Exhortation, the stick that teaches
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
कुटल्याविण नव्हे मांडा । अळसें धोंडा पडतसे ॥1॥
राग नको धरूं मनीं । गांडमणी सांगतों ॥ध्रु.॥
तरटापुढें बरें नाचे। सुतकाचें मुसळ ॥2॥
तुका ह्मणे काठी सार । करी फार शाहाणें ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
Without kneading, no sweet manda can be made. With laziness, one falls like a stone. Do not hold anger in your mind. I am telling you this crudely, straight out. Before the rough rope, even the pestle of grief dances well. Says Tuka, the stick is the essential thing. It makes even the foolish wise.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
Without kneading, no sweet manda is made. With laziness you fall like a stone. Do not hold anger in your mind. I am telling you this bluntly. Before the rough rope, even the pestle dances well. Tuka says: the stick is the main thing. It makes even the foolish wise.
What it means
Tukaram is making a plain, almost rough case for discipline. Just as dough must be kneaded before a sweet can be made, a person who stays lazy goes nowhere and drops like a dead stone. He warns against taking offense and admits he is speaking crudely on purpose. His blunt images, the rope and the pestle made to move, lead to the point: it is firm correction, the stick, that does the real work and can bring even a fool to sense. The poem defends hard treatment as kindness aimed at the lazy pattern, not contempt for the person.
Appeals and Exhortations
Direct calls to action: wake up, seek God, do not waste this human birth.
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