Worldly life, knowing yet falling
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
कळों येतें तरि कां नव्हे । पडती गोवें भ्रमाचे ॥1॥
जाणतां चि होतो घात । परिसा मत देवा हें ॥ध्रु.॥
आंविसासाटीं फासा मान । पाडी धनइच्छा ते ॥2॥
तुका ह्मणे होणार खोटें । कर्म मोटें बिळवंत ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
If you can see the truth, why do you fall into the snares of delusion? Even with full knowledge, ruin comes. Hear this view of mine, O God. For the sake of a morsel of bait, one puts one's neck in a noose. The desire for wealth causes the downfall. Says Tuka, what is to come is false and crooked. Karma is great and powerful.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
If the truth can be seen, then why does it not get through? Still you fall into the snares of delusion. Even when you know, ruin comes. Hear this view of mine, O God. For a morsel of bait, you put your neck in the noose. The hunger for wealth pulls you down. Tuka says: what is coming is false and crooked. Karma is great and strong.
What it means
Tukaram is puzzling over why people destroy themselves even when they can see the truth. Knowing better, they still walk into delusion's traps, and he lays this riddle before God himself. His image is the fish: for one bite of bait it hands its neck to the noose, and in the same way the craving for wealth drags a person down to ruin. He ends by naming the force behind it: karma, the momentum of past action, is huge and powerful, so the destiny bearing down feels false and crooked, and mere knowing is not enough to break its grip.
Worldly Life
The perplexities of action, karma, and navigating life in the world.
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