The wife's reproach, the husband who feeds strangers
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
गोणी आली घरा । दाणे खाऊं नेदी पोरा ॥१॥
भरी लोकांची पांटोरी । मेला चोरटा खाणोरी ॥ध्रु.॥
खवळली पिसी । हाता झोंबे जैसी लांसी ॥२॥
तुका म्हणे खोटा । रांडे संचिताचा सांटा ॥३॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
A sack of grain comes home, but he will not let the children eat a morsel. He fills the bowls of strangers; this wretched hoarder has died to his own family. She rages like a wild woman, clawing like a hook. Says Tuka, O woman, the store of past merit is exhausted; that is why the pile is depleted.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
A sack of grain comes home, and he will not let the children eat a single bite. He fills the bowls of strangers. This wretched hoarder is dead to his own family. She flies into a rage, clawing like a hook at the hand. Tuka says: O woman, your store of past merit is spent; that is why the pile runs out.
What it means
Tukaram stages another scene of the household's grievance: grain comes in but goes to strangers and pilgrims while the children stay hungry, and the wife rages at the waste. Then his own signature line turns the frame. He answers her, naming the deeper account: the grain runs out because the store of past good karma is exhausted, not merely because of the husband's giving. The poem holds the wife's real anger together with a teaching about where lasting provision actually comes from, asking the listener to look past the visible quarrel to the invisible ledger.
Worldly Metaphors
Poems using images from games, occupations, and daily life as spiritual teaching.
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