The Name, scorn for the scorner
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
कथेचा उलंघ तो अधमां अधम । नावडे ज्या नाम ओळखा तो ॥1॥
कासया जीऊन जाला भूमी भार । अनउपकार माते कुंसी ॥ध्रु.॥
निद्रेचा आदर जागरणीं वीट । त्याचे पोटीं कीट कुपथ्याचें ॥2॥
तुका ह्मणे दोन्ही बुडविलीं कुळें । ज्याचें तोंड काळें कथेमाजी ॥3॥
सांडोनी दों अक्षरां । काय करूं हा पसारा ।
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
He who transgresses the sacred story is the lowest of the low. Know him as wretched who does not love the Name. Why live only to be a burden on the earth, ungrateful to the mother's womb? He who loves sleep and hates the vigil of devotion carries the worm of wrong living within his belly. Says Tuka, he who darkens his face during the sacred recitation has drowned both his lineages. Leaving aside these two syllables of the Name, what use is this entire show?
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
He who skips over the sacred story is the lowest of the low. Know him as wretched, the one who does not love the Name. Why live at all, just to be a weight on the earth, ungrateful to the womb that bore you? He who loves sleep and hates the night-vigil of devotion carries the worm of wrong living in his belly. Tuka says: he who darkens his face during the sacred recitation has drowned both his lineages. Leaving aside these two syllables of the Name, what use is all this show?
What it means
Tukaram is hard on the man who turns away from the sacred story and the Name, and he means the turning-away, not the man. He measures a life by one thing: does it love the Name, or does it only consume the earth and waste the gift of birth? The sleeper who cannot bear the night-vigil is described as sick from the inside, fed by wrong habits, and the one who sulks through the recitation is said to ruin both the families he stands between. The closing question turns it back on us. Strip away the elaborate show of religion, and what is left that is actually worth anything except the two syllables of God's Name.
The Power of the Name
The supremacy of nama-smarana: God's name as the highest practice.
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