True worship, the unwashed mind within
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
काय धोविलें बाहेरी मन मळलें अंतरीं । गादलें जन्मवरीं असत्यकाटें काटलें ॥1॥
पापपुण्यविटाळ देहीं भरितां न विचारिसी कांहीं । काय चाचपसी मही जी अखंड सोंवळी ॥2॥
कामक्रोधा वेगळा ऐसा होई कां सोंवळा । तुका ह्मणे कळा गुंडुन ठेवीं कुसरी ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
Why do you wash the outside when the mind is soiled within? You have been plastered over with falsehood since birth. You fill the body with the impurity of sin and merit without a thought, yet you keep touching the earth as if it were eternally pure. Become free of lust and anger; then you will be truly clean. Says Tuka, roll up your clever tricks and put them away.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
What have you washed on the outside, when the mind is dirty within? You have been smeared over since birth, stitched up with the thorns of falsehood. You fill the body with the impurity of sin and merit and never give it a thought, yet you keep touching the earth as if it were forever pure. Become free of lust and anger; then you are truly clean. Tuka says: roll up your clever tricks and put them away.
What it means
Tukaram attacks the ritual obsession with outer purity while the inner life stays soiled. Washing the body means nothing when the mind has been plastered with falsehood since birth. He points out the contradiction: a person carries the real defilement of sin and merit inside, yet fusses over touching pure ground. The only purity that counts is freedom from lust and anger. The last line tells the clever performer to fold up his tricks; cleverness about purity rules is itself part of the dirt.
True Worship
What genuine worship looks like, beyond outward observances and images.
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