49.3: Tukaram returns home

32. She said, ‘Hear, O my friends, my fate is adverse. My husband does not care for me but goes and sits in the forest.

33. He has given up his business and dances in the kirtan with love. He constantly thinks of Purushottam (Vishnu) and as a rule sings His praises.

34. He has been in the town for the last two months but all that time he has never come home. O friends, I am • worn out by anxiety day and night.

35. If you ever see him, teach him the morals of religion. He has abandoned his wife, and therefore his life has become disreputable among the people.’

36. She repeatedly complained about him to her neighbours and one day she took a pot and went to fetch water.

37. She filled the pot with water and was going back home when she met Tukoba on his way to the temple after bathing.

38. His wife at once went to him and caught him by the end of his dhotar. Listen to what she said to him without any sense of respect:

39. ‘You are without any sense of shame and scruple and you dance day and night in the praise services of God. You never come home and on that account I feel so uneasy.

40. On account of public shame I weep bitterly at home. Tell me at once what you mean to do with us.’

41. On this he replied to his wife, ‘Your parents married you without any thought of my circumstances; then why should I provide you with food and clothing?’

42. Then his wife said to Tuka, ‘Whose circumstances, then, did they consider?’ He said, ‘Of my parents, and they have given you into their care.’

43. On this the wife replied, ‘Your parents are dead. Where can I go, to find them? You yourself have cremated them in the funeral ground.’

44. On this the bhakta of God said, ‘Pandurang is my father, and the Mother of the universe, Rukmini, is my mother. Both of them are for ever imperishable and immovable.

45. They do not grow with the growth of creation and are not destroyed with the destruction of the world.

46. If the sky reflects in a pot of water, and the pot is broken, it cannot be said that the sky is broken.

47. In the same way are my parents. Contemplate their feet in your heart. They will provide you with food and clothes. Have no doubt about it.’

48. The wife then said, ‘O lord of my life, now please come home. The revilers will be put to shame thereby. And by your presence our family life will look well.

49. I will worship the feet of Shri Hari (God). Even they will provide food and clothes for me. You sit quietly at home and continue your worship of Shri Hari.’

50. The husband then said. ‘If you listen to my advice, and if you give me your word for it, then I will now come home at once.’

51. The wife gave her promise and brought home the Vaishnava Tuka. The people wondered very much and began to talk between themselves:

52. ‘He made an exhibition of his vairagya (asceticism) for a few days, and let his reputation spread, but again he has yielded himself to maya (illusion) and has returned to his family affairs.’

53. Some said, ‘It is as it ought tobe; for spiritual riches are to be truly gained in family life. That Tuka has accepted his wife is a matter of satisfaction to us.

54. Many go and sit in the caves of mountains, but which of them has attained Vaikunth (Vishnu’s heaven).’ In this way the people gossiped without any consideration.

55. Some derided Tuka while some praised him. Some called him the best while others called him the worst. But he disregarded both praise and blame and he was ever full of joy.