Exhortation, the wasted human birth
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
भक्तीवीण जिणें जळो लाजिरवाणें । संसार भोगणें दुःखमूळ ॥1॥
वीसलक्ष योनि वृक्षामाजी घ्याव्या । जलचरीं भोगाव्या नवलक्ष ॥ध्रु.॥
अकरालक्ष योनि किडएांमाजी घ्याव्या । दशलक्ष भोगाव्या पक्ष्यांमध्ये ॥2॥
तीसलक्ष योनि पशूंचीये घरीं । मानवाभीतरीं चारलक्ष ॥3॥
एकएक योनि कोटिकोटि फेरा । मनुष्यदेहाचा वारा मग लागे ॥4॥
तुका ह्मणे तेव्हां नरदेह नरा । तयाचा मातेरा केला मूढें ॥5॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
Life without devotion is shameful and fit to be burned. Enduring worldly existence is the root of all suffering. Twenty lakh forms of life must be endured among trees; nine lakh among water creatures. Eleven lakh forms among insects and worms; ten lakh among birds. Thirty lakh forms among animals, and four lakh in the human species. Each form must be passed through crores and crores of times before the breeze of a human birth reaches one. Says Tuka, when at last the human body is obtained, the fool squanders it to ruin.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
A life without devotion is shameful; let it be burned. To go on enduring the world is the root of suffering. Twenty lakh wombs must be passed among the trees. Nine lakh among the creatures of the water. Eleven lakh among insects and worms. Ten lakh among the birds. Thirty lakh in the houses of the animals. Four lakh among human kinds. Each form is taken crores upon crores of times, and only then does the breeze of a human birth touch you. Tuka says: and when at last the human body is reached, the fool grinds it to dust.
What it means
Tukaram is counting the price of a human birth so you will not throw it away. He stacks up the old reckoning of the wombs: lakhs upon lakhs of forms among trees, water creatures, worms, birds, animals, each entered crores of times, before a soul is finally born as a human being. The number is meant to land as weight, not arithmetic: a human life is the rarest opening in an almost endless circuit. To live that life without devotion is to burn the one chance, and the suffering of going round again is the result. The sharp word is for the pattern in any of us that treats this birth as cheap, not for any particular person.
Appeals and Exhortations
Direct calls to action: wake up, seek God, do not waste this human birth.
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