Moral counsel, truth grows its own sweetness
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
ऊंस वाढवितां वाढली गोडी । गुळ साकर हे त्याची परवडी ॥1॥
सत्यकर्में आचरें रे । बापा सत्यकर्में आचरें रे ।
सत्यकर्में आचरें होईल हित । वाढेल दुःख असत्याचें ॥ध्रु.॥
साकरेच्या आळां लाविला कांदा । स्थूळसानापरि वाढे दुगपधा ॥2॥
सत्य असत्य हें ऐसिया परी । तुका ह्मणे याचा विचार करीं ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
As sugarcane grows, its sweetness increases; jaggery and sugar are its natural yield. Practice truthful action, O friend, practice truthful action. Truthful deeds will bring you well-being, while falsehood only multiplies suffering. If you plant an onion in a bed of sugar, it still grows bitter regardless of size. Says Tuka, reflect upon the nature of truth and untruth in this manner.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
As the sugarcane grows, its sweetness grows; jaggery and sugar are what it naturally yields. Practice truthful action, O friend; practice truthful action. Truthful deeds will bring you good; falsehood only makes suffering grow. Plant an onion in a bed of sugar, and large or small it still grows bitter. Truth and untruth are like that. Tuka says: think it over.
What it means
Tukaram teaches with farming images: a thing yields according to its own nature. Sugarcane grows sweeter as it grows and gives jaggery and sugar; truthful action likewise ripens into well-being. An onion does not turn sweet just because you plant it in sugar; its bitterness is in its nature, no matter how it is surrounded. So a false life cannot be sweetened by good circumstances; it only swells suffering. He ends by asking the listener simply to reflect on which seed he is planting in his own life.
The Moral Ideal
Purity, sincerity, truthfulness, humility, peacefulness, and service.
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