The rope and the snake, fear is imaginary
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
ओनाम्याच्या काळें । खडें मांडविलें बाळें ॥1॥
तें चि पुढें पुढें काई । मग लागलिया सोई ॥ध्रु.॥
रज्जु सर्प होता । तोंवरी चि न कळतां ॥2॥
तुका ह्मणे साचें । भय नाहीं बागुलाचें ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
In the time of ignorance, a child sets up pebbles and plays house. That same game continues forward once the habit takes hold. The rope appeared to be a serpent, but only so long as one did not know the truth. Says Tuka, the genuine has nothing to fear from the scarecrow.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
In the time of not-knowing, a child lines up pebbles and plays at keeping house. The same game runs on and on once the habit sets in. The rope looked like a snake, but only as long as you had not seen the truth. Tuka says: to one who is real, the scarecrow holds no fear.
What it means
Tukaram uses three plain pictures for how a false thing frightens or grips us. A child arranges pebbles and treats the pretend household as serious, and the game keeps going by sheer habit, the way we keep mistaking the world for solid. A coiled rope is read as a snake, and the terror lasts exactly as long as the ignorance does, no longer. A scarecrow scares only the one who takes it for a man. In each case the fear is real but its cause is not; the moment you see truly, the snake, the scarecrow, the pebble-house all lose their power.
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