Exhortation, death sits close by
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
उपजला प्राणी न राहे संसारीं । बैसला सेजारी काळ उसां ॥1॥
पाहा तो उंदीर घेउनि जाय बोका । तैसा काळ लोका नेत असे ॥ध्रु.॥
खाटिकाचे घरीं अजापुत्र पाहें । कसाबाची गाय वांचे कैसी ॥2॥
तुका ह्मणे कांहीं करा काढाकाढी । जाती ऐसी घडी पुन्हा नये ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
Every being that is born does not remain in this world forever. Death sits close by, watching for its moment. See how a cat seizes a mouse and carries it away; just so, Death carries people off. Look at the goat's kid in the butcher's house. How can the slaughterhouse cow survive? Says Tuka, do something quickly; such a moment, once gone, never returns.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
Every being that is born does not stay in this world. Death sits at the bedside, its head on the same pillow. Look how the cat picks up the mouse and carries it off; just so death is carrying people away. Look at the goat's kid in the butcher's house. How will the slaughterhouse cow survive? Tuka says: do something quickly, set it right. The moment that goes like this does not come again.
What it means
Tukaram drives home that no one born stays, and death is not far off but lying right beside us, sharing the pillow. He piles up images of the doomed: the mouse already in the cat's mouth, the kid and the cow in the butcher's yard, all of them living out their last moments without escape. We are no different, carried off the same way. So the urgency is practical: do something now, while you still can, because this present moment, once spent, will never return to be used for your liberation.
Appeals and Exhortations
Direct calls to action: wake up, seek God, do not waste this human birth.
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