True worship, clean within
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
काय कशी करिती गंगा । भीतरिं चांगा नाहीं तो ॥१॥
अधणीं कुचर बाहेर तैसा । नये रसा पाकासि ॥ध्रु.॥
काय टिळे करिती माळा । भाव खळा नाहीं त्या ॥२॥
तुका म्हणे प्रेमें विण । बोले भुंके अवघा शीण ॥३॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
What good are baths in the Ganga for one who is not pure within? Like something half-cooked and spoiled inside, it yields no flavour in the cooking. What good are tilak-marks and rosaries for one whose feeling is crooked? Says Tuka, without love, all speaking is barking, all of it only weariness.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
What good are baths in the Ganga to a person who is not clean within? He is like food half-cooked and already spoiled inside, which yields no flavor however you cook it. What good are the tilak marks and the rosaries to someone whose heart is crooked? Tuka says: without love, all the talking is just barking, and the whole of it only wearies you.
What it means
Another of Tukaram's attacks on outward religion empty of the inner thing. Sacred baths, forehead marks, prayer beads, all the visible apparatus, are worthless if the heart is impure or crooked; the spoiled ingredient cannot be saved by cooking. The standard, as always, is love. Without it, religious speech is mere noise, the barking of a dog, and it leaves you only tired. He is not against the outward forms as such; he is against mistaking them for the substance they are meant to express.
True Worship
What genuine worship looks like, beyond outward observances and images.
More in this theme →