Self-correction, harden the mind
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
फजितखोरा मना किती तुज सांगों । नको कोणा लागों मागें मागें ॥1॥
स्नेहवादें दुःख जडलेंसे अंगीं । निष्ठ हें जगीं प्रेमसुख ॥ध्रु.॥
निंदास्तुती कोणी करो दयामया । न धरीं चाड या सुखदुःखें ॥2॥
योगिराज कां रे न राहाती बैसोनी । एकिये आसनीं या चि गुणें ॥3॥
तुका ह्मणे मना पाहें विचारून । होई रे कठिण वज्राऐसें ॥4॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
O disgraced and shameless mind, how many times must I tell you? Do not follow after anyone. Through attachment, suffering has clung to the body. Faithless is the pleasure of worldly love in this world. Let anyone praise or blame; O compassionate Lord, do not hold any longing for pleasure or pain. Why do the great yogis not remain seated on one seat? It is precisely for this quality that they do. Says Tuka, O mind, think it over. Become hard as a thunderbolt.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
Shameless, disgraced mind, how many times must I tell you? Do not go running after anyone. Through fondness, suffering has stuck to the body. The pleasure of worldly love has no faith in it. Let anyone praise or blame. O compassionate one, do not long for pleasure or for pain. Why do the great yogis stay seated, unmoving, on one seat? It is exactly for this. Tuka says: mind, think it over. Become hard as a thunderbolt.
What it means
Tukaram is scolding his own mind for chasing after people and attachments. He points out the trap: it is fondness itself that has glued suffering to the body, and the comforts of worldly love cannot be trusted to last. The cure is to stop reacting to either praise or blame and to stop craving pleasure or fearing pain, which is exactly why the great yogis can sit unmoved on one seat. He tells the mind to weigh this and grow as hard and unbreakable as a thunderbolt, not from coldness but from steadiness.
Appeals and Exhortations
Direct calls to action: wake up, seek God, do not waste this human birth.
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