Moral counsel, truth and no gap
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
पाववावें ठाया । ऐसें सवें बोलों तया ॥1॥
भावा ऐसी क्रिया राखे । खोटएा खोटेपणें वाखे ॥ध्रु.॥
न ठेवूं अंतर । कांहीं भेदाचा पदर ॥2॥
तुका ह्मणे जीवें भावें । सत्या मानविजे देवें ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
Speak only such words as would lead him to the true destination. Let your actions accord with your bhava, and falsehood will be known for what it is by its own falseness. Keep no gap, no fold of separation between you and the other. Says Tuka, with one's whole jiva and devotion, let God be honored by truth alone.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
Speak to him only words that carry him to the true place. Let your acts match what is in your heart. A false thing shows its own falseness. Keep no distance. Let no fold of separation come between you and the other. Tuka says: with the whole soul and with love, let God be honored by truth, and by truth alone.
What it means
Tukaram is laying down a rule for how to deal with another person and with God at once. Speak only what leads the other toward the truth, and let your conduct line up with your inner devotion, because anything false will betray itself in time. He then asks for closeness with no screen between self and other, no fold of separation held back. The whole teaching lands on one demand: honor God with the entire living soul, and let that honoring be made of truth, nothing else.
The Moral Ideal
Purity, sincerity, truthfulness, humility, peacefulness, and service.
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