Married-life metaphor, the mismatched soul
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
हीनवर बीजवर दोघी त्या गडणी । अखंड कहाणी संसाराची ॥1॥
माझे पति बहु लहान चि आहे । खेळावया जाय पोरांसवें ॥ध्रु.॥
माझें दुःख जरी ऐकशील सई । ह्मातारा तो बाई खोकतसे ॥2॥
खेळे सांजवरी बाहेरी तो राहे । वाट मी पाहें सेजेवरी ॥3॥
पूर्व पुण्य माझें नाहीं वा नीट । बहु होती कष्ट सांगो कांही ॥4॥
जवळ मी जातें अंगा अंग लावूं । नेदी जवळ येऊं कांटाळतो ॥5॥
पूर्व सुकृताचा हा चि बाई ठेवा । तुका ह्मणे देवा काय बोल ॥6॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
A young wife and an old wife, both companions, share the unending tale of married life. The young wife says, 'My husband is still so little; he goes off to play with the other children.' The old wife says, 'If you will hear my sorrow, sister, my old husband just coughs and wheezes.' The young wife says, 'He plays outside till evening and stays out late. I wait for him on the bed.' 'My past merits are not in order; what great troubles I must endure.' When the young wife goes near and tries to embrace him, he will not let her close and turns away in annoyance. Says Tuka, this is the inheritance of past karma, dear sister. What can be said to God about it?.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
A young wife and an old wife, two companions, tell the endless tale of married life. The young one says: my husband is still so little; he goes off to play with the other children. The old one says: if you will hear my sorrow, sister, my old husband only coughs and wheezes. The young one says: he plays outside till evening and stays out late, and I wait for him on the bed. My past merit is not set right; so much trouble has come, what can I say of it. When I go near to press my body to his, he will not let me close; he turns away in disgust. Tuka says: this is the store of past deeds, sister. What can be said to God about it?
What it means
Tukaram dresses a spiritual complaint in a homely scene of two ill-matched wives. The young wife's husband is a child who would rather play, the old wife's husband only coughs and shrinks from her touch; in both, the longing for union meets a partner who cannot meet it. Read as the soul and God, it voices the ache of one who reaches for union and feels held off, and Tukaram traces that frustration to the account of past deeds rather than to any cruelty in God. The closing line shrugs the whole thing back to heaven: this is karma's inheritance, so what is there to argue with God about? It names the soul's restless longing and its sense of being kept at a distance, without pretending to resolve it.
Worldly Metaphors
Poems using images from games, occupations, and daily life as spiritual teaching.
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