Impermanence, fortune's fall
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
कवणदिस येइल कैसा । न कळे संपत्तीचा भरंवसा॥1॥
चौदा चौकडिया लंकापति । त्याची कोण जाली गती ॥ध्रु.॥
लंकेसारिखें भुवन । त्याचें त्यासी पारखें जाण ॥2॥
तेहतीस कोटि बांदवडी । राज्य जातां न लगे घडी ॥3॥
ऐसे अहंतेनें नाडिले । तुका ह्मणे वांयां गेले ॥4॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
Who knows what turn fortune may take and when? Consider Ravana, the lord of Lanka with his fourteen powers. Even a realm like Lanka became foreign to him. He had imprisoned thirty-three crore gods, yet when his kingdom fell, it took not even a moment. Says Tuka, all such people were ruined by ego and went to waste.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
Who knows what day it will come, or how. There is no trusting in wealth. Ravana was lord of Lanka with his fourteen powers. What became of him? A realm like Lanka, and it turned strange to its own master. He held thirty-three crore gods in prison; yet the kingdom fell in less than an hour. Pride ruined them all. Tuka says: they went to waste.
What it means
Tukaram uses Ravana as the warning. No wealth, no power, no kingdom can be trusted to last; the day of its loss comes without notice. He takes the largest case he can name, the lord of Lanka who imprisoned even the gods, and shows how fast the whole thing collapsed: not even an hour. The cause is not bad luck but ego, the swelling pride that makes a person think the empire is his to keep. If even that ruined the mightiest, examine where your own pride leans on what you own.
Worldly Life
The perplexities of action, karma, and navigating life in the world.
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