Discernment, dispassion is not hatred
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
असंतीं कांटाळा हा नव्हे मत्सर । ब्रह्म तें विकारविरहित॥1॥
तरि ह्मणा त्याग प्रतिपादलासे । अनादि हा असे वैराकार ॥ध्रु.॥
सिजलें हिरवें एका नांवें धान्य । सेवनापें भिन्न निवडे तें ॥2॥
तुका ह्मणे भूतीं साक्ष नारायण । अवगुणीं दंडण गुणीं पुजा ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
Turning away from the wicked is not hatred; Brahman is beyond all such disturbance. If you call it renunciation, know that it has been upheld since the beginning; this is the very nature of dispassion. Cooked and raw are both called grain, but their uses are distinguished by the partaking. Says Tuka, Narayana dwells as witness in all beings: the virtuous are honored, and the sinful are corrected.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
Turning away from the wicked is not spite; Brahman is beyond all such disturbance. If you call this renunciation, know it is old as the beginning; this is the very nature of dispassion. Cooked grain and raw grain are both called grain, yet their use is told apart by the eating. Tuka says: Narayana is the witness in all beings; the bad in them is corrected, the good is honored.
What it means
Tukaram answers a charge: that withdrawing from evil people is itself a kind of malice. He denies it. Drawing back is dispassion, an ancient and natural thing, and Brahman, in which he rests, is untouched by such ruffling of feeling. His image is sharp: raw and cooked are both grain, but you sort them by how they serve you, so the discerning soul distinguishes what to take in from what to refuse. He grounds it in God as the witness present in every being, who corrects the fault and honors the virtue. The turning away is from the pattern of wickedness, not from contempt for the person, and the same God indwells all.
Renunciation
The case for letting go of worldly attachments and turning wholly to God.
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