Exhortation, reckoning a wasted life
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
बारावषॉ बाळपण । तें ही वेचलें अज्ञानें ॥1॥
ऐसा जन्म गेला वांयां । न भजतां पंढरिराया ॥ध्रु.॥
बाकी उरलीं आठएाशीं। तीस वेचलीं कामासी ॥2॥
बाकी उरलीं आठावन्न । तीस वेचली ममतेनें ॥3॥
बाकी उरलीं आठावीस । देहगेह विसरलास ॥4॥
तुका ह्मणे ऐसा झाडा । संसार हा आहे थोडा ॥5॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
Twelve years of childhood are spent in ignorance. Thus life has gone to waste without worshipping the Lord of Pandhari. Of the remaining eighty-eight years, thirty were spent in the pursuit of desire. Of the remaining fifty-eight, thirty were consumed by attachment. Of the remaining twenty-eight, you forgot even your own body and home. Says Tuka, do the reckoning: this span of worldly life is very brief.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
Twelve years of childhood, and those went in ignorance. So this birth has gone to waste, never worshipping the King of Pandhari. Of eighty-eight years left, thirty went to lust and craving. Of fifty-eight left, thirty were eaten by attachment. Of twenty-eight left, you forgot your own body and home. Tuka says: do the accounts. This worldly life is very short.
What it means
Tukaram does the arithmetic of a life out loud, subtracting year after year to show how little is actually left for God. Childhood goes to ignorance, the prime to lust, the next stretch to attachment, the last to mere maintenance of body and household, and Pandhari, the Lord, never once gets worshipped. By counting down to a small remainder, he forces the listener to feel how brief the span really is. The call is to face the ledger honestly while there is still time, and to spend what remains on the one thing the whole life kept postponing.
Appeals and Exhortations
Direct calls to action: wake up, seek God, do not waste this human birth.
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