Exhortation, time is eating the days
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
भवाचिया संगें बहु च नाडिले । किळकाळें पाडिले तोंडघसीं ॥1॥
तया भवसंगें गुंतलासी वांयां । धन पुत्र जाया भुलों नको ॥ध्रु.॥
जेजे घडी जाय तेते काळ खाय । प्राण्या तरणोपाय काय केला ॥2॥
तुका ह्मणे करीं सर्व ही तूं त्याग । अपाअ हें सर्वांग जगदीशीं ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
Worldly attachment has cheated many; time has dashed them face-first to the ground. You are entangled in vain in this worldly attachment. Do not be deluded by wife, children, and wealth. With each passing moment, Death devours you. O creature, what means of salvation have you prepared? Says Tuka, renounce everything and offer your whole being to the Lord of the world.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
Worldly attachment has cheated many. Time has thrown them face-down on the ground. You are tangled in that attachment for nothing. Do not be fooled by wealth, by son, by wife. Every passing moment, death eats it. O creature, what have you done to save yourself? Tuka says: give it all up. Offer your whole being to the Lord of the world.
What it means
Tukaram is shaking a complacent listener awake. He points to the wreckage already made: countless people cheated by worldly attachment and slammed face-first to the ground by time, and warns that the things you cling to, wealth, son, wife, are the very hooks. Then he names the clock: every moment that passes is being eaten by death, so the comfort of having time is an illusion. The blunt question, what have you actually done to be saved, leaves only one answer he will accept: let go of all of it and hand your whole self over to God.
Appeals and Exhortations
Direct calls to action: wake up, seek God, do not waste this human birth.
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