Moral ideal, keep away from the corrupting eye
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
नये पाहों मुख मात्रागमन्याचें । तैसें अभक्ताचें गुरुपुत्रा ॥1॥
ह्मणऊनि बरें धरितां एकांत । तेणें नव्हे घात भजनासी ॥ध्रु.॥
नये होऊं कदा निंदकाची भेटी । जया द्वैत पोटीं चांडाळाच्या ॥2॥
तुका ह्मणे नका बोलों त्यासी गोष्टी । जयाचिये दृष्टी पाप वाढे ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
One should not look upon the face of an adulterous person, nor, for a guru's son, upon that of a non-devotee. Therefore it is good to keep to solitude, for this does no harm to one's devotion. One should never meet a slanderer who carries duality in the belly of one truly fallen. Says Tuka, do not even speak with one in whose gaze sin multiplies.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
One should not look on the face of an adulterer, nor, for a guru's son, on the face of a non-devotee. So it is good to keep to solitude; that does no harm to devotion. Never meet the slanderer who carries duality in his belly, fallen as an outcaste. Tuka says: do not even speak with the one in whose gaze sin grows.
What it means
Tukaram is counseling the devotee to guard his company, because corrupting influence works through nearness. He uses sharp comparisons to mark the people to avoid: the one who betrays his vows, the non-devotee, the slanderer whose inner life is split and divisive. His remedy is solitude, which costs devotion nothing and protects it. The point is not to despise these people as persons but to recognize that close association with certain patterns, treachery, contempt, the appetite for tearing others down, will feed the same patterns in oneself. So he says do not even keep up conversation where the very gaze nourishes sin.
The Moral Ideal
Purity, sincerity, truthfulness, humility, peacefulness, and service.
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