Exhortation, the rare human birth
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
बहुतां जन्मां अंतीं जन्मलासी नरा । देव तूं सोइरा करीं आतां ॥1॥
करीं आतां बापा स्वहिताचा स्वार्थ । अनर्थाचा अर्थ सांडीं आतां ॥ध्रु.॥
सांडि आतां कुडी कल्पनेची वाट । मार्ग आहे नीट पंढरीचा ॥2॥
पंढरीस जावें सर्व सुख घ्यावें । रूप तें पाहावें विटेवरि ॥3॥
विटेवरि नीट आनंदाचा कंद । तुका नाचे छंद नामघोषें ॥4॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
After countless births, you have at last been born as a human. Now make God your true companion. Now, dear one, pursue the goal of your own welfare; abandon the pursuit of what leads to ruin. Give up the crooked path of false imagination. The road to Pandhari is straight and clear. Go to Pandhari and receive all happiness. Behold that form standing on the brick, the root of all bliss. Says Tuka, I dance in the joy of the Name's resounding chant.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
After many births, at last you are born a human, man. Now make God your kin. Now, dear one, work for your own true good; let go of the pursuit that ends in ruin. Give up the crooked road of false imagining. The road to Pandhari is straight. Go to Pandhari and take all happiness. Look at that form standing on the brick, the root of all joy. Tuka says: I dance to the rhythm, in the loud chant of the Name.
What it means
Tukaram speaks straight to the listener about how rare this moment is. A human birth has come only after countless lives, and he treats it as a narrow opening that must not be wasted on what leads to ruin. The frame he names is the choice between two roads: the crooked path of false imagining, and the straight road to Pandhari. He tells the person to drop the first and take the second, because the form standing on the brick at Pandhari is the root of all happiness and is there to be received. The poem ends not in argument but in example, with Tuka himself dancing in the loud chant of the Name, showing what taking that road looks like.
Appeals and Exhortations
Direct calls to action: wake up, seek God, do not waste this human birth.
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