Autobiography, contented poverty
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
आम्ही सदैव सुडके । जवळीं येतां चोर धाके ॥ जाऊं पुडी भिकें । कुतरीं घर राखती ॥१॥
नांदणूक ऐसी सांगा । नाहीं तरी वांयां भागा ॥ थोरपण अंगा । तरी ऐसें आणावें ॥ध्रु.॥
अक्षय साचार । केलें सायासांनी घर ॥ एरंडसिंवार । दुजा भार न साहती ॥२॥
धन कण घरोघरीं । पोट भरे भिकेवरी ॥ जतन तीं करी । कोण गुरें वासरें ॥३॥
जाली सकळ निश्चिंती । भांडवल शेण माती ॥ झळझळीत भिंती । वृंदावनें तुळसीचीं ॥४॥
तुका म्हणे देवा । अवघा निरविला हेवा ॥ कुटुंबाची सेवा । तो चि करी आमुच्या ॥५॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
We are forever in rags; a thief who comes near takes fright and flees, and only the street dogs guard our house. Is this any way to keep a household? And yet, if it is greatness you want, this is how to win it. Our house, built with great labour, is a flimsy thing of castor twigs that cannot bear a second load. Wealth and grain are in other people's houses; our belly is filled by begging; what cattle or calves have we to tend? All worry is gone now; our only capital is cow-dung and earth, the gleaming plastered walls and the tulsi at the door. Says Tuka: O God, I have handed over every longing to you; you yourself now keep our household.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
We are forever in rags. A thief who comes near takes fright and flees, finding nothing. We go out to the front and beg, and our only watchmen are the street dogs. Is this any way to keep a house, tell me, or is all the effort wasted? And yet, if it is greatness you want, this is how to come by it. We built our house with great labor, and it is truly lasting: a flimsy thing of castor twigs that could not bear a second weight. Wealth and grain are in other people's houses; our belly is filled by begging. What cattle or calves do we have to tend and guard? All our worry is gone now. Our only capital is cow-dung and earth, the gleaming plastered walls and the tulsi at the door. Tuka says: O God, I have handed every craving over to you. You yourself keep our household now.
What it means
Tukaram's portrait of his own contented poverty, half rueful joke and half confession of freedom. He is so poor that burglars flee empty-handed and dogs are his only guards; he begs his food and owns no cattle to fret over. He turns it all into a strange boast: if you want true greatness, he says, this is the road. His lasting house is a hut of castor twigs; his only wealth is the dung and earth that plaster its clean walls, and the tulsi at the door. The point lands in the last lines. Having nothing has freed him from all worry, because he has handed every desire to God, and God himself now keeps his household. Poverty, surrendered, has become security.
Autobiography
Tukaram's own account of his life, struggles, awakening, and mission.
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