Metaphor, no harvest without care
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
निवडावें खडे । तरी दळण वोजें घडे ॥1॥
नाहीं तरि नासोनि जाय । कारण आळस उरे हाय ॥ध्रु.॥
निवडावें तन। सेतीं करावें राखण ॥2॥
तुका ह्मणे नीत । न विचारितां नव्हे हित॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
If you remove the pebbles, the grinding will proceed properly. Otherwise, everything is spoiled; laziness is the cause, and regret is all that remains. You must weed the field and guard the crop. Says Tuka, without careful thought, no true good can come.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
Pick out the pebbles, and the grinding goes well. Leave them, and everything is spoiled; laziness is the cause, and only regret is left. Weed the field; stand guard over the crop. Tuka says: without careful thought, no real good comes.
What it means
Tukaram teaches the inner life through plain farm-work images, and leaves the reader to carry them across. Stones must be picked from the grain or the milling is ruined; weeds must be pulled and the field watched or the harvest is lost. In each case the spoiling traces back to one fault, laziness, and what it leaves behind is regret. The closing line names the lesson the metaphors point to: nothing truly good arrives without careful, deliberate attention. The work of clearing and guarding the mind is as unglamorous, and as necessary, as tending a field.
Worldly Metaphors
Poems using images from games, occupations, and daily life as spiritual teaching.
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