Self-ruin, the man who breaks his own raft
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
फोडुनि सांगडी बांधली माजासी । पैल थडी कैसी पावे सहजीं ॥1॥
आपला घात आपण चि करी । आणिकां सांगतां नाइके तरी ॥ध्रु.॥
भुकेभेणें विष देऊ पाहे आतां । आपल्या चि घाता करूं पाहे ॥2॥
तुका ह्मणे एक चालतील पुढें । तयांसी वांकडें जातां ठके ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
One breaks apart a raft and ties the planks around his waist. How will he ever reach the far shore this way? He brings ruin upon himself. Even when others warn him, he does not listen. Out of fear of hunger he now reaches for poison, seeking to bring about his own destruction. Says Tuka, those who walk a straight path move forward. Those who go crooked stumble and are stopped.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
One breaks apart a raft and ties the planks around his waist. How will he ever reach the far shore that way? He brings ruin on himself. Even when others warn him, he will not listen. Out of fear of hunger he now reaches for poison, working his own destruction. Tuka says: those who walk a straight path move forward. Those who go crooked stumble and are stopped.
What it means
Tukaram paints a man who destroys the very thing meant to carry him across, then straps the wreckage to his body and wonders why he cannot cross. The far shore is liberation; the raft is the means given for crossing, and the man dismantles it with his own hands. He pictures the same folly again: someone so afraid of going hungry that he swallows poison, choosing certain death over a passing want. The thread is willful self-ruin that refuses every warning. The closing line names the stakes plainly: the straight path moves forward, the crooked one stumbles and is stopped, so the choice of path is the whole matter.
Worldly Metaphors
Poems using images from games, occupations, and daily life as spiritual teaching.
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