Confession, habit against true experience
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
वदे वाणी परि दुर्लभ अनुभव । चालीचा चि वाहो बहुतेक ॥1॥
आह्मी ऐसें कैसें राहावें निश्चळ । पाठिलाग काळ जिंतितसे ॥ध्रु.॥
वाढवितां पोट दंभाचे पसारे । येतील माघारे मुदला तोटे ॥2॥
तुका ह्मणे बरें जागवितां मना । तुमच्या नारायणा अभयें करें ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
The tongue speaks, yet genuine experience is rare. The flow of habit carries most people along. How are we to remain steady and still? Time pursues from behind and keeps defeating us. In feeding the belly with the spread of hypocrisy, the principal itself will come back as loss. Says Tuka, it is good to keep the mind awake. By Your fearless grace, O Narayana, let us act.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
The tongue speaks, but real experience is rare; for most people it is only the drift of habit carrying them along. How are we to stay steady and still? Time hunts us from behind and keeps defeating us. Feed the belly with the spread of hypocrisy, and even the principal comes back as loss. Tuka says: it is good to keep the mind awake. By your fearless grace, Narayana, let us act.
What it means
Tukaram draws the line between talk and real experience, admitting that most lives, including the danger in his own, run on mere habit rather than truth. He names two threats: time, which keeps wearing the soul down, and hypocrisy, the show of piety used to feed the belly, which ends up costing more than it earns. The cure he points to is wakefulness, keeping the mind alert rather than drifting. The closing leans on God's fearless grace, since the strength to act rightly is asked for, not assumed.
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