True worship, freedom from enmity
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
निर्वैर होणें साधनाचें मूळ । येर ते विल्हाळ सांडीमांडी ॥1॥
नाहीं चालों येती सोंगसंपादणी । निवडे अवसानीं शुद्धाशुद्ध ॥ध्रु.॥
त्यागा नांव तरी निविनषयवासना । कारीयेकारणांपुरते विधि ॥2॥
तुका ह्मणे राहे चिंतनीं आवडी । येणें नांवें जोडी सत्यत्वेंशीं ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
To become free of enmity is the root of all spiritual practice; everything else is mere play and pretense. Outward performances will not hold up; purity and impurity are separated at the final test. True renunciation means the extinction of all vasana for sense objects; rules are only for practical purposes. Says Tuka, when the love of contemplation remains constant, that itself is the true bond with truth.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
To be free of enmity is the root of all practice. The rest is only setting up and pulling down. Outward shows will not hold. Pure and impure are sorted out at the final test. Renunciation means the dying out of craving for sense things. Rules are only for getting the work done. Tuka says: let love rest in contemplation and stay. By that name alone is the true bond with truth gained.
What it means
Tukaram puts bearing no enmity at the very root of spiritual practice and dismisses the rest as busywork, mere arranging and dismantling. He warns that staged piety collapses at the end, when what is genuinely pure and impure gets separated. Real renunciation, he says, is not outward show but the inward dying out of craving, with rules kept only as far as they serve the work. The one thing that counts is a love that stays steady in contemplation; that alone, he insists, binds a person to truth.
True Worship
What genuine worship looks like, beyond outward observances and images.
More in this theme →