Social criticism, the worth of pure company
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
मेला तरी जावो सुखें नरकासी । कळंकी याविशीं शिवों नये ॥1॥
रजस्वला करी वेलासी आघात । अंतरें तों हित दुरी बरें ॥ध्रु.॥
उगी च कां आलीं नासवावीं फळें । विटाळ विटाळें कालवूनि ॥2॥
तुका ह्मणे लोणी घालोनि शेणांत । उपेगाची मात काय असे ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
Let the stained one go to hell, if that is his lot; the tainted should not be touched. A woman in her impure days harms even the sacred vine; it is better to keep a safe distance. Why ruin perfectly good fruit by contaminating it with defilement? Says Tuka, putting butter into dung serves no useful purpose at all.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
If the stained one dies, let him go gladly to hell; do not even touch the tainted. Keep your distance from what defiles; far off, your good is safe. Why bring sound fruit near, only to spoil it by mixing it with rot? Tuka says: dropping fresh butter into dung serves no purpose at all.
What it means
Tukaram is warning, in deliberately blunt images, against letting corrupting company contaminate what is whole. The point is not hatred of any person but the simple law that good is ruined when it is mixed with what spoils it, just as fruit rots in bad company and butter is wasted if dropped in filth. He is telling the seeker to guard the good they carry rather than expose it to what will defile it. Turned inward, the abhanga asks each of us to watch what we let near our own purer impulses, since one rotten thing can spoil the whole basket.
Social Criticism
Rebuke of hypocrisy, caste pride, false teachers, greed, and religious pretence.
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