Moral law, the mirror
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
देव होसी तरी आणिकांतें करिसी । संदेह येविशीं करणें न लगे ॥1॥
दुष्ट होसी तरी अणिकांतें करिसी । संदेह येविशीं करणें न लगे ॥2॥
तुका ह्मणे जें दर्पणीं बिंबलें । तें तया बाणलें निश्चयेसीं ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
If you are divine, you will make others divine. Of this there is no doubt. If you are wicked, you will make others wicked. Of this there is no doubt. Says Tuka, what is reflected in the mirror is what has lodged in that one, fixed and certain.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
If you are divine, you will make others divine. There is no doubt about this; nothing more need be done. If you are wicked, you will make others wicked. There is no doubt about this; nothing more need be done. Tuka says: what is reflected in the mirror is exactly what has lodged in the one standing before it, fixed and certain.
What it means
Tukaram states a law about how character spreads. What a person carries inside is what they pass on to others: the divine breed the divine, the wicked breed the wicked, with no exception to argue about. The closing image of the mirror seals it: the reflection shows only what is actually there, nothing added and nothing hidden. The point lands on self-examination. If you would know what you truly are, look at what you produce in the people around you.
The Moral Ideal
Purity, sincerity, truthfulness, humility, peacefulness, and service.
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