Renunciation, the false ascetic
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
नव्हे ब्रह्मचर्य बाइलेच्या त्यागें । वैराग्य वाउगें देशत्यागें ॥1॥
काम वाढे भय वासनेच्या द्वारें । सांडावें तें धीरें आचावाचे ॥ध्रु.॥
कांपवूनि टिरी शूरत्वाची मात । केलें वाताहात उचित काळें ॥2॥
तुका ह्मणे करी जिव्हेसी विटाळ । लटिक्याची मळ स्तुति होतां ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
True celibacy is not mere renunciation of one's wife, nor is true detachment simply leaving one's homeland. Desire grows through the door of craving, and what must be dropped should be dropped with patient resolve. One who trembles when tested yet boasts of valor has already squandered his opportunity. Says Tuka, the tongue is defiled when it offers praise to what is false.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
Celibacy is not just giving up your wife. Detachment is not just leaving your homeland. Desire grows through the door of craving. What must be dropped should be dropped with patient resolve. The man who trembles when he is tested, yet boasts of his courage, has wasted his chance when the time came. Tuka says: the tongue is defiled when it praises what is false.
What it means
Tukaram strips the disguise off outward renunciation. Leaving a wife behind or wandering far from home proves nothing; desire enters through craving in the mind, and only steady inner resolve actually drops it. He points at the pretender who shakes with fear when truly tested and then brags of his valor, who let the real opportunity pass while posing as a hero. The closing line turns the examination onto speech itself: to praise such false courage, in oneself or another, is to defile the very tongue that speaks it. The warning is against the boast we are tempted to make, not contempt for the person.
Renunciation
The case for letting go of worldly attachments and turning wholly to God.
More in this theme →