Moral warning, the guilt of silent consent
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
केलें पाप जेणें दिलें आन्मोदन । दोघांसी पतन सारिके चि ॥1॥
विष नवनीता विष करी संगें । दुर्जनाच्या त्यागें सर्व हित ॥ध्रु.॥
देखिलें ओढाळ निघालिया सेता । टाळावें निमित्या थैक ह्मुण ॥2॥
तुका ह्मणे जोडे केल्याविण कर्म । देखतां तो श्रम न मानितां ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
The one who commits a wrongdoing, and the one who approves of it, both fall equally. Poison mixed with butter makes the butter poisonous. Safety lies in keeping far from the wicked. When you see a stray animal entering the field, drive it away at once as a precaution. Says Tuka, karma accrues even from witnessing a deed. One who sees and does not object still shares the burden.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
The one who does a wrong, and the one who approves of it, both fall the same way. Poison mixed into butter turns the butter to poison. All good lies in keeping away from the wicked. When you see a stray animal getting into the field, drive it off at once, as a safeguard. Tuka says: karma gathers even without doing the deed. The one who sees it and lets it pass still carries the weight.
What it means
Tukaram refuses the excuse of the bystander. He sets the doer of a wrong and its approver on the same level: both fall together, because consent is its own act. The image of poison ruining good butter shows how nearness to evil contaminates, so he counsels keeping clear of the wicked altogether and acting at once, like driving a stray beast out of a planted field before it ruins the crop. His sharp point is that karma accrues from witnessing too: to see wrong and not object is to share its burden. The poem turns the spotlight on our own habit of looking away, not on contempt for the wrongdoer.
The Moral Ideal
Purity, sincerity, truthfulness, humility, peacefulness, and service.
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