाचे अंदण ॥2॥
तुका ह्मणे अभक्तासी । माता दासी जग झोडी ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
He who is eager for hell is the one who scorns kirtan. He has become displeasing to his own father, and sin has come to dwell with him. One whose tongue does not utter Narayana is a gift offered to Yama. Says Tuka, the faithless one is beaten by the world, and even his mother becomes a servant to others.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
The one who is set on going to hell is the one who finds kirtan tiresome. He has become hateful even to his own father. Sin has come to live with him. The tongue that does not say Narayana is a thing handed over to Yama. Tuka says: the faithless one is beaten by the whole world, and even his mother becomes a servant in other houses.
What it means
Tukaram defines who is truly bound for hell, not by ritual failing but by contempt for the singing of God's name. The person who finds kirtan a bore has, by that, made himself repellent even to his own father and taken sin in as a houseguest. A tongue that never utters Narayana is, he says, already made over to Yama, the lord of death. The closing image draws out the worldly cost: such a faithless one is battered by everyone, and the disgrace reaches his mother, reduced to servitude. The warning is aimed at the impulse in us that yawns at devotion, not at condemning any single person.
Appeals and Exhortations
Direct calls to action: wake up, seek God, do not waste this human birth.
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