The saints, slandering them is hell
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
संतनिंदा ज्याचे घरीं । नव्हे घर ते यमपुरी ॥1॥
त्याच्या पापा नाहीं जोडा । संगें जना होय पीडा ॥ध्रु.॥
संतनिंदा आवडे ज्यासी । तो जिता चि नर्कवासी ॥2॥
तुका ह्मणे तो नष्ट। जाणा गाढव तो स्पष्ट ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
A house where saints are slandered is not a home but the city of Yama. There is no match for the sin of such a person; even bystanders suffer from association. Whoever takes pleasure in slandering saints is already living in hell while still alive. Says Tuka, know plainly that such a wretch is nothing but a donkey.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
A house where saints are slandered is not a home but the city of Yama. There is no match for that one's sin; even those nearby suffer from his company. Whoever loves to slander saints is living in hell while still alive. Tuka says: know plainly that such a wretch is just a donkey.
What it means
Tukaram puts the slander of saints among the gravest of acts and names its stakes without softening them. A household where the saints are abused has already become the city of death; the sin is beyond comparison, and its harm spreads even to those who merely keep such company. He is not describing a punishment in some other world only: the one who delights in slandering the holy is, he says, already in hell while alive, because that contempt is itself a hellish state of mind. The blunt closing insult is aimed at the pattern of scorn, urging the listener to recoil from that impulse in himself rather than simply to despise the man.
The Saints
The character and service of true saints: softer than butter, harder than diamond.
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