Exhortation, the two-day guest
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
दो दिवसांचा पाहुणा चालतो उताणा । कां रे नारायणा न भजसी ॥1॥
तूं अखंड दुिश्चत्ता तुज नेती अवचिता । मग पंढरीनाथा भजसी केव्हां ॥2॥
तुका ह्मणे ऐसे आहेत उदंड । तया केशव प्रचंड केवीं भेटे ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
You are a guest of but two days, lying about carelessly. Why do you not worship Narayana? Your mind is forever restless, and death may seize you at any moment. When then will you worship the Lord of Pandhari? Says Tuka, there are plenty of such people, but how will the mighty Keshava ever meet them?.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
You are a guest of just two days, lying about as if it were nothing. Why, then, do you not worship Narayana? Your mind never settles, and death may carry you off without warning. So when will you ever worship the Lord of Pandhari? Tuka says: there are crowds of such people. How is the mighty Keshava ever to meet them?
What it means
Tukaram wakes the listener with a hard fact: this life is a two-day stay, a guest's visit, not a permanent home, and you are spending it sprawled in idle ease. He presses the urgency by joining a restless mind to a sudden death that can come at any moment, which leaves no safe later for the devotion you keep postponing. The closing line widens the rebuke to a whole crowd who live this way and then wonders aloud how the great Keshava could ever come near such distracted, unready hearts. The sting is meant to turn the hearer toward worship now, while there is still time, rather than to write anyone off.
Appeals and Exhortations
Direct calls to action: wake up, seek God, do not waste this human birth.
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