Exhortation, count the profit
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
हरीच्या जागरणा । जातां कां रे नये मना ॥१॥
कोठें पाहासील तुटी । आयुष्य वेचे फुकासाटीं ॥२॥
ज्यांची तुज गुंती । ते तों मोकलिती अंतीं ॥२॥
तुका म्हणे बरा । लाभ काय तो विचारा ॥३॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
To Hari's night-vigil, why, O mind, do you not go? Where will you find any loss? Life is spent for nothing. Those with whom you are entangled will let you go in the end. Tuka says: consider well, what is the profit?
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
Why, mind, will you not go to Hari's night of singing? Where do you see any loss in it? Your life is being spent for nothing. The people you are tangled up with will let go of you in the end. Tuka says: think it over carefully. Where is your real profit?
What it means
Tukaram argues with his own mind in plain merchant's terms, the language of profit and loss he knew from his trading years. Going to the all-night singing of God's name costs you nothing and risks nothing, he says, while the life you are spending on worldly attachments is simply being wasted. The hard truth in the middle: the people you cling to will let go of you at the end anyway. So he asks the only sensible question. When you add it all up, where is the actual gain?
Appeals and Exhortations
Direct calls to action: wake up, seek God, do not waste this human birth.
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