Exhortation, the reckoning of Death
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
शिकवणेसाटीं वाटते तळमळ । पुढें येईल काळा फोडों डोई ॥1॥
तेव्हां त्यासि काय देशील उत्तर । मेळउनि अंतर ठेवितोसि ॥ध्रु.॥
येथींचिया सोंगें भोरपियाचे परि । होईल तें दुरि शृंगारिलें ॥2॥
तुका ह्मणे कां रे राखिलें खरकटें । रागेल्याचे तंट रागेलें का ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
I feel anguish trying to instruct you, for when Death comes and knocks upon your head, what answer will you give? You accumulate dirt within while keeping up appearances like a scarecrow. The adornment of worldly show will be stripped away at that hour. Says Tuka, why have you clung to these scraps? When the angry one is enraged, it is the angry one who suffers.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
I burn with anguish trying to teach you, for Death will come and split your head open. What answer will you give him then? You gather filth inside while keeping up the show. This costume of yours, like a mummer's, will be stripped away when that hour comes, and all your finery falls far off. Tuka says: why have you held on to these scraps? When the angry man rages, it is the angry man himself who suffers.
What it means
Tukaram speaks as a teacher in genuine pain over a listener who will not learn. He names the stake directly: Death is coming, and at that hour the man will have no answer, because inwardly he has stored up filth while outwardly keeping up appearances. The image of the mummer or scarecrow says the whole performance is a costume that will be torn off, leaving nothing. The scraps he clings to are the small worldly attachments not worth the loss. The closing line turns the warning inward: rage at the rebuke harms only the one who rages, so the listener's resistance is itself the trap.
Appeals and Exhortations
Direct calls to action: wake up, seek God, do not waste this human birth.
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