Satire, the empty house without God
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
घर केलें दार केलें । घरीं नाहीं वरो । सेजारणी पापिणीचीं पांच पोरें मरो ॥१॥
घरीं पांच पोरें । तीं मजहुनि आहेत थोरें । पांचांच्या बळें । खादलीं बावन केळें ॥२॥
घर केलें दार केलें । दुकान केला मोटा । पाटाची राणी धांगडधिंगा तिचा मोटा ॥३॥
दुकान केला मोटा । तर पदरीं रुका खोटा । हिजडा म्हणसी जोगी ।
तर सोळा सहस्र भोगी । तुका म्हणे वेगीं । तर हरि म्हणा जगीं ॥४॥
जन्मा आलिया गेलिया परी । भक्ति नाहीं केली ।
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
She built a house and made a door, but there is no bridegroom within. May the five children of that sinful neighbor perish. She has five children, yet they are bigger than she is; by the strength of those five they devoured fifty-two bananas. She built a house and made a door and opened a grand shop, yet the coin in her lap is counterfeit. You call the eunuch a yogi, yet he enjoys sixteen thousand. Says Tuka, say the name of Hari in this world without delay.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
She built a house, she made a door, but there is no husband inside. Let the five children of that sinful neighbor woman die off. There are five children in the house, and they are bigger than she is. By the strength of those five, fifty-two bananas were eaten up. She built a house, she made a door, she set up a grand shop. The wedded queen makes her noisy uproar, and her racket is loud. She set up a grand shop, but the coin in her lap is counterfeit. You call the eunuch a yogi, yet he takes his pleasure with sixteen thousand. Tuka says: be quick, say the name of Hari in this world. Births come and go, but devotion was never done.
What it means
Tukaram uses a riddling, satirical picture of a household to expose a life that is all structure and no God. The woman builds the house and even opens a grand shop, but there is no husband within and the coin she holds is counterfeit, so all the activity is hollow. The five children who are bigger than she is and devour fifty-two bananas point to the senses and appetites that grow stronger than the self and consume everything. The closing turn names the real failure plainly: lifetimes come and go and the only thing that was never done is devotion. So he urges the one remedy, to say the name of Hari now, before another birth is wasted on counterfeit business.
Worldly Metaphors
Poems using images from games, occupations, and daily life as spiritual teaching.
More in this theme →