True worship, who can tell their fate
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
एकादशीव्रत सोमवार न करिती । कोण त्यांची गति होइल नेणों ॥१॥
काय करूं बहु वाटे तळमळ । आंधळीं सकळ बहिर्मुख ॥ध्रु.॥
हरिहरां नाहीं बोटभरी वाती । कोण त्यांची गति होईल नेणों ॥२॥
तुका म्हणे नाहीं नारायणीं प्रीति । कोण त्यांची गति होइल नेणों ॥३॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
Those who do not keep the Ekadashi vow or observe the Monday fast, who can tell their fate? What can I do? The anguish is great, for all are blind and outward-facing. Those who will not light even a wick a finger's length for Hari and Hara, who can tell their fate? Says Tuka, those who have no love for Narayana, who can tell their fate?
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
Those who keep no Ekadashi vow, who do not observe the Monday fast, what will become of them? I cannot tell. What am I to do? My heart aches, for they are all blind, all turned the wrong way. Those who will not light even a finger-length wick for Hari and Hara, what will become of them? I cannot tell. Tuka says: those who have no love for Narayana, what will become of them? I cannot tell.
What it means
An abhanga built on a single anguished refrain: who can tell their fate? Tukaram looks at people who keep none of the simple devotions, no Ekadashi fast, no Monday observance, not even a small lamp lit for God, and above all no love for Narayana, and he is genuinely distressed, not superior. He calls them blind and turned outward, away from the one thing that would save them. The repeated I cannot tell is not a threat but a grief; he does not know what becomes of a life with no love of God in it, and the not-knowing pains him.
True Worship
What genuine worship looks like, beyond outward observances and images.
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