Exhortation, wake up while you can
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
सदैव तुह्मां अवघें आहे । हातपाय चालाया ॥1॥
मुखीं वाणी कानीं कीतिन । डोळे मूर्ती देखाया ॥ध्रु.॥
अंध बहिर ठकलीं किती । मुकीं होती पांगुळें ॥2॥
घरास आगि लावुनि जागा। न पळे तो गा वांचे ना ॥3॥
तुका ह्मणे जागा हिता । कांहीं आतां आपुल्या ॥4॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
You are fortunate, for you still have everything. Your hands and feet still move. Your mouth has speech, your ears can hear kirtan, your eyes can behold the divine form. Think of how many are blind, how many deaf, how many mute, lame, or crippled. One who sets fire to one's own house and does not flee cannot survive. Says Tuka, wake up now; attend to your own welfare.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
You are fortunate: you still have everything. Your hands and feet still move. Your mouth has speech, your ears can hear kirtan, your eyes can behold the form of God. Think how many are blind, how many deaf, how many mute, how many lame. A man who sets fire to his own house and does not run out cannot live. Tuka says: wake up now; attend to your own good while there is time.
What it means
Tukaram counts the blessings most people overlook: working limbs, a voice, ears that can hear the holy story, eyes that can see the divine form. He sets them against all those who lack these very things, so the listener will stop treating them as nothing. Then comes the sharp image: to keep these gifts and waste them is like staying inside a burning house and refusing to flee. The call is urgent and personal: wake up and use this rare chance for your own welfare now, before the fire takes everything.
Appeals and Exhortations
Direct calls to action: wake up, seek God, do not waste this human birth.
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