The God-mad boy, the world's contempt
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
पोरा लागलीसे चट । धरी वाट देवळाची ॥1॥
सांगितलें नेघे कानीं । दुजें मनी विठ्ठल ॥ध्रु.॥
काम घरीं न करी धंदा । येथें सदा दुिश्चत्त ॥2॥
आमुचे कुळीं नव्हतें ऐसें । हें चि पिसें निवडलें ॥3॥
लौकिकाची नाहीं लाज । माझें मज पारिखें॥4॥
तुका ह्मणे नरका जाणें । त्या वचनें दुष्टाचीं ॥5॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
The boy has caught the obsession; he keeps running to the temple. He will not listen to anyone; his mind holds only Vitthal. He does no work at home, always absent-minded here. Nothing like this ever happened in our family before; this peculiar madness has singled him out. He has no shame before the world; what is mine feels foreign to me. Says Tuka, those who speak such words are the wicked ones who are bound for hell.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
The boy has caught the obsession. He keeps to the road to the temple. He hears nothing you tell him. His mind holds only Vitthal. He does no work at home, no trade. Here he is always absent. No one in our family was ever like this. This madness has picked him out. He has no shame before the world. What is mine has become a stranger to me. Tuka says: it is the wicked who say he is bound for hell.
What it means
Tukaram lets the worldly relatives speak, and then turns their verdict back on them. In their voice, the boy is a scandal: he runs to the temple, ignores everyone, neglects work and trade, brings a madness no one in the family ever had, and has lost all shame before society. The complaint that even his own people now feel foreign to him is meant as an insult to the devotee. But Tukaram's signature line flips it: those who condemn such a God-intoxicated boy as hell-bound are themselves the wicked ones. The poem asks the listener which side of that judgment they are standing on.
Autobiography
Tukaram's own account of his life, struggles, awakening, and mission.
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