Metaphor, breaking the soul's bondage
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
टाक रुका चाल रांडे कां गे केली गोवी । पुसोनियां आलें ठाव म्हणोनि देतें सिवी ॥१॥
आतां येणें छंदें नाचों विनोदें । नाहीं या गोविंदें माझें मजसी केलें ॥ध्रु.॥
कोरडे ते बोल कांगे वेचितेसी वांयां । वर्ते करूनि दावीं तुझ्या मुळीचिया ठाया ॥२॥
याजसाठीं म्या डौर धरियेला हातीं । तुका म्हणे तुम्हा गांठी सोडायाची खंती ॥३॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
Toss a coin and move on, you wretch; why have you tangled yourself? I have wiped the old slate clean and will stitch a new border in its place. Now let us dance in this rapture of play. Govinda has made me a stranger to myself. Why do you waste those dry, empty words? Show me by your actions where your real origin lies. Says Tuka, it is for this very reason I have taken the drum in my hand: to untie the knot that binds you.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
Toss down the coin and move on, you wretch; why have you tangled yourself up? I have wiped the old slate clean, so I scold you and tell you to be gone. Now let us dance in this rapture of play. Govinda has made me a stranger to my own self. Why do you spend those dry, empty words for nothing? Show it by your deeds; go back to where you first came from. It is for this very reason that I took the drum in my hand. Tuka says: it is your grief that I mean to loosen, the knot that binds you.
What it means
Tukaram speaks in the voice of the minstrel scolding a clinging, complaining self, addressed harshly as the wretch who keeps tangling herself in worldly attachment. He has wiped his own slate clean because Govinda has made him a stranger to his old self, so he has no patience for dry words that are never matched by deeds. The blunt command, toss the coin, be gone, go back to your origin, is aimed at the habit of clinging, not at a person to be despised. The drum in his hand is the whole purpose: he took it up to untie the knot of grief and bondage, both his own and his hearers'.
Worldly Metaphors
Poems using images from games, occupations, and daily life as spiritual teaching.
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