Moral ideal, slander as great sin
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
पूर्वजांसी नकान । जाणें तें आइका ॥1॥
निंदा करावी चाहाडी । मनीं धरूनि आवडी ॥ध्रु.॥
मात्रागमना ऐसी।जोडी पातकांची रासी ॥2॥
तुका ह्मणे वाट । कुंभपाकाची ते नीट॥
वेडीं तें वेडीं बहुत चि वेडीं । चाखतां गोडी चवी नेणे ॥ध्रु.॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
Know this: slandering others and carrying tales with relish sends one's ancestors to hell. Such gossip accumulates sins equal to the gravest transgressions. Says Tuka, that path leads straight to the cauldron of hell.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
Know this, and listen: to slander others and carry tales with relish drags one's own ancestors down to hell. Such gossip piles up a heap of sins, as grave as the gravest transgressions. Tuka says: that path leads straight to the boiling cauldron of hell. Fools, fools, utter fools: tasting the sweetness, they cannot tell the flavor.
What it means
Tukaram weighs slander and gleeful tale-bearing as a serious sin, not a small fault. He says relishing the fault-finding heaps up transgression equal to the heaviest sins, and even disgraces one's own forebears. The road of such gossip, he warns, leads straight to the cauldron of hell. The closing line names the strange blindness of it: people taste the pleasure of running others down without ever recognizing what they are really swallowing. The examination is meant to fall on the relish itself, the appetite for finding fault, not on hatred of any particular person.
The Moral Ideal
Purity, sincerity, truthfulness, humility, peacefulness, and service.
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